Open-And-Shut Case(y)
Monday, 15 November 2004
“Vote for Casey if you think she is the girl.” – Andrew G
It’s a tough call, but I think that of the two finalists, the girl is Casey.
As it happens, I also think she is the winner.
I was previously indifferent to the outcome of this year’s competition once Casey had made it through to the final. But last night she showed in several stunning ways how incredibly superior she is to Anthony, how much she is ready for the title, and just how stylish and versatile a black-skirt-and-shawl ensemble can be. (Not, obviously, as versatile as the Infinite Dress, which is more than 30 dresses rolled into one.)
Why Casey must win:
1. She’s the ultimate storyteller.
2. She gave us three monumentally diverse performances last night, as she has all season.
3. She gave the Diane Warren song the respect it deserved by mumbling the first couple of lines. But even this, which could potentially have led to Casey’s unravelling, was brilliantly handled: she very honestly admitted that she stuffed up, and did so in a complete sentence.
4. On an ordinary night I think her first two performances would have been veritable touchdowns.
5. After watching snippets of her previous performances, it’s quite breathtaking to note how far she’s come and how uncommonly adept she is at interpreting song lyrics. Completely captivating on every level last night.
Anthony was as vocally strong as ever but I’m afraid he just wasn’t in Casey’s league. As I was watching him sing last night, there was something overwhelmingly familiar about each of his performances. Apart from noticing that his pinkie looks startlingly similar to my little toe, I realised that his renditions of songs (and his tendency to select the “power ballad”) all reek of the same bland mechanics. They all feature some combination of the following robotic moves:
Dramatic look to the side, slow movement of the face back to camera
Engineered to convey: “intensity”
Hand thrust forward, turned upside down and quickly dragged inward
Engineered to convey: “passion”
Jerk of the head to the side, usually in conjunction with a swift raising of the knee
Probably not engineered to convey: "flamboyance"
To be fair (and before Anthony lovers come at me with their vitriol), I do acknowledge that Anthony’s voice is incredible. But watching him perform lately is like undergoing a lobotomy. He may have changed clothes, but unlike Casey, he gave three versions of the same performance last night. The one performance that transcended everything this year – “The Prayer” – was amazing not only for its vocal strength but for the fact that Anthony accessed a zone that was free of idiosyncracy, where there was nothing to distract from the purity of his voice. I think that performance was utterly unbelievable. But he has not been anywhere as good since.
Perhaps there are reasons for it. He was clearly nervous last night. And Andrew G may have struck a raw nerve by announcing prior to his second performance that “it’s now time for Anthony Callea to come on out”. However, far from distancing himself from the inference, Anthony promptly declared moments later that the Idol competition has made him “more looser” (sic). Indeed.
As for the single, it’s a piece of crap for a few reasons.
1. Diane Warren.
2. Usually the Idol single is soaring and anthemic and lyrically analogous to the Idol experience, but “Listen with your heart” is both strikingly uninspiring and anatomically misleading.
3. It unfairly created the exciting prospect that it would be a cover of a Roxette song! Roxette were at least aware that the correct expression is “listen to your heart”, where said organ is capable of both literal sound emission and metaphorical message-giving. But the notion that the miraculous function served by the ears can be re-assigned to the pulsating blob of blood located deep within the chest cavity is nonsense even on a symbolic level.
Adjectives that describe Casey’s performances
Subtle
Diverse
Haunting
Powerful
Impressive
Adjectives that describe Anthony’s performances
Repetitive
Wooden
Boring
Naff
Matters of concern arising from last night’s show
Chanel’s hair
It’s up to us now.
191010 Casey.
“Vote for Casey if you think she is the girl.” – Andrew G
It’s a tough call, but I think that of the two finalists, the girl is Casey.
As it happens, I also think she is the winner.
I was previously indifferent to the outcome of this year’s competition once Casey had made it through to the final. But last night she showed in several stunning ways how incredibly superior she is to Anthony, how much she is ready for the title, and just how stylish and versatile a black-skirt-and-shawl ensemble can be. (Not, obviously, as versatile as the Infinite Dress, which is more than 30 dresses rolled into one.)
Why Casey must win:
1. She’s the ultimate storyteller.
2. She gave us three monumentally diverse performances last night, as she has all season.
3. She gave the Diane Warren song the respect it deserved by mumbling the first couple of lines. But even this, which could potentially have led to Casey’s unravelling, was brilliantly handled: she very honestly admitted that she stuffed up, and did so in a complete sentence.
4. On an ordinary night I think her first two performances would have been veritable touchdowns.
5. After watching snippets of her previous performances, it’s quite breathtaking to note how far she’s come and how uncommonly adept she is at interpreting song lyrics. Completely captivating on every level last night.
Anthony was as vocally strong as ever but I’m afraid he just wasn’t in Casey’s league. As I was watching him sing last night, there was something overwhelmingly familiar about each of his performances. Apart from noticing that his pinkie looks startlingly similar to my little toe, I realised that his renditions of songs (and his tendency to select the “power ballad”) all reek of the same bland mechanics. They all feature some combination of the following robotic moves:
Dramatic look to the side, slow movement of the face back to camera
Engineered to convey: “intensity”
Hand thrust forward, turned upside down and quickly dragged inward
Engineered to convey: “passion”
Jerk of the head to the side, usually in conjunction with a swift raising of the knee
Probably not engineered to convey: "flamboyance"
To be fair (and before Anthony lovers come at me with their vitriol), I do acknowledge that Anthony’s voice is incredible. But watching him perform lately is like undergoing a lobotomy. He may have changed clothes, but unlike Casey, he gave three versions of the same performance last night. The one performance that transcended everything this year – “The Prayer” – was amazing not only for its vocal strength but for the fact that Anthony accessed a zone that was free of idiosyncracy, where there was nothing to distract from the purity of his voice. I think that performance was utterly unbelievable. But he has not been anywhere as good since.
Perhaps there are reasons for it. He was clearly nervous last night. And Andrew G may have struck a raw nerve by announcing prior to his second performance that “it’s now time for Anthony Callea to come on out”. However, far from distancing himself from the inference, Anthony promptly declared moments later that the Idol competition has made him “more looser” (sic). Indeed.
As for the single, it’s a piece of crap for a few reasons.
1. Diane Warren.
2. Usually the Idol single is soaring and anthemic and lyrically analogous to the Idol experience, but “Listen with your heart” is both strikingly uninspiring and anatomically misleading.
3. It unfairly created the exciting prospect that it would be a cover of a Roxette song! Roxette were at least aware that the correct expression is “listen to your heart”, where said organ is capable of both literal sound emission and metaphorical message-giving. But the notion that the miraculous function served by the ears can be re-assigned to the pulsating blob of blood located deep within the chest cavity is nonsense even on a symbolic level.
Adjectives that describe Casey’s performances
Subtle
Diverse
Haunting
Powerful
Impressive
Adjectives that describe Anthony’s performances
Repetitive
Wooden
Boring
Naff
Matters of concern arising from last night’s show
Chanel’s hair
It’s up to us now.
191010 Casey.
posted by Scott @ 12:15 AM
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