far too serious a recap of idol

This American Idol recap is better than all previous recaps, because the Solomonster and I were THERE. You know, it was just Mandy Moore, Taye Diggs, Ben Stiller, the Solomonster and myself. There's even a blur of my green shirt in the crowd every now and again that proves it. Still, as much as I'd love to make this about me, and my near miss of Tori Spelling as she was being interviewed outside the Kodak, we have some singing to discuss. Onwards.

To start, Katharine really is gorgeous. And tinier than you'd think. She had fun with her first song, but I agree with Simon, it was a little too laid back for the occasion. I wish she had gone back to one of the three she sang before the top 12... "Since I Fell for You", "All in Love is Fair" or "Think". "Somewhere over the Rainbow" was brilliant. Chill-inducing. She has a great voice when she just takes it easy. And the momentum was totally going her way until she got entirely screwed on her last song. I mean, the Idol singles are always mind-bogglingly bad (How long do they have to come up with these, and this is the best they can do? I have an idea, just once stray from the vague "manifesting my destiny while also being bizarrely in love" theme, and see how that works. Write something up-tempo for god's sake!), but this one was painful. When the judges bash the song, which ostensibly was approved by someone in production, it's not a good sign.

Meanwhile, if you find Taylor's schtick to be annoying on TV, you might be surprised to find that it's pretty fun and exciting live. He has so much energy and personality, and his first song really showed that off. "Levon" was all right. If he had to go tender again though, I think I would have preferred "Something." And then, as much as the lame Idol single killed Katharine, I think it really helped Taylor. For awhile now my thought about him has just been that his style would be so ill-suited to what being the "Idol" would make him. I thought he was incapable of singing some cheeseball robed-choir ballad and sounding good, and I was proven wrong. Again, not the best tune (though certainly better than Kat's) but Taylor made it work for him.

Alabama let Bo Bice down last year. I don't think they'll allow that happen again. On the strength of that last song, Taylor wins.