Audio Review: American Idol Top 7

This is another review of mp3s without visual distractions. I think it does reveal who are the singers vs performers and who are good at both performing and singing.

Theme: 70's Dance Music

Constantine: Nights on Broadway
As a vocal performance, I prefer this to last week's Bohemian Rhapsody, which I thought was very uneven. I think he kept on pitch much better this week. On the whole, he was drowned once too often by the band and the back-up singers, so the overall impression was not as favourable as it could have been. I also don't care for the slight screech in his voice when he transits to a high note "A ^Night^ on Broadway". It might be an artistic choice but sounds like a weakness in technique. Ruben did this back in Season 2, and I felt the song was much better suited to his wonderfully rich and mellow voice, compared to Constantine's.

Carrie: MacArthur Park
What happened to her sense of rhythm? She started the song a few beats behind, got back to speed for a while, and then lost it again. I heard some straining in the upper notes, and she was barely audible in her lower register. Did she arrange the song lower so she could belt out the high notes at the end? Bad idea, because it meant we could not hear her for 90% of the song. Finished witha string of sustained notes, which were quite well done, but these don't make up for the incompetently executed verses before. I think she was much worse this week than last week, when she sung while nursing an illness. She is usually technically very sound, so I think she just arranged the song below her tessitura and was struggling to control the low notes. I usually critique Carrie as lacking emotion, but I can't say that this time, because I couldn't hear enough of the song to make any judgement.

Scott: Everlasting Love
He has a pleasant tone, but not well-deployed in this song. He did not do enough to modulate and "colour" his voice, so the overall effect was dull. He was on-key this week, which is an improvement after the pitch problems he had in previous weeks, but it was the least heart-felt that I have ever heard him. For once, Scott sounded boring and passionless. This song has been done by Clay in Season 2 and Jasmine in Season 3. Scott's version falls between these 2. He lacked Clay's control over the vocal dynamics, but was far superior to Jasmine in terms of phrasing and pitch.

Anthony: Don't Take Away the Music
Great in patches, ordinary for the most part. He needs learn to introduce some vibrato to certain notes, to break up the monotony of his sound. I think his voice is very pretty, but it can lack variety. In this song, which in itself is rather dull, he was competent in hitting the right notes and keeping in tune and time, but was otherwise completely unremarkable. There was a sameness throughout the entire song.

Vonzell: I'm Every Woman
She doesn't back away from the difficult songs, does she? This is vocally very challenging. She was greatly helped by the backing vocals, especially in the chorus. A couple of the high notes were shrieky tonight and slightly sharp again, as has been her tendency. One low note was also slightly wobbly. It was overall rather impressive, because this is such a difficult and rangy song and she kept it together. She is also the type of performer that has an infectious energy that you can sense even just through listening. I do think she needs to learn to control her voice better and to find some musical identity.

Anwar: September
He sounded far more nasal tonight than he has in a couple of weeks. He also backed off from the high notes in the chorus (usually sung in falsetto) and allowed the back-up vocals to carry the melodic line. It's a bit of a cop-out to me. As with other contestants tonight, he was drowned by the band in certain parts of the song. He improvised an interesting end to the song, so it finished on a high. On the whole, though, this was very average to my ears. Tonight, his tone was not that pleasant to listen to; it was edging towards sharpness a couple of times, which was grating.

Bo: Vehicle
Started off a little weak and soft, and was drowned by the band. His lower register was unsteady in that first verse, with a couple of notes sounding like they were swallowed the moment they were sung. When he warmed up, the rich timbre of his voice, especially in his middle register, came to the fore. He showed good musical instinct in the way he inflected certain notes and words. I liked the last note, it was open throated and sensibly sustained, unlike the usual AI tendency to just hold the notes as long as possible, without paying heed to the musical value of that choice. One thing I wish Bo would do is to sustain his notes longer when modulating downwards at the end of phrases - I think this would showcase his voice better. Even in an upbeat song like this, I think that would improve the vocal expression of the song.

Worse of the night for me: Carrie, Scott (but I don't think Carrie is going anywhere near the bottom 2).