Music Blogs

The Idol hopefuls must be star-struck by now.  After workshops with Brit rocker Gavin Rossdale, living legend, Sir Tom Jones has come to Idol town.  If anyone can really help the Idols get their performances to the next level, it’s this man.  I mean, remember what he did for Carlton Banks?

Regardless of whether it was Tom’s presence or that the last few weeks of Idol bootcamp, the Idol hopefuls have really honed their craft.  For the most part, the performances were solid, authentic and entertaining.

Sitting on top, in my opinion, with a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” is Drew.  According to the judges, Drew has really stepped it up the last few weeks and I agree!  The vocals were there, the intensity was bang on and Drew’s mix of appealing cool made him seem totally in his element and oh so watchable. 

Hot on his heels is Theo.  It sounds, at least according to the judges that Theo is most likely to be the next Canadian Idol.  My question is this, is that really how you win Canadian Idol?  Because Sass very plainly stated post performance, that that was indeed how to win.  The piano man admits that he isn’t so great at working the stage and his performance tonight of Joss Stone’s “You Had Me” mirrored that.  Theo still seems out of sorts when he’s not behind his piano.  He definitely doesn’t have a rocker swagger, but perhaps that will come when/if he wins.    

Amberly is stepping out from behind her daddy’s little girl veil with confidence.  Amberly who we usually see performing with guitar in hand put it all, or most of it out there for us with her performance of Corinne Bailey Rae “Put Your Records On”.  

Keeping in mind Tom Joes’ words of wisdom that the guitar is an asset, not a crutch pushed her to push her performance up a notch.  As we saw with Theo tonight, when you take away the instrument and force a musician to stand on their own, they can look awkward if they aren’t confident performers.  Luckily for Amberly that wasn’t the case.  Tonight, sitting atop a piano, Amberly was charming and suddenly had this air of professionalism.  I think she’s going to turn it up and give the boys a run for it!

Earle, who was described tonight by Sass Jordan as Quasimodo meets Dave Matthews, channeled his originality and high energy vibe and put it to work for him.  Earle performed Eric Clapton’s “Change the World” and of course, made it all his own. 

This time when Earle ventured off the stage, it was way less spastic, more engaging and thought out.  As the song picked up Earle jumped back onto stage bringing the crowd energy up there with him.  This was a great way to infuse a relatively chill song with some Earle energy. 

Someone that could use a shot of Earle energy before next week’s performance is Mitch.  As much as I like Mitch I feel like the last few weeks, the only thing that has really changed is his outfit, or at least his pants.  While he’s consistently good, can you imagine taking Mitch and getting him to perform a 30 or 45 minute set?  I’m thinking it would be pretty predictable.  Mitch knows his voice, knows what works, but now he has to shake it up!   

At the beginning of Mookie’s performance, it sounded as if he had a mouth full of marbles and no, it wasn’t the speakers on my TV!  Zack said that if he were an A&R guy, that he’d sign Mookie.  Well, perhaps that’s why Zack isn’t in A&R.  For those of you who may draw a blank at the mention of A&R, it stands for Artists and Repertoire.  An A&R rep is responsible for finding talent, developing the talent and listening to painful demo tapes.  Zack also said that we all have to get behind Mookie to make it happen.     

Get behind him and make what happen?  Win Idol?  Um…no thanks!

Slipping to the bottom is Mark.   Performing the track Bleeding Love from one of the hottest chart toppers in the UK right now, Leona Lewis.  

I really feel like Mark could have channeled some inner Diva and really brought the vocals up on this performance.  If Mark is trying to be more serious and make it about the singing and less about his “performance” abilities then I advise that he rethink this.  At least when he was animated he was entertaining.

Bottom three prediction; Mark, the Mookster and either Mitch or Amberly.