Audio Review: American Idol Top 4

I did not review the Top 5 performances last week, having been overtaken by my workload. To summarise: Scott was better than usual, but not good enough to stay; Anthony was terrible on his first song, and rather good on his second; Carrie showed some spark of life on her Elvis song (an Elvis number) and sang prettily enough on the second song without her annoying tendency to show her ability to hold a note for 10 seconds; Vonzell was all over the place and tried to cover up vocal inadequacies with cuteness and then went into diva mode and sang competently if a little boringly; Bo sang a nicely familiar first song like someone who had sung it all his life and went to town on the second song.

This week: Country and the Philly Soul Sound

Carrie: Sin Wagon / If You Don't Know Me by Now
Sin Wagon: Sigh ... country is supposed to be her genre, so what went wrong? Sin Wagon had some attitude but the twanging sounded self-conscious rather than spontaneous. And her lower register was non existent.
IYDKMBN: This is one of my favourite songs, and this arrangement sucked half the soul out of the song. Carrie's vocals did the rest; all showing-off and zero understanding of the what she was singing. I have thought so all season, but tonight, she sounded more robotic and mechanical than she ever has before.

Bo: Great Day to Be Alive / For Love or Money
GDTBA: I liked this, although the song is formulaic country-pop and not at all memorable. Bo was clearly comfortable with what he was doing. A solid, professional performance, but like the song, nothing more than serviceable.
FLOM: Hey, it's the theme song for The Apprentice! I think this is a hard song to sing because it is reliant on syncopated rhythms, intrumentation and the way that the lead vocals blend with the back-up singers. Bo pulled it off for the most part, but his voice sounded ragged and he seemed to have shouted large portions of the song. There was energy aplenty to make up for the rough spots in the performance.

Vonzell: How Do Leave Without You / Don't Leave Me This Way
HDILWY: Wow, terrible arrangement, with the song unfolding at a funereal pace. Vonzell sounded like she had no breath control, losing notes or cutting them off abruptly. She also sounded much more squawky and scratchy than she ever has. A very painful affair.
DLMTW: Her lower register was horrendous on the verses; she was on the edge of going off-key more than once. Much better on the high energy chorus, but I think the back-up singers helped make her sound better. An enjoyable performance, but vocally ragged.

Anthony: I'm Already There / If You Don't Know Me by Now
IAT: Hey, not a bad job singing country! Who would have thought this Ukrainian blonde had it in him? This was the right song for his voice and range, no bad notes and no demands made on his lower register. He still needs to introduce some vibrato into his voice, to be completely successful at this, but all said, he sounded good tonight.
IYDKMBN: Singing the same song as Carrie had, he completely blitzed her on this one-on-one confrontation. Sure, you can tell the emotion is manufactured and that the boy needs to experience a bit more of life to really sell a song like this; but he put all the effort he could into bringing the soul out of the song, which Carrie did not (or perhaps could not) even try. Good job.