American Idol – Trey & Nick’s Season in Review – The Best & Worst of Season 12
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Hey guys! Nick here, with Trey M., for the final installment of Week In Review this season. We opted to wait a week and let the finale sink in a bit before doing our post-mortem of Season 12. Trey and myself will take a look back at some of the highs and lows of season 12, while looking ahead to season 13: namely, what the show can do to revitalize the brand and restore some semblance of integrity to a show that took a real flogging this year. It's our final American Idol analysis this season, so hit up the comments and offer your thoughts about season 12, and how the show can improve in season 13!
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Best Performance of the Season:
We can't think of a performance that can really challenge Candice Glover's rendition of "Lovesong." There were some outstanding performances this season, for sure. Hell, Kree Harrison's "Up to the Mountain" set the bar at a ridiculous level in the early going of the season. But it's a bar Candice cleared at the midway point of the competition with "Lovesong," and no one was ever able to match it. It was a "total package" performance, blending contemporary vocal nuance with the old fashioned aesthetic that elevated some of Candice's best performances. It was as current as it was classic, and as gorgeous as it was gritty. While we're generally loathe to agree with Randy on anything, it really was one of the best performances in twelve seasons of American Idol.
Worst Performance of the Season:
There were performances I actually hated, yet even my most hated performances still had some semblance of technical nuance or vocal prowess, to where I couldn't really front on it. For instance, I don't think Curtis Finch, Jr. ever did anything I could put up with, yet it's not like I could pretend the guy couldn't sing. So while it's not like I could pretend Devin Velez, Burnell Taylor, and even Lazaro Arbos couldn't sing, their trios performance of "I Can't Help Myself" was the kind of trainwreck that splits the season into two halves: "Before the Trainwreck" and "After the Trainwreck." The "After the Trainwreck" portion of the competition illustrated the death of the males' chances, as reflected in the voting results. Granted, dudes never really had much of a shot this season, but I feel like a case could have been made for one of those three guys outlasting one of the five girls.
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However, after this vocal, even the remotest hope of a guy cracking the top five went up in smoke (though I imagine Lazaro came close -- and hell, plenty of people were worried enough to vote like crazy to keep it from happening). Though conventional wisdom puts the blame on Lazaro for forgetting his lyrics, the fact remains that neither Devin nor Burnell were doing anything all that interesting with their vocals anyway (and they were both vocalists capable of changing up the phrasing or adding in a few vocal alterations to keep the performance from sounding as boring as it did). It was just a complete mess, from front to back, and while there's plenty of blame to go around, there aren't enough excuses in the world to save this one from the scrap heap. Trey agreed about the trio, but also added Angie & Lazaro's duet on "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," which was a hot mess all-around. In addition, Trey felt it necessary to single out another "quality bad performance": Amber Holcomb's "Love On Top," which offered no variation on the original and was completely uninspired. If you're going to do Beyonce exactly like Beyonce, you'd better do it better. Unfortunately for Amber, she fell well short of that lofty goal.
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Most Underrated Performance of the Season:
Janelle Arthur really blew us away with "Keep Me Hangin' On", exhibiting one of the most unique performances of the season, not only due to the artistry of the arrangement, but also from the vocal prowess on display (in addition to her abilities on the guitar). It was the last thing I expected from Janelle, who'd frequently been presented as a safe country songstress with little in the way of ambition or nuance. Yet she completely shut that preconceived notion down by turning an uptempo song into an alt-rock dirge that ranks among the season's top performances.
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Best Studio Recording:
Of all the iTunes studio recordings this season, Kree Harrison's "Up to the Mountain" is the kind of song we wish we could have bought twice, just for how transcendent the vocal proved to be. I don't know if they do any sweetening to the vocal in the studio, but the recording hews close to the live version, which has me feeling that not a whole lot of editing was done in post. If this were a CD single, I likely would have worn it out by now. Just a velvety smooth, passionate vocal set against instrumentation that isn't nearly as intrusive as the Idol band tends to be. In fact, Kree had a pretty terrific season in terms of studio recordings, delivering iTunes versions that were superior to her live performances in nearly every way, even when those live vocals were outstanding in their own right ("Have You Ever Been In Love" and "Help Me Make It Through the Night" deserve particular mention).
I would also be remiss if I didn't mention Amber Holcomb's "What Are You Doing For the Rest of Your Life," which is just terrific by any standard. Trey also singled out Burnell Taylor's version of "Flying Without Wings," which Trey described as "epic sonic perfection" which "demonstrated how Burnell was one of the best, unique voices in the competition." On that latter point, it would be hard for me to disagree.
Which contestants have the best chance of succeeding beyond the show?
Obviously, as the winner, Candice Glover has the best shot at a lasting career beyond the show. This is true of every Idol champion, since the winner is given the biggest launching platform of any of the contestants. However, things don't always pan out for the winner, as fans will occasionally vote for someone they like within the context of a competition, but whose album they wouldn't actually buy. Trey suggests that Candice could tap into the Urban and Urban Adult Contemporary market, since she's unlikely to flourish if they saddle her with standard pop music. "I Am Beautiful" was a bad start, and if she had a better single, Candice might be in the top ten of iTunes right now.
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However, a winner's single to follow-up the massive success of "Home" last year was always going to be a tall order. With that said, she could have gotten a better launching single than "I Am Beautiful," the live version of which is superior to the studio recording (which has a very tinny sound, and a piano backing that isn't up to the audio standards of audio production in 2013. Again, not a bad song, just not really the right song). It remains to be seen whether Candice Glover will be the massive success this show needs once her album drops. However, we're really hoping she proves to be a huge hit with audiences, since she's one of the most talented singers Idol has ever had, and she unquestionably deserves her success. But in the event that things don't pan out for her, who else has the chance to be the success story of season 12?
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We think Angie Miller could be a huge success in the Christian music market, a la Colton Dixon. We could even see her possibly crossing over into the mainstream if her sales are big enough -- doubtful, but still possible. Generally, we feel as though Angie's mainstream appeal was overstated, in many respects, as "You Set Me Free" seems to have gone stagnant on the iTunes charts. So it looks as though, for now at least, she'll occupy her native niche in the music industry. And hey, there's nothing wrong with that. And who's to say she won't blossom into a mainstream success?
However, crossover success is far more likely for the country girls, Janelle Arthur and Kree Harrison. Janelle is much more contemporary country than Kree, who represents more of a traditional style of country music. But then, there are more Janelles in country music than we know what to do with right now, so I imagine Kree will stand out a lot more in the market. Not that she'll be a massive crossover hit or anything, but I do believe the market for a Kree Harrison album is larger than some might think.
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Which leaves the question of Amber Holcomb. With all the talk of how current and marketable she is, Amber has been positioned as the contestant with the biggest upside in the mainstream music market right now. Given her look and the fact that, despite her hit-or-miss performances on the show, the girl IS talented, Amber probably should be a star coming out of this show. Yet whether or not she achieves that level of success is going to depend entirely on how she's marketed, in addition to the kinds of songwriters and producers she's paired with for her album. One catchy, radio-friendly single could do much of the work for her in turning her into the next big thing. Trey feels it's difficult to assess just how well Amber will do, as black females who don't win the competition tend to have a hard time outside the show (although we're overdue for another Jennifer Hudson-esque mainstream success story for a non-top 2 finisher). Trey felt, in particular, that despite the judges comparing her to the new Whitney to rival Rihanna, it's hard to translate that kind of effusive praise into mainstream success unless the judges are willing to put their money where their mouths are. Perhaps a Nicki Minaj collaboration could jumpstart things for Ms. Holcomb? Ultimately, Trey feels that, other than Candice, Amber is the contestant with the biggest potential to be a success outside of the show. Then again, it's all conjecture at this point, so it'll definitely be interesting to follow these Idols' careers trajectories, going forward.
Which elements of this season should the show keep for next year?
Of the new elements introduced this season (Vegas rounds in front of a live studio audience, America's rankings) and elements that have been reintroduced (a top 10 instead of a top 12/13, no wildcard round) the only one I would actually recommend keeping is the focus on past Idols. I've long wished they would bring back less-visible past Idols for results show performances, as both a nod to the show's history, and as a way to let us in on what some of our old favorites have been up to. We had Casey Abrams, Casey James, Stefano, Lauren Alaina and Jessica Sanchez perform on the show, along with past winners Kelly Clarkson, Fantasia, Carrie Underwood, Phillip Phillips, David Cook, Scotty McCreery and Lee DeWyze, as well as other well-known Idol contestants such as Clay Aiken and Colton Dixon. We never went a single week in the finals without at least one Idol alum performing on the results shows, and I thought it was a pretty great twist on the usual formula. In addition, it was great seeing old faces in the "Where Are They Now?" segments, which illustrated that while not everyone on the show proves to be massively successful, they're not exactly sob stories either. Not all of them, anyway. And hey, I'd much rather see LaToya London back on my screen than not at all.
What changes need to be made for season 13? Ways to fix American Idol:
The series is never going to attain the lofty, 40 million+ viewers of its heyday. Nor do we think it'll ever again be the cultural hot button it once was, but it can get back to being every bit as entertaining and relevant as it was at its height. Here are some potential fixes:
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1) Remember that judges aren't everything: Seriously, the sooner the Idol producers get over this fixation with getting a high-visibility judging panel, the better off we'll all be. Think about it, in the first season of American Idol, PAULA ABDUL was the most well-known of the three judges, yet the show was a resounding success. And the season effectively launched Simon Cowell on American shores, while (to a much, MUCH lesser extent) giving the world Randy Jackson. In addition, the show milked the Simon/Paula chemistry for YEARS, even when it was long past its expiration date. Notoriety must come second to chemistry when putting a judging panel together (The Voice is lucky enough to have both), yet Idol only seems to be interested in fame, or worse, anti-chemistry (Nicki vs. Mariah, anyone?). Just find three-four judges who CLICK together, and to hell if they're actually well known or not. But if you absolutely MUST get a high-visibility panel, please screen test them first! Don't just assume that because Mariah Carey is one of the foremost vocalists in pop music history that she'll be just as formidable behind the judges' desk. This season was a study in wasted millions.
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2) Bring back the top 12!: Hell, go back to thirteen if you're not the superstitious type. Variety is what keeps viewers watching, yet this season didn't feel like it had a whole lot of variety in the top 10 this year. Two or three extra spots could have provided some extra flavor to the proceedings, making the competition a bit more interesting and a little less predictable. But if you're married to the idea of a top 10, going forward...
3) Let us get to actually KNOW the contestants: The show does a decent job of this in the beginning and end of the competition, but the middle is always troublesome. We get a host of sob stories in the audition rounds, and tons of personal drama and character coming out during Hollywood Week, what with the group rounds and solo performances. While many of the people we actually get to know during the audition phase are cut during Hollywood Week (and often with little more than a tag at the end of a montage of cut contestants -- truly, Gabe Brown was taken from us too soon!), those that remain get a little more time to flesh out their stories, as we learn the struggles these contestants have endured to make it here, and we root for them as they chase their dream. But then that element vanishes at the most crucial point in the competition.
The minute the contestants are put out in front of a live studio audience, their backstories and personalities become an afterthought as the show becomes a slave to recap packages, product placement, and celebrity spotting, to say nothing of the increased focus on the judges. There's seriously no point in having flashy judges to control our attention if we don't even care about the contestants they're tasked with judging. This season was better than most in terms of trying to get us to bond with these contestants, and they really did bring it home in the latter half of the competition, once the girls were the only remaining singers. But I'd hope for a more holistic approach to contestant backgrounds. Let us know what they're like in the present, don't simply linger on their pasts. And on that note...
4) Try to establish some semblance of screentime equality: Look, we get that the production isn't going to have time to fully flesh out every single singer in the top 40. But if we get to live voting rounds and we haven't seen head nor hide of a certain singer (David Oliver Willis!), then they've gotten kind of a raw deal. What's more puzzling is that most of this stuff is weeks, if not months, old by the time it airs! You guys know who made the top 40, so why would you not try to edit the shows to reflect the talent that makes it through, instead of focusing on the also-rans? I get that they don't want to spoil the top 40 by focusing too much on one set of contestants, but even if you look back to last season, I felt like I knew the semifinalists far better than this bunch.
Elijah Liu might have had a fighting chance if we'd known him as something other than the guy Nicki Minaj wants to have babies with. Of course, this entire talk of screentime has occasionally not mattered one iota to a contestant's prospects. Just ask Bo Bice, who maybe got a single clip or two before semifinals. Or Kris Allen, who got five seconds of his group performance showing, and another ten seconds of his solo performance. Hell, they didn't even show Crystal Bowersox's or Lee DeWyze's auditions, if I remember correctly. So you can make it to the end, and even win, on minimal screentime. But the screentime issue is one that is always going to bug us, since it's the show's easiest route toward manipulation. Yes, the necessities of editing a show for broadcast means that a lot of content is going to get cut, and contestants are going to get shafted. But I don't know that any season was this bad about distributing its screentime in an equitable fashion.
5) Get rid of any theme done more than twice: I'd say "more than once," but there are themes that have been done rarely enough that I feel they might warrant revisiting in a future season (Elvis night, for instance, or The Music of Broadway). If I never again have to live through the music of Kander & Ebb on a top 4 performance show, it'll be too soon. And the bloom is definitely off the rose with Motown.
6) COMMIT to the themes you choose: If you're going to do Rock Week with no ballads allowed, then REALLY do a Rock Week with no ballads allowed. Don't let contestants off easy by letting them pick rock ballads and then saying it fits the theme. And if you're going to let fans pick a theme and they choose One-Hit Wonders, then REALLY do One-Hit Wonders. Don't give them a list of well-known songs that failed in their original version only to find greater, iconic success with someone else. By any standard, neither "MacArthur Park" nor "Emotion" are one-hit wonders. You can't offer fans the choice of a fun night of guilty pleasure hits if you aren't going to actually follow through on it. Not that I'm exactly dying to hear New Radicals, Fastball or The Divinyls, but it's a matter of principle. Don't dick your fans over, and maybe they won't leave you in droves.
7) Clear more songs, for crying out loud: The average blind audition episode of The Voice features more current Top 40 songs than you're likely to hear on Idol for an entire half-season. While the show made significant progress in featuring more contemporary music in its semifinal rounds (with songs such as "Stay" by Rihanna and Mikky Ekko), the finals slipped right back into the painfully bland song choices of yore. The song choices got a little more contemporary as the season neared its end, but by that point, it was too little, too late. Is it really that hard to clear LMFAO? Because The Voice delivered an early moment for its season by giving Christian Porter a platform for his interpretation of "Sexy and I Know It." Now, while the arrangement wasn't exactly his own, the show at least provided him the opportunity to choose a quirky song that could be flipped on its head into a kinky, smooth version. Of course, the lack of current songs is only one half of the roadblock preventing contestants from branching out...
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8) Let the contestants be themselves: I mentioned this in my thoughts on the season finale of Idology, but I feel it bears repeating here. The best moments are when the Idol production team takes a step back and simply allows a contestant to display his or her artistry, with little in the way of interference. Phillip Phillips had to fight to get the show to clear Damien Rice's "Volcano" for Songs You Wish You Wrote last season, while Season 6's third-place finisher Melinda Doolittle has detailed how the Idol band basically ignored her arrangement requests. "Even though I would say 'This is not exactly what I asked for,' it was what they wanted to play, and so it's what they played," Doolittle explained in an episode of Idology.
While it's a different band with a different leader now, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the ideology is the same, particularly when you have guys like Lazaro Arbos talking about how the band introduced a key change in "Close to You" five minutes before he was to go onstage (whether you believe it or not is up to you, but I'm inclined to buy it, if only because it was such a jarring key change that Lazaro genuinely didn't seem prepared for, in the least). Nothing is gained by forcing contestants into a very narrow mold, especially when you're depending on these contestants to sell records and concert tickets when the competition is over (never mind counting on them to draw ratings). Two of Idol's best seasons (7 and 8) largely featured contestants who were given the freedom to be themselves. There was a refreshing lack of micromanagement (well, if we ignore Syesha's "Penguin Song" -- which in itself was enough of a blatant, disgusting manipulation tactic to retroactively bloody the productions' hands on the entire season) that made those seasons irresistibly compelling. But it's been more difficult in recent years, since the producers have seen fit to have their hand in everything. Which leads us to our final point...
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9) Let the season unfold organically: Part of what drove so many viewers away was the fact that the producer-crafted narrative was obvious right from the start. The decision was made that a girl would win this season, and every effort was taken to ensure that this would be the outcome. The Season of the Girls makes for a nice story, but only if it's an organic story. I feel the production really did a disservice to the considerable female talent this season by stacking the deck so far in their favor, so that some viewers will ultimately be placing an asterisk next to Candice Glover's name in the Idol record book, implying that she only triumphed thanks to the producers engineering a female winner from the beginning. Granted, I'm not one of those people who thinks Candice only won because of the lack of viable male singers. I don't think there was any male that made it to Hollywood this season that could have prevented a female win, all things considered. Which is why it's so disappointing that this season is being depicted as the season that needed to cheat to get a female winner, since I'm largely convinced it would have happened anyway. Sure, competitions like this always have a certain amount of manipulation, but it was taken to an entirely different level this season: between the bussing of the guys to the forthright commitment to making Amber Holcomb happen, this was the most manipulative the show has gotten since Randy said that round one was a tie between Scotty, Lauren and James. And when viewers can see that the fix is in, it can hardly be a surprise that they change the channel.
And that's a wrap for us! We'd like to thank our tremendous readers for their contributions this year, whether from comments, Tweets, likes or plain ol' readership. Whether you agreed with us or not, you always provoked thoughtful discussion, and made producing this column far more rewarding than it otherwise might have been. Seriously, thank you all.
