A Moment's All I Ask – 4.30.08

Well, it was Neil Diamond week on American Idol; yeah everyone, let’s get really excited…

I hate to say it, but I’m a very, very, very passive Neil Diamond fan. I had no idea how much I’d not enjoy his catalogue until the contestants had to sing from it this week. Don’t get me wrong, Neil seems like a great guy, but I think he’s a better songwriter than an actual performer. Since I had to go through it, let’s just sum up Tuesday night as easily as possible:

For the first song set, everything was pretty standard, and nothing jumped out as particularly memorable. Then Paula flaked and we got some of her infamous “forward thinking” while critiquing Jason Castro on his two songs, though in actuality he only performed one. Hilarious and embarassing.

As for the second song set, I thought that Brooke White did a great job with making “I Am… I Said” seem like it could be her song. Jason did NOTHING for me with his contribution this week, and should have gone home tonight. To me, he’s shown that he really can’t sing everything like originally thought, and when he’s out of the acoustic-folk-rock sound, he’s not so grand at all. It was like he wasn’t even trying, yet America is obviously blinded by his Travolta-esque looks and smile, even though most of the time he is spaced out or staring at the signs in the crowd, acting like he may not even want to be there anymore.

David Cook is David Cook and can make almost anything sound contemporary, and the ridiculously cute David Archuleta proves that he doesn’t even need to make anything original, as the judges will pretty much eat up his performance either way. It’s becoming clear that Archuleta is neither getting out of his comfort zone nor trying to be particularly original, and it’s really not fair at all that he’s not getting called out on it. Syesha Mercado is in her zone, as she is the most comfortable she’s ever been and her performances were solid this week.

As we all thought and as Brooke apparently knew, when it was her time to go she’d be a complete and utter mess on stage. I love her and can’t wait to get her album, and if there is anyone on Idol who is completely genuine in her honesty and emotions, it’s Brooke. Now, if someone would please rent this girl an R-rated movie and sign her to a record deal, we can move along.

By the way, how sly is Natasha Bedingfield, getting the teenage kid vote by crushing on little Heartthrob 2008? Smart woman she is, since the pop field this summer is shaping up to be much more competitive than usual.

YouTube Video of the Week
Carly Smithson on Ellen!

Thank you for reading; make your moment your breakthrough.