Beautiful Disaster

Currently Listening To: Breakers - Local Native

When I turned on the TV to watch American Idol tonight, I was not expecting disaster. Unfortunately, by the time I heard the first three contestants I was ready to run and hide. Thankfully it picked up the pace about halfway through because they definitely saved the best for last. Let's start with the reviews shall we? 

From the best to the worst:

Jessica Meuse
I thought Jessica was the best of the night. Hers was the only performance that kinda sorta lived up to the previous seasons, everyone else was rather subpar in my opinion. Her song choice was interesting as well - Shinedown's The Crow and the Butterfly. Imagine, Shinedown in American Idol! That's a first. I've never heard that song before but Jessica made me want to listen to it again. 9/10

Alex Preston
Jason Mraz's A Beautiful Mess was a good song choice for Alex. Again, I wasn't even aware of this song's existence so I have no idea what to compare his performance to. Anyhow he sounded a bit like Lee Dewyze to me, but with better vocals of course. Which is not a bad thing for this season. In fact that's pretty good because the other contestants are so mediocre I could cry. 8.5/10

Sam Woolf
You know what I really liked his version of Matchbox 20's Unwell. He may have sang it straight but at least he sounded good. Plus he's cute and adorable. What's not to love? Kid could go far in this, with his major competitor being Alex Preston, they're pretty much on the same level. 8.5/10

Caleb Johnson
Hell yeah Jack Black! Finally some rock and roll with Rival Son's Pressure and Time. There's something charismatic about this floppy haired rocker, I liked it. His performance breathed life into the otherwise mundane show. Perfect for closing the night. 8/10

Emily Piriz
So Emily chose to sing Glitter in the Air by Pink. Vocally I thought Emily sounded pretty, but something about her delivery felt empty. And she gave off this pageantry air. I think she needs to learn to work the crowd better. If she's in some other season I would have ranked her lower but since it's 2014...she's actually one of the better ones. Yikes. 7/10

Majesty Rose
I loved that she chose to sing Janelle Monay's Tightrope. It's just so...Majesty. That song fitted her like a glove, so she couldn't really go wrong with that. However she was pitchy intermittently, and that kind of ruined it for me. Then again that song is pretty difficult to sing so she gets a free pass.
7/10

Jena Irene
Shaky start, nice end. Jena's got a lovely, unique voice and an interesting singing style. She managed to make Coldplay's The Scientist her own, so that's a really good plus point. One of the more unusual performances of the night. 6.5/10

MK Nobilette
She sounded amazing and I love the tone of her voice, but MK's rendition of Allan Stone's Satisfaction was timid. Let's face it, timid is just not going to work out for American Idol. She needs spark.  I just can't imagine casual voters flocking to vote for her. 6/10

Dexter Roberts
Weird song choice. Out of all the country boys he was the best. His rendition of Aw Naw by Chris Young was neither good nor bad, so that puts him somewhere in the middle of the pack. 6/10

Ben Briley
Oh god. That was so country. I couldn't even recognize his song as Folsom Prison Blues. The pacing of the song was just crazy, I could barely keep up with it. As a result of that, he sounded rushed and breathless. I don't know if any hardcore country fans will be voting for that seeing as the voting bloc is more likely to vote for pop-country as oppose to...country. I'm actually wishing for some Scotty right now geez. 4/10

CJ Harris
Man he was disappointing. I was expecting something better from him. It sounded sleepy and lifeless. Once again I do not know the song, which was Darius Rucker's (who?) Radio. Just, bleh. Very not memorable. 2/10

Kristen O'Connor
For some reason I found her performance of Kelly Clarkson's Beautiful Disaster cheesy. Cheese. There's some good vocals in there somewhere, but was totally drowned by that blank, empty look on her face 0.5/10

Malaya Watson
What the heck was that? I can't believe I actually had hopes for this girl. She made a mess out of Bruno Mars' Runaway Baby, that's all. I can't even think of anything else to say about her. 0/10

And with that we have the Top 13 contestants of American Idol Season 13.

Who should be bottom 3? Malaya, Kristen and CJ

Who will go home? Malaya

All in all it was not a good start to the competition. I've been watching Idol since Season 4, and personally I think this was one of the weakest opening nights.

Thankfully the judges (Jen, Keith and Harry Connick Jr.) were actually pretty honest and helpful this time around. There was no over the top sugar coating, only mild praises to, you know, soften the blow of the barely concealed criticism. Compared to last year, this was like heaven to me! The judging last year was such a mess it hurts to even think about it now (damn you Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey). And it is even better with Randy Jackson gone. Here's hoping that they will maintain their honesty.

(By the way, Adam Lambert and Chris Daughtry are the in-house coaches this year. So far they've been doing a good job. Randy the useless is one of the advisors too but as usual he has not been helpful to the contestants at all.)

Edit with Results:

Kristen is gone. Can't say that was unexpected.