Imaginary Conversations and Random Thoughts

Well I enjoyed this night quite a bit I think. Plus, I put more effort than ever into scoring each person, so you can enjoy geeky averages and such. I gave a rating for covers, and a second rating for originals. Tonight's experience generally mirrored the other occasions in which the performers had chances to do original songs: most of the time, I enjoy the performance of an original song more than the same person's performance of a cover. Let's try the reviews first, then the scores at the end.

Dilana Cover - Behind Blue Eyes. I think I mentioned before how Respect by Aretha Franklin is one of those originals that, well, no one should bother covering. For me, Behind Blue Eyes is one of those songs. It is what we might call an "Untouchable Original." She couldn't help but disappoint me. It wasn't awful, but neither did it match the high standard set by the Who. I feel like her peak performances are behind her, and she's just trying to hang on now.

Dilana Original - Supersoul. I didn't like the intro. It felt like "Tonight, on a very special Rockstar . . ." Am I the only one who gets sick of hearing over and over about someone's personal tragedy? You don't get along with your mom and you put down your peers in the press, your life is so sad. Enough already; we get it! Just sing the damn song. Which she did, and did well. I liked it quite a bit, and I tagged it as my early favorite of the originals tonight. Behind Blue Eyes was so-so, but Supersoul was fun and I got into it. But maybe I was just in a good mood cause Miss Tori was all telling me how sexy I am.

Magni Cover - Back In The USSR. He was Magni. He was good. However, unlike Behind Blue Eyes, I think most people with even a little talent could do well with this song.

Magni Original - When The Time Comes. I liked this one, but it felt a little too hard for me, like I would have to be in the right mood to enjoy it and fully get into it. Dilana's song went down much easier and I think I could enjoy it in almost any mood or frame of mind. Is there anything wrong with a hard song that you have to be in just the right mood for? No. Is a song like that accessible to a lot of the audience a lot of the time? Unfortunately, also no. Still, I liked his performance of the original better than his performance of the cover.

Magni beats Dilana on the cover, she beats him on the original. Magni was called on his "always sounds the same" problem. It's a valid criticism. If I went to a Magni concert, I would likely leave thinking I had heard the same song over and over for two hours.

Storm Cover - Suffragette City. When I heard she was singing this, I told Miss Tori that I thought Storm might make a comeback with this song. I'm not saying I have a perfect ear for singing, but was I the only one who couldn't make out much more than "suffragette city" during this performance? I felt like she was overpowered by the band.

Storm Original - Ladylike. Catchy. I kinda liked it. I might very well like it more and more the more I hear it. Three things: the guitar solo was my favorite part of this song, Storm looked like she was wearing clown shoes, and Miss Tori swears she heard a song that sounds a lot like this song before. Any ideas? Liked it better than Suffragette City.

Storm's original beats Magni's; she did the worst cover so far.

Lukas Cover - Living On A Prayer. I like Bon Jovi. Many will say he's a cheesy hair metal guy, but he had a lot of good songs, even if you won't admit it now. Living On A Prayer is not one of my favorites, and in this situation my gut reaction was "Uh-oh." I thought this could go very badly for Lukas. Luckily, since I was old enough to know the original by heart, the first few mumbled lines didn't bother me, and for me, Lukas really pulled it off with this arrangement. The only cover of the night that I felt could comfortably stand next to the original version.

Lukas Original - Headspin. Obviously, I didn't know the words to this one, which left me scratching my head as to what he was singing, except I think I could make out the word "headspin" a few times. The guy's like freaking Dylan: if you don't know the words from somewhere, you sure aren't going to be able to make them out by listening to the song. Could have been good. Maybe if I had lyrics in front of me, I would have enjoyed it more. The only original performance I didn't like as much as the cover performance. On the other hand, Miss Tori says she would buy an album from him before any of the others. Seeing as she correctly diagnosed my sexiness earlier, she may have a point here.

Lukas has the best cover so far; he barely edged Magni on the original.

Before I get into Toby, I think last week I picked him to win it all, so my opinion may not be entirely objective.

Toby Cover - Mr. Brightside. Mr. Brightside is currently at the top of my most overplayed song list. It has become one of those songs I hear so much that I feel sick every time I hear it come on. And I have the stupid CD! Luckily, my prejudice in his favor canceled out my sickness at his song choice.

Toby Original - Throw It Away. The shows been over forty minutes as I type this sentence, and the only thing I remember from any of the originals is "Oh-oh-oh, oh-OH-oh." Dave nailed it when he said by the second verse, everyone wanted to sing along. That sort of connection between song and audience cannot be denied, and none of the other originals had that. Toby may not be the best singer on the show by any definition, but he is a competent singer who brings fun and excitement and energy to the stage. He does this better than anyone who's left, and to be honest, as far as Supernova is concerned, he's the only one I'd want to see fronting them in concert.

Toby's original was middle of the pack for me; his original knocked it out of the park.

On to the ratings:
Covers:

Lukas 1
Magni 2
Toby 3
Dilana 4
Storm 5

Originals:

Toby 1
Dilana 2
Storm 3
Lukas 4
Magni 5

If I average those numbers:

Toby 2.0
Lukas 2.5
Dilana 3.0
Magni 3.5
Storm 4.0

Not exactly scientific, I know, but it correctly predicted the top two in early voting, as well as the bottom three, though not in the right order.

Read actual skilled reviewers like these to hear genuine criticism:
Alan at What's Alan Watching?
Philip at Life in Memphis has an early spoiler/webisode review up. Those spoiler reviews are great for getting info on what happens between the shows. Could very well become a new trend in television, at least for reality shows. Check back for the episode review later.
Bill's extremely brief and to the point review can be found at So Quoted.

See you after the recap!

PS- Is it sick of me to feel more inclined to get tickets for the concert now that I know the house band and the assorted losers will open for Supernova and play the one or two songs each of them did best?