By M. Giant
Back from the ads, Ryan introduces Phillip, who is singing "Fat Bottomed Girls," which we've already heard once tonight. Except Phil does it his usual way, posing like someone just dropped ice down the back of his shirt and doing all these slow, bluesy upward vocal bends into the long notes that never seem to get all the way up to the correct pitch. He's a flat-noted boy tonight. Afterward, Steven makes some jokes about the song and looks at Jennifer, because, you know. Steven also claims to like watching Phillip run out of breath, and says it's a great choice of song. Jennifer says Phillip always gives them something different... like how this week, he didn't remind her of Dave Matthews like he normally does. Randy isn't "jumping up and down," just saying it was good. But Ryan points out that in the zillions of these shows he'd hosted, he's never actually seen Randy jump up and down. Randy promptly demonstrates why that is.
Hollie's wrapping up the Queen round with "Save Me," all tarted up in some Orange County mom's pantsuit and singing with a bit of a Skylar twang. Well, she's tried everything else. After she's done, Randy chants "What you thinking?" at Steven, who says he enjoyed it. Randy defers to Jennifer, who seems to have noticed some actual emotional engagement in Hollie's performance, at which point she started going off technically. That girl can't win for losing. Jennifer talks at length about how she tries to enjoy performing and Hollie needs to try doing that more. Randy says Hollie can take more chances to try to get "that moment," but this didn't have it.
And that's it for the Queen round, which is good because Roger and Brian are probably on the plane already. Ryan asks Jennifer who is winning tonight so far, and she immediately says, "Skylar." Randy thinks Hollie needs to step it up, but that Phil and Elise were also good along with Skylar. Ryan asks Steven if he was worried about the contestants before they started singing, like Steven Tyler can remember that far back. He compares them to "vocal gymnasts" and says they did well with simple melodies. Oh, and also, he liked Skylar. Ryan says we'll be back with Skylar and Jessica, one of whom will do country and the other R&B. "You guess which one." Hey, is that racist?
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Elise sings "Bold as Love," a more obscure but still unmistakable Hendrix tune that ends up turning into more of a poetry slam than an actual musical performance. Oh, and she points at her notes throughout. Steven compares her to Janis Joplin, and advises her to pick songs people know. "You can't pick your cherries with your back to the tree," he adds, like that makes it clearer. Jennifer gets Steven's point, but doesn't care. Randy says it wasn't the right song for this time in the competition, and she kind of attacked it. Jennifer disagrees with him, as does the audience, apparently. Ryan comes out and tries to stir that up some more before introducing Elise's guitarist Wallace, who I'm guessing is from her band back home. Wallace is a giant dork, for what that's worth.
The other finalists make fun of Phillip's spastic performing style and hypochondria, and then Phil sings a Dave Matthews song that's even more obscure than the obscure Jimi Hendrix song Elise just sang. He's got a female musician bopping along on each side of him -- a violin player and a baritone sax player who seems to have replaced his usual duet partner on the tenor. Or maybe she dyed her hair dark. I don't actually care. In any case, the song is so unfamiliar to the audience that they don't even know when to clap at the end. He sure sounded like Dave Matthews, though, which will shock nobody. Steven says it was off the wall and although he didn't like the melody, he thought it was great. Jennifer doesn't think this was the time and the place, like Phil isn't going to actively be trying to defenestrate himself from the competition at some point in the very near future. Randy maintains that Phil showed his true colors and is a true artist. "Phil Phillips will always be Phil Phillips," Randy says, a line that gets huge applause even though it may be Phil's undoing. Ryan talks about how his girlfriend was smitten with Phil, and we get to see Julianne Hough freaking out backstage in embarrassment. Presumably not at being smitten with Phil, but at dating Ryan Seacrest.
After the ads, Ryan cues the intro reel for "our first-ever Liverpool/Texas fusion." Gosh, that's hard to believe. Aren't Liverpool/Texas fusions pretty thick on the ground? Speaking of that, the other finalists talk about Hollie's mysterious accent that had me so flummoxed for the first few weeks of her run. And which I think has evolved since she got into the top 24, like she was trying to sound more American when she first got on the air. It is AMERICAN Idol after all. Here's another song I don't know that well, "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus. And yes, she has indeed stepped it up, finally relaxing enough to earn what I think is her first standing ovation from the judges. Randy says she's back, and that was beautiful. Jennifer says she stepped up like she said she would earlier, and Steven says, "Cor blimey, Shiela, y'all," and adds that she sang it like it was going out of style. Ryan reminds us that she sang that very song at the auditions, as though we ever saw this girl before Vegas.
By M. Giant
The other finalists make fun of Phillip's spastic performing style and hypochondria, and then Phil sings a Dave Matthews song that's even more obscure than the obscure Jimi Hendrix song Elise just sang. He's got a female musician bopping along on each side of him -- a violin player and a baritone sax player who seems to have replaced his usual duet partner on the tenor. Or maybe she dyed her hair dark. I don't actually care. In any case, the song is so unfamiliar to the audience that they don't even know when to clap at the end. He sure sounded like Dave Matthews, though, which will shock nobody. Steven says it was off the wall and although he didn't like the melody, he thought it was great. Jennifer doesn't think this was the time and the place, like Phil isn't going to actively be trying to defenestrate himself from the competition at some point in the very near future. Randy maintains that Phil showed his true colors and is a true artist. "Phil Phillips will always be Phil Phillips," Randy says, a line that gets huge applause even though it may be Phil's undoing. Ryan talks about how his girlfriend was smitten with Phil, and we get to see Julianne Hough freaking out backstage in embarrassment. Presumably not at being smitten with Phil, but at dating Ryan Seacrest.
After the ads, Ryan cues the intro reel for "our first-ever Liverpool/Texas fusion." Gosh, that's hard to believe. Aren't Liverpool/Texas fusions pretty thick on the ground? Speaking of that, the other finalists talk about Hollie's mysterious accent that had me so flummoxed for the first few weeks of her run. And which I think has evolved since she got into the top 24, like she was trying to sound more American when she first got on the air. It is AMERICAN Idol after all. Here's another song I don't know that well, "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus. And yes, she has indeed stepped it up, finally relaxing enough to earn what I think is her first standing ovation from the judges. Randy says she's back, and that was beautiful. Jennifer says she stepped up like she said she would earlier, and Steven says, "Cor blimey, Shiela, y'all," and adds that she sang it like it was going out of style. Ryan reminds us that she sang that very song at the auditions, as though we ever saw this girl before Vegas.
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