Come Together with Some Help From My Friends (Beatles Week!)

Burnell has never heard Let It Be? (Crazy!) Candice attempts to find deeper meaning in ju-ju eyeballs? (Spoiler: Unsuccessful.) The girls outsing the boys? (Obvs.) All in a night’s work on Idol Beatles week.  Here’s how it went down:

1. Kree Harrison A Little Help From My Friends  Loving this song for her! I hoped for a little more crazy on those big solo notes (a la Joe Cocker), but it was arranged well, the tempo was great for her, and per usual, her vocal was right on the money.

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2. Burnell Taylor Let It Be Like, who over the age of five does not know this song? It was a competent vocal, but I felt no emotion from the performance.

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3. Amber Holcomb Leaving Home Interesting song choice! I like it! She didn’t seem that comfortable with the song, though–she just needed more practice with it. I like the haunting melody of the song on her voice, though.

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4. Lazaro Arbos In My Life Um, well, this was a bit of a mess. The low notes were too low, his enunciation needs serious work, and the vocal was just plain weak. He seems really disconnected from the song, as well. Just not too good.

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5. Candice Glover Come Together Rock On Girl! I loved her rocking out. And I agree with Keith, she could have gone even crazier with the riffs–she held back a little too much. I LOVED when Kris sang this (and even moreso his acoustic version) but this was great, too.  I went back and watched it twice, if that says anything!

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6. paul Jolley Eleanor Rigby Meh – the vocal wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t fantastic. Everything with him feels very artificial and forced. I don’t think he connects with anything he is singing.

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7. AngIE Miller Yesterday I loooved the arrangement and her at the mic, but for the first time on this show I didn’t care for the vocal.  Maybe it was too Broadway on that song?  She seemed to lack control of her head voice when she tried to pull back and be soft.  If this is the flaw in her ability, she needs to be careful of this moving forward.

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8. Devin Velez Long and Winding Road His best performance, for sure. His vocal was fantastic!  But i still don’t like the aimless walking around the stage.  Get this kid a stool or something.

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9. Janelle Arthur I Will Wow, a very solid performance from Janelle!  Definitely my favorite of hers.  I still think she is the weakest girl, but having the pimp spot should ensure her another week.

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At minimum, no one can be chastised for poor song choice in this catalog (every song was Keith’s favorite, anyway!) That doesn’t mean that every performance was spectacular. I think Lazaro’s demise has been building for several weeks–he just doesn’t have the chops to keep up with the upper echelon of Idol talent. You can also file Paul in the category of hot messes. Other than those two, everyone else was solid…certain rocking performances may have been more solid than others (Kree! Candice! I’m looking at you ladies).

What do you think? Surprises? Disappointments? Sadness for the failure of the American public school system to incorporate Beatles 101 in the curriculum? Let me know in the comments.