FAN Idol XI (FAN Idol crowned!!!!)

[Spiderf 4]

3/4 judgings in.

[Deleted]

To keep the thread going a bit, I'll list my favorite 2 or 3 songs per contestant. Join in if you like .

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}
Brad
Afroman - Because I Got High (Positive Remix)
Taylor Swift- You Belong With Me

Brainbustaaah
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
I Fight Dragons ft. Kina Grannis - Only You
Lady Antebellum - Need You Now

Chaos
Panic! At the Disco- Nearly Witches
Walk The Moon - Next in Line
Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart

Drillbit
Bee Gees - New York Mining Disaster 1941
It's My Life- Talk Talk
Dmitri Shostakovich - Waltz No. 2

Gus
Glen Campbell - I'm Not Gonna Miss You
Things Have Changed- Bob Dylan
Fiddler on the Roof - If I Were a Rich Man

J
Benjamin Clementine - Cornerstone
What Difference Does It Make?- The Smiths
François de Roubaix - Dernier Domicile Connu

Jazzman
The First Circle- Pat Methany Group
Pentatonix - Run to You
Danielle Bradbury - Human

Knailsic
Big Star - Holocaust
Mika - Love Today
Thieves Like Us- New Order

Mangum
King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man
Bon Iver- Minnesota, WI
Marvin Gaye - I Heard it Through The Grapevine (Acapella)

Pegasus
Del McCoury Band - Nashville Cats
Freelance Whales - Hannah
The Cure - The Love Cats

Rad
Dengue Fever - Tiger Phone Card
Edith Piaf- Non, je ne regrette rien
Television - Guiding Light

Suave
Animal Collective - Brother Sport
Legally Blonde - Omigod You Guys
Ben Folds Five - Boxing

Waffle
Anderson .Paak - Heart Don't Stand a Chance
Heathers The Musical - Dead Girl Walking
U2 - Zooropa

Yaya
Radiohead - How To Disappear Completely
Up - Michael Giacchino - Married Life
Army of Me- Bjork

Z-A
Natalie Imbruglia - Wishing I Was There
Audioslave - Be Yourself
Alanis Morissette - Perfect

[Spiderf 4]

RANKINGS!

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}1. Rad - David Byrne and St Vincent - "Who" 8 8 7 4 27
2. Jazzman - Clark Beckham, Rayvon Owen and Tyanna Jones - "Chandelier" 8 6 5 4 23
3. Waffel - The xx - "Crystalised" 7 5 4 4 20
4T. Richlen - Chaka Khan and Peter Cetera - "Feels Like Heaven" 6 6 5 1 18
4T. Pegasus - Shovels & Rope - "Boxcar" 8 5 3 2 18
6. Suave - Belle and Sebastian - "To Be Myself Completely" 7 3 3 2 15
7. ZA - John Travolta and Olivia Newton John - "You're The One That I Want" 7 2 2 1 12
8. Magnum - Billy Crystal and John Goodman - "If I Didn't Have You" 6 3 1 1 11

[Waffel113]

Quick clerical question: will the Sing-Off be between two contestants or three?

[Jeff Mangum PI]

Nov 16, 2016 12:13:47 GMT -5 Spiderf 4 said:

RANKINGS!

SPOILER: Click to show

1. Rad - David Byrne and St Vincent - "Who" 8 8 7 4 27
2. Jazzman - Clark Beckham, Rayvon Owen and Tyanna Jones - "Chandelier" 8 6 5 4 23
3. Waffel - The xx - "Crystalised" 7 5 4 4 20
4T. Richlen - Chaka Khan and Peter Cetera - "Feels Like Heaven" 6 6 5 1 18
4T. Pegasus - Shovels & Rope - "Boxcar" 8 5 3 2 18
6. Suave - Belle and Sebastian - "To Be Myself Completely" 7 3 3 2 15
7. ZA - John Travolta and Olivia Newton John - "You're The One That I Want" 7 2 2 1 12
8. Magnum - Billy Crystal and John Goodman - "If I Didn't Have You" 6 3 1 1 11

[Deleted]

Rankings

1. Shovels & Rope - "Boxcar"
2. David Byrne and St Vincent - "Who"
3. Clark Beckham, Rayvon Owen and Tyanna Jones - "Chandelier"
4. Chaka Khan and Peter Cetera - "Feels Like Heaven"
5. The xx - "Crystalised"
6. Billy Crystal and John Goodman - "If I Didn't Have You"
7. Belle and Sebastian - "To Be Myself Completely"
8. John Travolta and Olivia Newton John - "You're The One That I Want"

Another solid round and it shows me that the late game for this will be very competitive.

I felt Boxcar was the strongest song this round. It directly addressed the category, presented a duo I'm not familiar with, and had a sound that felt like a throwback to older folk music while still retaining its own feel. Their interaction added to the song and the female musician, in particular, was fantastic in her singing and guitar playing. The percussion added a ton to the song too. I think part of this round was what else accompanied the singing and the instrument playing accompanied it very well.

Who was wonderful and I debated making that my number one. Hearing David Byrne's music evolving without losing its signature sound was very exciting. The electronic and funk flourishes made the song less straightforward than it would otherwise have been. The female vocals doing the chorus was exquisite and there was a great variety of singing from Byrne.

Chandelier had an enormous amount of power and, much like the above songs, the use of the piano to accompany the singing added dimension to the performance. This was a powerhouse of a performance but, for me anyway, there was a bit too much going on with the three singers. There were times that I thought they were incredible together and there were times where I thought they clashed. Still, another winning performance.

Feels Like Heaven was a joy to see pop in this round. I think its a little too pop-y for my own personal tastes, with the saxophone sort of sealing it into a particular time frame. It's of its time and I think that limits a bit of it. Chaka Khan has so much charisma, though, and puts on a great vocal performance here. I don't know if the rest of the song lives up to her. Peter Cetera is great as well, but he doesn't quite live up to her performance, imo. I like seeing this song for this round because of how different it is, however.

I was more impressed by Crystalised's instrumentation than its singing. There was a sleepiness to the vocals which fit the song but I wouldn't necessarily think that they stood out. I enjoyed the female vocalist more here and, towards the end, the dissonance when they sing together didn't work for me. I think that they needed to achieve a change in tone, a build, but it never reached that point. There are elements of the song that I like very much and, initially, I felt like ranking it higher but it didn't add up in a way that some of the other songs did.

I appreciated the use of If I Didn't Have You because it would have been easier to have gone into a more romantic Disney direction. Being about friendship helps the song avoid being sappy. Here it's very playful instead. The song is charming but I think it hits the nail on the head, in terms of category, too much. Its a duet but it doesn't have other elements outside of a sort of standard Disney/Pixar sound. If you're going to go with actors here, you have two of the better musicians performing and its delightful, but rather slight compared to other songs this round.

To Be Myself Completely, imo, misses the duet aspect of the category. The song was accepted, so the Host felt that the category including two singers was fulfilled, but the second singer was doing back-up vocals. Compared to the interesting interplay with two or more vocalists in other songs, this felt like it avoided the category. Taking that out of the equation, I liked the song but I wasn't as impressed as I was with others. It felt like a more interesting song could have been chosen from the group.

You're the One I Want is fun but predictable. At this point, I want to see more musical risks being taken. If you choose a song from something this popular, it needs to be a command performance like If I was a Rich Man from the musical round. I would have appreciated a less high-lighted song from Grease or a Broadway performance of it or something else to add another layer of interest to it. The performance is good and has a ton of energy, but there's so much else that could've been used.

[Jazzman]

Keep pushing, keep striving. Measure by measure, brick by brick.

[Spiderf 4]

Nov 16, 2016 12:25:14 GMT -5 Waffel113 said:

Quick clerical question: will the Sing-Off be between two contestants or three?

Two.

...but if there's a tie in the scores, it might be 3.

[pegasuswarrior]

I love that XX song so much

[Z-A Sandbaggin' Son of a b!%@h]

I just wanna say I'm a little disappointed in a round called duets we had an entrant with 3 singers. Last I checked that wasn't a duet. I get that the description says what it says. And it's fine. But if you're gonna accept multiple singers maybe not call it duets.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

1. David Byrne and St Vincent - "Who"
2. John Travolta and Olivia Newton John - "You're The One That I Want"
3. Billy Crystal and John Goodman - "If I Didn't Have You"
4. Clark Beckham, Rayvon Owen and Tyanna Jones - "Chandelier"
5. The xx - "Crystalised"
6. Belle and Sebastian - "To Be Myself Completely"
7. Shovels & Rope - "Boxcar"
8. Chaka Khan and Peter Cetera - "Feels Like Heaven"



Belle and Sebastian - "To Be Myself Completely"

I heave said multiple times before that I like 60's music (and music inspire by it) but this really doesn't work for me. It's overly cheesy and not in an endearing way to me. It's harmless, sure, but it's really dull.


Billy Crystal and John Goodman - "If I Didn't Have You"

Disney is pretty much always a safe bet and this is no different as this is a fun song. That said, it's a bit TOO safe. It doesn't have the unique, memorable appeal of the best Disney songs.


Chaka Khan and Peter Cetera - "Feels Like Heaven"

I guess I can see the appeal of a song like that to some people but me, those really put me off. It really feels like generic, artificial fare designed specifically to win awards.


Clark Beckham, Rayvon Owen and Tyanna Jones - "Chandelier"

These three certainly seem to have passion but it feels to me like they're having more fun than the audience. It's okay. Really okay. Ta da da da.


David Byrne and St Vincent - "Who"

Very unique feel and I really like it. There is a mixture of styles that marge together very well and create something new and exciting.


John Travolta and Olivia Newton John - "You're The One That I Want"

Well, here's a classic I'm surprised hasn't shown up in a previous contest yet and it is a very good choice for this round. This is just as cheesy as "To Be Myself Completely" but this one is doing cheese right.


Shovels & Rope - "Boxcar"

It's one thing to go for a raw and minimalistic style, it's another to purposefully record your song in the worst conditions possible. Ass to this that the song itself really doesn't sound like it would be all that interesting to begin with and it's a big pile of "no" from me.


The xx - "Crystalised"

I really wanted to like this more as it started off really well but the droning, monotone way the singers performed the song brought it down a lot. This song really needed to have a couple more energetic moments because with the way they did it, I lost interest after a while.

[pegasuswarrior]

Nov 17, 2016 2:41:56 GMT -5 SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman said:

Disney is pretty much always a safe bet


Chaka Khan and Peter Cetera - "Feels Like Heaven"

It really feels like generic, artificial fare designed specifically to win awards.

[Waffel113]

Song coming in this afternoon. Apologies for taking a bit longer than usual.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Nov 17, 2016 7:58:12 GMT -5 pegasuswarrior said:

Nov 17, 2016 2:41:56 GMT -5 SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman said:

Disney is pretty much always a safe bet


Chaka Khan and Peter Cetera - "Feels Like Heaven"

It really feels like generic, artificial fare designed specifically to win awards.

Heh, at least Disney does it well.

[J]

Ok so I've lost this post twice maybe third times the charm. I even had a bunch of comments typed up and everything...oh well now for the shortened version.

1. David Byrne and St. Vincent

..."Who" ticks a lot of boxes, is right up my alley and "insert third clichéd saying here."

2. The xx
...hearing "Crystalised" made me question myself. I love this album why haven't I listened to it in forever?? That was rectified shortly after my rankings were completed.

3. Chaka Khan and Peter Cetera
...I mark for Chaka Khan for ever and always. I'm no Jimmy Pardo so that makes me indifferent to Peter Cetera. However there's no denying they sound great together.

4. Shovels & Rope
..."Boxcar" isn't normally the type of song I listen to. That said I really enjoyed it and this is a duo that I would love to hear more from.

5. Clark Beckham, Rayvon Owen and Tyanna Jones
...the vocal talent is there for sure. For me though there is just something lacking. Delivery? Not enough emotion? What do you want from me I'm not Tyger. That guy's even good at comments.

6. Belle and Sebastian
...I've even used Belle and Sebastian in a previous season. Unfortunately this one to me doesn't have enough to compete to with my higher ranked songs.

7. Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta
...to me Travolta just seems out of his depth vocally and Olivia Newton-John is doing all the heavy lifting.

8. Billy Crystal and John Goodman
...unfortunately this one just doesn't really do it for me.

[Spiderf 4]

Need just one more.

[Spiderf 4]

Here are the songs for Round 21 "Seasons":

Arcade Fire - "Month Of May"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC3fuuQJ72A

Gojira - "Born In Winter"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D0u7ZIFz-A

Jon Brion - "Norman's Walk" (from ParaNorman)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOHoxz8zFqc

Nana Grizol - "Cynicism"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dZHYex0Ix0

Rebecca Pan - "Lan Hua Nu"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRM6dgI_4ek

Sonny Vande Putte - "Seasons Of Love"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecZmVC7-cIY

Wyclef Jean - "Gone Till November"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI6MWZrl8v8

Youth Lagoon - "July"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4DiHVBNxKw

[J]

My rankings are in.

My top four were damn near impossible to rank. Any one of those songs could have been tops in another round, incredible stuff.

[Spiderf 4]

Nov 14, 2016 21:32:05 GMT -5 Spiderf 4 said:

3/4 judgings in.

[Waffel113]

Nov 19, 2016 13:07:17 GMT -5 Spiderf 4 said:

Nov 14, 2016 21:32:05 GMT -5 Spiderf 4 said:

3/4 judgings in.