I don't get it.
I mean don't these people WATCH this show? You can't come out there with these middling yodel songs. This is WHY they are doing this format this year; if you can't come out there and do the right fucking song, then you are out. You can't just pick a song because it has a million runs in it.
It's just so obvious what you need to be looking for in song choices but they always miss it:
A VOCAL HOOK. i.e. should be rocking Bon Jovi songs out of the park.
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Jackie Tohn -- "A Little Less Conversation" : Sounded like she had a seizure in the middle of the song. She should have been doing something a little rockier and more actual singing rather than weirdo stuttering. Perhaps Alanis Morisette or Joan Jett. She's gone, and should have realized this was the wrong choice.
Ricky Braddy - "A Song For You" : Slowed the song down too much but the best vocals of the night. Right song, wrong arrangement. Should have aped Elliot's superior arrangement. Doesn't have enough charisma to make it out of this round, but vocally pwned every one else.
Alexis Grace -- "I Never Loved a Man" - This wasn't all that. Lacked a recognizable melody but she sounded like she was singing which is more than I can say for some people. Something bluesier with a vocal hook would have been better, but Simon's praise will get her to the next round.
Brent Keith - "Hicktown" - Utterly awful. His voice is reed-thin and he wouldn't have made it out of round one in any other year if it weren't for the two that followed him. He picks a tuneless ditty that no one knows and doesn't even nail it.
Stevie Wright -- "You Belong With Me" - She didn't even sound like she was singing, she did a song that was young, but not at the appropriate vocal range. She was looking for something more like "Since U Been Gone" but ended up in the wrong register of a song whose register she could never hit anyways. Takes a brutal beating from the judges.
Anoop Desai -- "Angel of Mine" - Ugh, really? Angel of Mine? The verses are rather tuneless, but Anoop sings it because he wants to do soulful runs all over the damn place. Has a lot of charisma due to the "I look like a dork" thing, but it's an awful arrangement of the wrong song. He's gotta show he can do something other than 90s R&B at some point, right? He will get wild-carded in any case.
Casey Carlson -- "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" - Her voice is razor thin and she fucks with the arrangement to make her sound like Betty Boop singing it. Terrible. The verses are again, tuneless and boring. People need to learn that you need less verses more chorus because the chorus is where the hooks are. Something like Avril would have again worked here. Casey needs to emphasize that she looks like this:
Michael Sarver - "I Don't Want To Be" - Totally the wrong song. He has absolutely no clue what he's supposed to be because he sings a song that's 10 years too young for him. He's not gonna attract the kiddie vote, he needs to attract the soccer mom vote by picking a relatively safe song with a nice vocal hook, i.e. "Where the Blacktop Ends," perhaps a Bon Jovi song.
Ann Marie Boskovitch -- "Natural Woman" - No no no no. Wrong wrong song. This is too slow, too boring and too obvious. Her voice is thinner than she realizes and has a very young girly quality to it; she needs to do something that emphasizes the girliness in her voice; something like Lisa Loeb's "Stay" or a Jewel tune.
Stephen Fowler -- "Rock With You" - Just bad, and the backup singers were out of tune. He sounded hoarse, and it's a boring song anyways that people don't really remember Michael for.
Tatiana Del Toro -- "Saving All My Love For You" - She was better than the other girls but Idol pretty much turned her into cannon fodder with editing and absolutely brutal judges comments where they pretty much dismissed her passable vocals by emphasizing the total batshit lunacy that she was obviously trying to play down.
Danny Gokay -- "Hero" - Mediocre performance, BUT, Gokey picks a song with a vocal hook so he gets extra points on top of the total pimp points Idol gives him anyways. He therefore soars from "would have made it through" to "guaranteed lock."