AI Top 11: Motown: It's The Same Ol' Song
When producer Nigel stated back in November that there would be no pigeonholed "theme" weeks, everyone was elated. To emend the egregious lie that Randy espouses in multiplicity every season, just because you can sing does not mean you can sing anything. I could be wrong, but methinks Pavarotti would suck singing Katy Perry. Perhaps not a fair statement, since Katy Perry sucks singing Katy Perry, but you get the idea.
Broader-ranged themes, as in last week's "Birth Year" category, are perfectly suited because it doesn't pluck anyone out of their area of (for lack of a better word) “expertise”. Traditionally, such themes lend themselves proper so each Idol, with what ability they have, has the best chance of proving their worthiness.
Compartmentalizing performances with such tapered thematics has been the scourge of Idol since they introduced it back in season 1, and if it's proven to be a faulting ground for superior singers - and it has - imagine neophytes with a more inadequate range. Using that debut season as example: for every "Minnie The Moocher" and "Stuff Like That There" ("Big Band" night, astonishingly performed by Tamyra Gray and Kelly Clarkson, respectively) you had the rest of the beyond-awful Top 10 (with the unbearable likes of Ryan Starr, Nikki McKibbin, EJay Day) reduce a national (albeit, much tinier) audience into a state of abstract horror. And the proceeding years didn’t fare too well either for (most of) the hundred-plus contestants who’ve made the Top 12 who’ve had to endure these tortuous nights. “Disco” night, as an example (and dormant since season 8), never served a single Idol well (though as comedy, well...that's another whole discussion...)
It’s absolutely correct to say that “Songs of Motown” is a "genre" (as Ryan called it) with more "leeway" than “Disco”. Motown, unlike Disco, transcends all genres and cultural boundaries in a way Disco never did. And because music history's been littered and saturated with the Motown sound and its permeation of pop culture since the 1960s, Idol has long adapted this as one of its omnipresent themes, as if the Motown criterion, so rich with many of the greatest songs and melodies ever written by some of the greatest songwriters and sung by some of the greatest singers of all time, was easily digestible and understood by the contenders who take the stage annually. Despite what the Idol gadflies have promulgated over the years, Motown has proven again and again, Mr. Jackson - not every singer can sing anything. Nor should they have to.
As Idol’s saunters on, these stupefying themes will continue to wreak havoc (assumedly) upon those who unfairly are whisked out of their wheelhouses. As Motown greats, the Four Tops, sang - it IS the same old song.
Tonight? There wasn't much diversity of Motown's mammoth catalog during tonight's show. Lionel Richie was the most contemporary artist, and Richie's almost three decade old "Hello" the most modern song in an evening dominated by Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Martha & the Vandellas.
So, how do I think these Idolites did with the genre? That depends on who you ask. If you're asking me - and even if you aren't - read on... Casey Abrams Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" My grade: C+Not sure when his discovery of vocal noise filtered into his life. Pre-live weeks, his timbre was full, his texture harsh but delectable, his goofiness tolerable. But, since then, his tendencies reek of mere self-indulgence and ineptitude. Coming from, oh, say a Paul, ineptitude is expected. Coming from someone with such earlier promise is a disappointment.
Thia Megia Martha & The Vandellas "Heatwave" My grade: B-Not sure when being a ballad singer was a universal negative, as if to deny a singer their stronghold, especially in such an ingenue. The danger of Thia dancing out of her pigeonholes, though, is that she merely sounds sadder than she already might be, and she's not exactly the poster child of self-esteem (or is she? I can never tell with Megia). Even when trying to rev it up tonight, vocally adroit at least, if awkward, it seemed so lugubrious. And that lugubriousness, whether an affliction or innate, is becoming a crashing bore. For us. I can only imagine what it's doing to her.
Jacob Lusk Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrel's You're All I Need My grade: B+Color me confused. Usually, Lusk's solipsism is his bestest friend in the whole wide world, and our worst enemy. But tonight, for the first time (ever), I saw a scintilla of what the judges want us to believe is true. There's power in temperance, where such power is decimated with none, and Lusk has never used such concentrated control over his melismatic pyrotechnics, which are usually affronts to the senses. Still shrill above chest register, his lower, restrained tones reflect cult weirdo Antony (Haggerty of the great Antony & The Johnsons), who I'm sure Lusk has never heard of. But I object to the vaunting Luther comparisons by this panel, when all Lusk needs is the proper weave. Then he's Jennifer Holiday, who, besides his Jesus, he clearly worships with unabashed abandon and mimicry. All that moaning, all that vamping, all that epicene pride makes me want to salute the next rainbow flag I see.
Lauren Alaina Diana Ross & the Supremes' "You Keep My Hanging On" My grade: BI'm always loathe to utilize an already hackneyed cliche, especially when it's been beaten to death in the 9 seasons past, but Alaina's "You Keep Me Hanging On" hypostatized cruise ship headliner. Which isn't to totally blame Lauren - I can't recall a single Idol instance where "You Keep Me Hanging On" typified anything more than supper club claptrap. Forgoing her usual hyperkineticism when, for once it was really needed, she plodded along. Competently. But plodding it was.
Stefano Langone Lionel Richie's "Hello" My grade: C+I was kind of amazed when Langone stated that he'd never heard Lionel Richie's mawkish "Hello" before, and in retrospect, I'm more surprised when he proclaimed that once he heard it for the first time, he knew he could "really connect with and deliver well" - because he couldn't, and didn't. What transpired instead was a delivery wrought with desperation. Dismissing all emotional interdependence between melody and lyric, the disconnect was obvious. The gymnast-like flexibility in his voice lacked mystery, and intensity shouldn't substitute ardent cathartics. He flubbed the lyrics to the ignorance of the judges (isn't that an Idol no-no?) and his nerves birthed a Ricky Ricardo accentuation I never realized before (Stefano, you goz some splaining to doooo!) What a letdown.
Haley Reinhart Smokey Robinson's "You Really Got A Hold On Me" My grade: B-Her gimmick is her phony de trop growl, which signifies not accomplishment (let alone skill) but determination at a gay teen male dominance, which shouldn't be overlooked, natch. But it doesn't mean I have to buy into it, especially when there's a definite voice in there somewhere, a scintilla of actual soul. Though not a new phenomenon, I still loathe the self-objectification of young women in our pop music culture (Reinhart dressed like a teenage hooker) and sexing Smokey Robinson's song of conflicted yearning is missing the point - there's a fine line betwixt wonton and craving. But if Idol's core demographic aim was straight males aged 13-39, Reinhart would be our next American Idol. By a landslide.
Scotty McCreery Stevie Wonder's "For Once In My Life" My grade: B+Fearing the worst for Scotty this week, I shivered in abstract horror at his song select. Wonder, my personal American Idol, has written masterworks that have been sullied and denigrated as night club dirges, and "For Once In My Life" is one of the (many) examples. But, guess what? It kinda worked. Right before Tyler mentioned Glen Campbell, I jotted down "Gentle On My Mind", which this arrangement borrowed jauntily from. Perfect vocal? Of course not. But veritable Scotty, and really, at this point that's all we can really require from any non-polymorphic Country singer.
Pia Toscano Stevie Wonder's "All In Love Is Fair" My grade: A-Perfection in Idol is a fool’s goal, I understand, but there were such profound moments of splendor and fluttery beauty in this performance that I'm sorry it wasn't just that - perfection. The first few notes were curiously off key and there's far too frequently an ubiquitous overstatement, as she often mistakes force for eloquence (very lyric sung needn't such grandiosity). But it's ethereally beautiful when the subtleties swoop. And swoop they do.
Paul McDonald Smokey Robinson's "Tracks of My Tears" My grade: B-Unconventional fiddle-faddle has its place, of course, and I applaud his appetite for the peculiar. But isn't there an old saying, "peculiarity breeds contempt"? Oh, it's "familiarity"? Same difference.
Naima Adedapo Martha Reeve & The Vandella's "Dancing In the Streets" My grade: A-To put into perspective how vivacious Adedapo's "Dancing In The Streets" was, I would swear that there were less bum notes than Pia's performance (hearing it back corrected that perspective). The most contemporary Idol this year with the most contemporarily arranged production, I was happily surprised that her pitch problems were all but evanescent (almost), nailing each note (almost) with a powerful blow (definite) of confidence and exuberance (absolutely). Incorporating some terpsichorean Africana during the instrumental break was a blast of kooky, exhilarating joviality. A treat.
James Durbin Stevie Wonder's "Living For The City" My grade: BI'm always weary of Caucasians singing bitter, ferociously brilliant ghetto anti-anthems like "Living For The City", and performed with a stupid, almost smarmy grin and a "shuck n jive" back-step would be revolting if I doubted, at all, Durbin's naiveté. I don't, so I'll cut the kid some slack and suggest he study his history (besides, cataloging the lyrical/performance guilelessness of Idols past and present would be too colossal a task). He's morphed from Idol Antichrist (okay, I said that) to entertaining, competent metal-head, which is not to suggest that Durbin lacks the more elasticized ability to perform "outside the box" - as I said, the prowess is there. But competent metal-head is what he remains, for now.