Hey, Taylor Hicks has got some new stuff up at rehearsals.com! Be sure to check out Taylor adding a new break-down ending to “Hold Onto Your Love,” wrapping his beautiful, bluesy tenor around…lyrics about methadone and soul fires, as far as I can tell. You never know. Anyway, check out all of Taylor’s rehearsals.com appearances here…and don’t miss “You Are So Beautiful.”
So Idol is accepting coronation song submissions from the public this year. That means instead of hearing shit like “My Destiny” from professional songwriters, you’ll likely be hearing worse songs from people who can’t hack it. Hey, Idol loves an underdog, am I right? Anyway, Uncle Nigel (Lythgoe) has pitched to FOX an Idol All-Stars show, where past winners (which, according to Nigel, would be Kelly, Ruben, Fantasia, Carrie and Chris) would come back to sing songs in the running for the final pick before viewers vote on them. Also, Uncle Nigel had this to say about Simon Cowell’s much-maligned “bush baby” comment:
A bush baby isn’t even a monkey… .A bush baby has beautiful, big eyes… .I don’t find it derogatory.
Hey, thanks, Nigel, for proving once again that you have no soul.
Want to listen to the full version of Elliott Yamin’s “Movin’ On”? Check it out at AOL’s First Listen. (You can also find snippets of “A Song For You,” “You Are the One,” and “Find a Way.”) If I had to find something wrong with the song (and you knew I would), it would be that, once again, I am completley unimpressed by the production. I learned these same three chords on my Casio when I was, like, six. I think the song is better suited either for a beautiful piano (the delicacy of the piano combined with the funky power of Elliott’s vocals would be an interesting textural contrast) or a full-out funkified workout, but here it just kind of sounds like they fell short on the budget. And hey, maybe they did. But you know what? Elliott’s vocals are superb here. I mean, we’re talking nearly flawless. (Taylor reaches this level too with “The Right Place” on his CD, and Katharine gets her technically, but still soulless, impeccable performance on “Ordinary World.”) But still, Elliott sounds much, much more interesting than he ever did on Idol, because I have to admit, while he was on the show, I never quite got his appeal. But now I do. And I’m eagerly awaiting this CD.
In Katharine McPhee news, The Advocate takes the same tack on her album that most reviewers are taking–beautiful girl, beautiful voice, one or two redeeming ballads, and the rest is commercialized crap:
McPhee sings darker and lower than her singing heroines, which allows her some individuality despite the conformity that surrounds her. The multi-tracked McPhee stacks enough harmonies to be a one-woman Destiny’s Child. The instrumental arrangements around her contain the usual electronics that fill contemporary hip-hop and R&B music, but the overall production echoes Whitney Houston and Madonna in their ’80s dance-pop glory. There are a few nods to Gwen Stefani and soul classic Aretha Franklin, too. McPhee’s talent is best expressed, in fact, by the Franklin-like “Better Off Alone.” Otherwise, the marketplace rules.
