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  • Boom Fiyah! 12:50 am on March 9, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Tag Origins   

    Tag Origins: The Jeremy Rosado Award for “Why Are You Here?” 

    This tag is dedicated in honor of Jeremy Rosado, who did absolutely nothing of note during his entire run on “American Idol”. I would tell you more about Jeremy Rosado for this tag, but I really have nothing to tell you about Jeremy Rosado, other than he sang a few times with no character and got booted as the first finalist in Season 11. His transcendent blandness this late into the show’s evolution is worthy of its own award.

    However, the tag really isn’t meant, at least originally, to define all that the poster thinks is “bland”. It is designed to quickly designate and list all contestants who have no notable musical ambitions whatsoever. Failing to find a musical genre, sound, or personality, they simply exist singularly as artifacts of a televised soap opera; their very existence blurs the line between the subject matter (finding recording artists) and the reality (a gladiatorial screaming match with some musical trump cards). They should be the most harshly rejected of those who would wish this show generate music/culture; they are less important to those who consider the show a horse race first and foremost,

    Inevitably, the vast majority of “Idol” contestants do not matter; almost all are lacking in something to produce anything particularly noteworthy in any context, and can only exist as a pawn of the show. But that’s not what this is for. It’s for those whose musical context itself is almost entirely inscribed by the show and shows/venues that inspired it (such as pageants and variety shows).

     

  • Boom Fiyah! 12:37 am on March 9, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Contestant Features, , , That "Real World" Thing   

    That “Real World” Thing: Jeremy Rosado 

    I was listening rather carefully to Jeremy’s “Ribbon In The Sky”, trying to find any depth to his singing or anything that compare him to a current or past recording artist. I wasn’t really successful, because I’m having trouble thinking of a recording that so thoroughly lacks ambition of any kind, under anyone’s thinking, at any period of time. It did, however, remind me of something I didn’t care to remember; the very first season of the show.

    It’s one thing to suggest that an “Idol” contestant is flavorless; I would have said the same thing about the majority of contestants eliminated first on in the finals. But you have to head back to at least Season 4 to find a contestant so wildly unqualified for popular music. (And that may only be because I do not remember enough about Brandon Rogers to speak truthfully on the point) In fact, it’s hard to imagine a contestant managing to do less; produce nothing of any musical substance at any point, be completely unmemorable as a TV character, manage to do nothing impressive technically or tonally… the list goes on.

    At this point, I’d be inclined to say that it’s the product of television thinking over any kind of musical thinking… except I can’t even quite comprehend that. Demographic logic at best, and rather poor demographic logic at that. There really is no substantial reason for Jeremy Rosado to have been on this show. Cannon fodder is understating the point.

    My understanding about him being on this show can only be seen in two ways; he was the right person to fill a spot at the right time, despite many more interesting and worthy characters and artists to chose from. Even tossing in a generic Carrie imitator would have been more purposeful, but he just worked out shallow, insulting demographic logic and there wasn’t anyone they considered important enough to take precedence over that impulse. The other is that he sacrificed at least 75 chickens to make the finals, at which point… I need to buy some chickens.

    In many ways, his presence was actually fairly insulting. Because, again, there were people there who were eliminated who were actually making music. Sure, all of it was derivative to a lesser or greater extent, but there was some actual musicianship and pop potential. Instead, we have this remaining artifact of TV which, to be honest, didn’t even serve TV’s purpose. That will be Jeremy Rosado’s legacy.

     

  • Boom Fiyah! 8:13 pm on March 7, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Jennifer Hudson, Weight Watchers   

    Jennifer Hudson’s duet with herself; old news, but is it creepy or… no, there can’t be any other legitimate feeling, right?

     

    • Karaoke Hell 8:14 pm on March 7, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      That commercial is painful. Their “harmonies” are hilarious. It sounds like a bizarre echo.

  • Boom Fiyah! 8:15 pm on February 19, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , ,   

    Now That’s Artistry: David Cook’s “This Loud Morning” 

    Just like with his debut, Cook came into his second album with a somewhat unique burden.  He had proven, on his debut 19E release (read our review here), that the new era of American Idol identifying some of its acts as artists wouldn’t translate into fully-formed artistic product per se. As such, a second question arose; free from the need to rush an album out of the gate while doing the large Idol tour, could a contestant on Idol create such a product for their sophomore debut? The answer was a long time coming, actually; David Archuleta, who had come in second to Cook and had decidedly not been given the “artist” designation, managed to release a Christmas album and another album entirely before Cook released “This Loud Morning”, almost three years after his self-titled debut.

    The answer to that question is somewhat more involved than evaluating whether or not he had lived up to the burden attached to his debut, in his credit. Indeed, this album holds up in various ways that its predecessor did not. Cook and his team put a lot of emphasis on “coherence” in promoting the album, and it turns out that wasn’t an empty threat. However, while this is preferred to a bunch of tracks thrown together without a lot of design, it isn’t a measure of artistic success per se. On that count, how did “This Loud Morning” turn out? (More …)

     

    • Closeyoureyes 1:24 am on February 20, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks for taking the trouble to give this album a serious, unbiased review! My opinions aren’t always the same as yours, but I guess that’s why they’re called opinions :-)

      Just an aside – the lyrical coherence between the songs is easier to understand once you understand the overall concept of the album. Cook has alluded to this several times in interviews, but most casual listeners would be unaware of these, so it may have been helpful to have some kind of pointer in the liner notes. In brief, the two bookend songs set the stage – In Circadian the narrator is overwhelmed by pain, and takes refuge in his only escape, sleep. The rest of the songs (up to Goodbye To the Girl) takes place in the dream world and loosely traces the arc of a failed relationship from start to finish. In the final song, Rapid Eye Movement, the narrator wakes up again, only to be faced with the overwhelming pain and the need to escape again. That song actually gave rise to the album’s title, from the line ‘Give me one more quiet night / before this loud morning gets it right / and does me in’. (If I had to characterize my take on the album, it’s about catastrophic loss and how we deal with it).

      As to the relationship between the songs you mentioned (Time Marches On, The Last Goodbye and Paper Heart), in my opinion it simply reflects that push/pull stage when a relationship is falling apart – that oscillation between ‘who needs this anyway’ and desperately trying to hang on to it.

      Be that as it may, thanks again – I found your perspective very interesting!

      • Boom Fiyah! 9:36 am on February 20, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        First of all, want to thank you for giving a thought-out, carefully considered rebuttal. I appreciate that in a fan!

        Secondly, I think the trouble is that while you can indeed piece together a narrative-as you have through outside material and through interpretive read-the songs themselves, in my opinion, should be able to do that clearly and obviously. Which is why I was complaining about the lack of referent-writing should not be so ambiguous that you need an outside manual to understand it! But people do honestly feel different than I am, and that is a pop-oriented bias I have. And while you may be right about the push-and-pull elements, to me it just felt as if they didn’t connect well as talking about that push and pull. It could have been better written, I thought.

        But I’m so glad you took the time to comment and post a very thoughtful comment! And I would love if you want to continue to disagree and talk up the merits in the comments, because civilized discussion is always a plus!

        Regards!

    • Closeyoureyes 2:45 pm on February 20, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      LOL Now that’s an invitation I’ll find very hard to resist. I get your point – if I had to criticise this album (which I don’t want to, since I’m deeply in love with it – in case you haven’t noticed :-) ), I would say that the real meat of it is not easily accessible to a casual listener. For example, what you see as unnecessary instrumentation crashing in on Circadian, to me evokes a tsunami-like effect, which I think works very well given the theme of the song and the water/drowning imagery.

      But this is the kind of music I love – lots of complex stuff going on under the surface which you only find if you pay very deep attention. I appreciate that’s not everyone’s taste.

      • Boom Fiyah! 2:59 pm on February 20, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        I agree on that count. I think this album has potential to be a grower; it’s designed not to be accessible immediately. Which sometimes works for a good product, and sometimes doesn’t pan out. We disagree on that, but I think I would recommend any other critic actually spending some time with it before making a decision. (I listened several times before making the final call; I nearly rated it higher than I actually did.)

        Interesting on the tsunami effect. I’ll listen back to the track with that in mind. Still, maybe if he’d kept out the heavier piano and used the lighter stuff in the background while the guitars rolled in? The dissonance might have been cool.

        And I’m glad you’re passionate about it! And articulate. Together, they make great qualities.

    • the truth 4:13 pm on March 3, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      I like david cook and james durbin albums ,just curious what music do you like, even though I can tell by youre reviews let me guess?pop or rap.I am going to show you how wrong you are if james durbin higher then heaven gets released to the rock stations it goes top 40 in a week.and that goes for crawling home and love in ruins too.

      • Boom Fiyah! 9:28 pm on March 3, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        Hey, welcome and thanks for commenting!

        In terms of my regular habits, you’re not wrong to pin me to rap. But I actually do have a lot of respect for rock and listen to it significantly as well.

        As far as James’s commercial success goes, that’s not really on-topic here… but I will say that the reviews I do aren’t meant to be a measure or prediction of how well they will sell.

        • the truth 1:57 pm on March 4, 2012 Permalink

          What does have a lot of respect for rock mean either you have passion for it or not.

        • Boom Fiyah! 11:39 pm on March 4, 2012 Permalink

          I am passionate about music. Any good music, really; rock, rap, rock-rap, country, jazz, bluegrass, pop, sala (OK, I don’t really listen to salsa music). Honest. Mind you, am I going to be a genre purist about, well, anything? No, so have what you will.

  • Boom Fiyah! 5:59 pm on February 18, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , James Durbin,   

    Now That’s Artistry!: James Durbin’s “Memories of a Beautiful Disaster” 

    Anyone who payed even relatively close attention to Season 11 on American Idol should remember James Durbin’s war cry to “Bring Back Metal!” Anyone who had payed any attention to the history of rock-affiliated contestants on Idol had more than a right to be skeptical; every such contestant had debuted with material that, at the least, felt somewhat watered down. Metal, certainly, seemed to be a long-shot. Partially, this is attribution by relationship; genre is felt and understood through the audience it connects with as much as the sonic atmosphere it creates, meaning that even an album featuring an onslaught of guitars and the kind of relentless fury that defines metal would be dismissed. But it was also unlikely that Durbin was really going to make a “metal” record anyway; it’s important to note that even though he ended up signing with Wind-Up Records and not something more obviously pop-oriented, even they had by this point been making money off of acts like Seether and Finger Eleven. Rock radio has been dominated by the compromises that have made up the post-grunge sound, and an undeveloped novice off of American Idol was not going to change that habit.

    And, sure enough, this album really is to be judged by standards that aren’t so different than one might evaluate a David Cook or a Daughtry. However, it has to be noted that this album is indeed a compromise, rather than a complete sublimation of the artist. Both in imagery and in sound, the album is closer affiliated to “harder” rock than any “American Idol” release that comes to mind, and there’s something to be celebrated in that. That the album is comparatively distinguished is a good thing; that the machine is at least willing to make more distinctive sounds is good even if they are derivative. That said, with the state of modern rock being as it is, does this lead to an album that is good or a complete disaster? (More …)

     

  • Boom Fiyah! 10:14 am on February 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Kelly Clarkson,   

    Now That’s Artistry!: Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger” 

    Kelly Clarkson, American Idol’s first star and artist, was notably unique in that she managed to achieve something of a pop persona that wasn’t defined by the lowest common denominator of the genre. Sure, people forget that at her artist beak with “Breakaway”, she was really competing with Ashlee Simpson as far as material goes. But, at the least, Kelly managed to really become the best of her field, becoming a populist, female-empowering icon in a way that wouldn’t have been expected from her fairly-rote run on “Idol” itself, managing to have enough vision, guts, and taste to at least push forward into an artistic semblance in her own right.

    Ever since that break, she’s differentiated from that original everywoman persona, most notably when she released the darker, more intense “My December”. However, that persona is still what dominates Kelly’s image, and it’s hard not to see “Stronger” as an attempt to utilize that pop construction to full effect. There are plenty of angry kiss-off songs all over this album, as one might hope from any decent Kelly Clarkson release. Tactically, it’s hard not to think of this as a smart decision, because that really is where Kelly has generally thrived and been able to really excel in a way that none of her peers really could, no matter how much they could try. (It’s telling that on “All I Ever Wanted”, Kelly was able to take a couple of cuts from Katy Perry and do better than the original just on that basis alone.)

    However, even though it was a good idea, the actual product falls flat because it is desperately live up to an ideal persona without actually developing or diversifying that persona in particularly powerful ways. In doing so, it flirts heavily with self-parody, even if rarely goes that low. Plus, it misses two important points about Kelly; despite being angry, she hasn’t prior to this come off as overly forced in that anger, and her likability was always the important offset that ran through all of her material, whether it was dark or light. It was hard to dislike the woman. (More …)

     

  • Boom Fiyah! 3:05 am on January 30, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Kellie Picker, ,   

    Now That’s Just Artistry: Kellie Picker’s “100 Proof” 

    Kellie Pickler’s charm, to date, has largely been her personality, often accused of being a put-on but nonetheless considered charming enough to carry her material with the kind of on-record presence that’s so often lacking from post-show product. Her best work has been Dolly Parton-inspired, ranging from flirty (see “Red High Heels”) to deliciously catty (see “Rocks Instead of Rice”, which, if you haven’t heard it yet, is just awesome). However, her eponymous album (“Rocks” and a couple of others aside) seemed to go out of its way to cast Kellie as the kind of pop-country diva that has seen some serious commercial success. This, as many called out right away, was an obvious miscalculation; Pickler’s talents are more in her recording personality than in her range, and while sentiment wasn’t off the table per se it wasn’t as if anything in Kellie’s personality or her inspirations seemed to suggest that this could work on anything but a commercial level (and it didn’t really on that).

    This makes Kellie Pickler’s decision to make a neotraditional country album a touch frightening, given the track record. As far as recording albums go, it takes a lot more sustained effort and musical development to handle material that’s pretending to be Patsy Cline rather than material that’s trying to be Faith Hill. And if as there is evidence that Kellie’s attempts at being the latter weren’t particularly high quality, there wasn’t any suggesting she could really do much of the former. She did have more recording skill in endeavors that weren’t simply technical, but demonstrated on a rather limited range of songs. Plus, when an artist who does a particularly type of pop decides to make a “personal” album, the results are often mixed in one way or another. (More …)

     

    • Mitchel 12:56 am on February 7, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Yay! You liked the pickler. Nice site bw Mark & Pastor

      • Boom Fiyah! 2:57 am on February 7, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        Thank you for the support! We’re still trying to get more, once I get James the cord he needs to run his computer.

  • Boom Fiyah! 6:57 pm on January 22, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Lauren Alaina, ,   

    Now That’s Artistry: Lauren Alaina’s “Wildflower” 

    Lauren Alaina was supposed to be the prime example of the pageant bot. Entering “American Idol” at a much heralded 15-years of age and seemingly having been bred in an actual karaoke bar, there wasn’t really a lot of indication that Lauren would make much of a recording presence. Her voice had a nice range and some appealing textures from the start, but the background was so damning that she was pretty much doomed to the knock of lacking any artistic mentality or skill from the start. “American Idol” has a long and sordid history of contestants who performed on the pageant circuit who proved the rule, often providing the fodder for the show. An overly precocious presentation didn’t exactly help her cause either, nor did a bizarrely fictionalized arc from the show about her confidence.

    However, on her way to the Top 2 of the competition (not itself an indication of artistic merit), Alaina did manage to establish a stylistic direction for herself fairly smoothly; country-pop best thought of in terms of the Dixie Chicks, realistically thought of in terms of Sarah Evans (covered by the contestant on the show), and worst thought of in terms of Carrie Underwood. Indeed, Alaina namechecked Underwood plenty, which reaffirmed the pageant slam. On the other hand, Alaina also had some fairly subdued performances that spoke the better potential of her voice as far as being a recording presence went. By the end, it was a toss-up as to which direction. (More …)

     

  • Boom Fiyah! 12:42 am on January 21, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , ,   

    Now That’s Artistry: David Cook’s Eponymous Release 

    David Cook’s self-titled release, it should be remembered, actually came with a little bit of gravity that usually isn’t afforded releases from American Idol winners. As the declared winner of the first season that exhibited “artistry” (though the term would only be really used in full by the show during the next season), the debut came with a couple of different questions. Namely, in this “brand new version” of Idol, would the debut albums created by winners exceed the quality level that had proceeded them, which had been blandly crafted non-events at best? Could the first album released after an American Idol win actually constitute art?

    Basically, “David Cook” did little to change that overall perception. “Artistry” proved to matter little long-term to critics of Idol’s product, who basically charged that the CD and most, if not all, proceeding continued to be dominated by personality-draining songcraft and by soundscapes that had the life mercilessly picked out of them. I’ve agreed with these critics for a long time. But did “David Cook” get a fair shake?

    Here’s the catch; “David Cook” actually is not as far off the mark from its genre median than its background would suggest. The sound is at no point distinctive, but as far as radio-oriented post-grunge goes, the arrangements were largely suited fine. In fact, it actually has a problem that’s a genre hallmark; the songs themselves are constructed distinctively enough, but largely bland out over a sustained listen. By the time “David Cook” introduces a piano ballad, you’d be forgiven for believing you had listened to 2 regular songs and 1 really long song. And even then, doesn’t feel any less monotonous. (More …)

     

  • Boom Fiyah! 3:05 pm on January 19, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Boom Fiyah, , , Scotty McCreery   

    Now That’s Artistry!: Scotty McCreery’s “Clear as Day” 

    The discussions around Scotty McCreery’s American Idol run were often a misguided affair, both from the perspective of his advocates and his detractors. At the very least, they don’t particularly play out on his debut record. For example, many of his online detractors would often call him out for having a limited range, which became a general knock against him; as a matter of speaking, McCreery rarely sounds overly strained or unable to execute his chosen material. (This should be all that matters.) And while there may be questions as to his stage presence and facial expressions, obviously none of that actually affects the quality of his songs.

    On the other hand, the excessive platitudes about McCreery don’t really hold up either. One of them is frankly ludicrous. The notion that Scotty McCreery was ever going to make a “classic” country album directly from the offices of 19E defies the logic of the Idol machine on any number of levels. And on “Clear as Day”, the arrangements are almost all soft, almost sleepy, contemporary country-pop. The only deviation from the formula is where a touch of rock is added to the guitars (“You Make That Look Good”), which isn’t exactly a step away from contemporary country trends.

    The other, more interesting, claim is that Scotty McCreery was an expert storyteller. To begin with, Idol isn’t exactly a venue for storytelling per se. Its contestants are supposed to make their musical impact within 90-second shots, making the impressions about the singers at best about their musical personalities rather than their ability to deliver a song through that personality. But McCreery was given ample room to prove this ability on his full-length recording debut, where most (if not all) song are full-fledged narratives, though hardly exciting or insightful ones as a lot. (More …)

     

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