I debated holding off talking about American Idol until all
of TV was back, so I could do another roundup.
But I had a few friends ask me my thoughts, so, here they are.
To recap:
I started watching the show two years back only because my
wife’s coworker was on the show. Or
rather, the coworker auditioned, and got in front of the judges, then didn’t go
to Hollywood
I was ready to be done by the end of that episode. The person lost, so, I had no horse in the
race. But my wife insisted that we
trudge on. So trudge we did.
Interestingly, I pegged the actual winner as flaming out in
the middle twice over the last two years.
I’m not sure if it says more about me or America
Over the years, of course, there have been 11 winners, and a
variety of also-rans who have gone on to a measure of fame and fortune. Interestingly, just making it into that upper
echelon seems to be enough to launch a career.
Which I guess is nice. But I had
no real interest in any of the winners or losers. Even the most popular of them all, Kelly,
only had a couple of singles that really interested me.
Buuuuuuuuut…
Along came Phillip.
Well, kind of. Along came
Phillip, and someone had the bright idea to stick a bunch of excerpts from his
album online, and I listened to them and kind of dug it. Plus I had a long road trip coming up and
needed something to listen to. So I bought
it.
What to say?
Well, I guess we can start with the title: The World From
The Side Of The Moon. That’s a mouthful, and I can never remember it. Also mostly a blank are the song titles, with
the exception of Home.
Having read a dozen critical takes on it before picking it
up, I have to agree with the general assessment. It sounds a lot like Dave Matthews, which
isn’t a bad thing. And aside from Home,
there are a few song which are almost painfully catchy, and there’s no harm
there, either. In particular, I enjoy
Gone, Gone, Gone, Get Up Get Down, and Where We Came From. And the rest of the CD is inoffensive, though
kind of forgettable. Even now, I
couldn’t sing any of the other tunes for you.
Oh. And if you buy it
at Target, he’s got a version of Thriller on there, which ain’t bad. I kind of liked his live,
one-man-and-a-guitar take from his audition more, but it’s got a fun
country-rock vibe.
Ultimately, I give him credit, as he wrote a bunch of the
songs on the album, and none of them are terrible. My real curiosity, I suppose is how well
he’ll sell and what he’ll do on the second go-around. Like most artists who get their first album
out, he has now run through all of his A songs and will have to either start
from scratch or bring out the B team.
And judging from this release, I have a hard time imagining that the B
team is where all the really brilliant songs are tucked away.
But I was talking about the new season of Idol.
Two judges dropped out.
Jennifer managed to give her career a nice later-period revival, I
think. At the very least, she sold some
records, did some dancing, and got another TV show out of it. So I’d argue it was a win for her.
Steven, on the other hand, confessed that he took the job
for the money, and then got his band back together. His album kind of flopped, but I’m guessing
the concert tour probably did well and some monetary coffers were filled. Plus he had that terrible memoir, which sold
well.
Randy was supposed to be out of the show, but then
wasn’t. I’m not sure why. I guess the producers thought they don’t want
to lose the Randy fans? Assuming there
are Randy fans?
I’m not knocking the dude.
I just don’t know. Nobody ever
seems to come on the show just to tell Randy that he’s been an inspiration to
them. Or maybe we just don’t see those
guys.
But anyway, he’s back on this year. And we’ve also got Keith Urban. For whatever reason. You can tell he’s Australian, because he
comes off as the nicest man on the planet.
I’ve been to Australia
Randy is Randy, I guess.
He seems to have gotten more bitter over the last couple of years. Maybe
having Simon gone forced him into the bad cop role. Or perhaps it’s the show. Because they seem to be sending more terrible
singers down to the judges, as if there weren’t another hundred very good
singers they couldn’t send down.
Which I guess brings us to the big stars.
Mariah Carey in, much to my surprise, coming up on her
silver anniversary of fame. Vision of
Love, her first big hit, came out in 1990, which means that one year from now
she’ll have racked up 25 years of hitmaking.
Which explain why every woman through the door gets to say,
“I grew up with you.” They did. Even at the oldest age you can hit and be on
Idol, you were maybe three when Mariah hit the scene.
And… what to say about her?
Well, outside of her so-called feud with Nicki Minaj, she’s a bit of a
tough nut to crack. They threw a lot of
money her way to be here, and I suspect that a big part of the reason she took
it is because the albums are finally starting to peter out. Her last couple of releases barely scraped
platinum, which isn’t really acceptable when you’re supposed to be a huge
star. And while I hate to say it, the
stiffness in her face and her lineless forehead seem to indicate that she’s
been getting at least Botox, if not more work done.
And that makes me sad.
It’s clear she’s an influence, it’s clear that she’s an important part
of music history, but that doesn’t seem to be enough for her. She’s also trying to maintain herself as a
picture of youth, even though she’s in her forties and a mom now.
It’s sad, because she seems to have a sweetness about her
when it comes to certain contestants. I can
tell she wants to be kinder, but she’s prevented from doing so.
Mostly by Nicki Minaj.
Oy.
What to say? Nicki
was clearly brought on to bring in the kids.
She’s had the biggest hits of the last five years or so, and she is,
yes, part of the now. She also raps, but
that’s neither here nor there, seeing as how Simon didn’t sing and Ellen didn’t
do anything musical at all.
With all that said, in the promos, she was walking off the
stage and saying she was done as of next week, and you know what? That’d be AWESOME.
Nicki might be a great human being in real life, but on the
show she’s combative and not at all fun.
Is it for the cameras? Is it to
bring in ratings? Is it because she has
a massive ego?
I just don’t care.
Fights about talent I can handle. Fights about contestants, and who should be
on? Okay. At least it would indicate that Nicki wants
the show to be better, or that she favors a certain kind of music.
What I’m getting from the show is that she’s an unpleasant
person, and that isn’t fun to watch.
The problem is, I don’t see the problem correcting
itself. Nicki is clearly in for the long
haul, and that’s kind of a shame.
Because right now she’s adding nothing to the show, and I sort of wish I
could just abandon it. And I may yet do
so.
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