Steve said:
RE: Adam. The boy has the most natural talent of the bunch, IMO. That said, I'm not sure how much of a living you can make simply singing interesting arrangements of other people's songs to start a career. That may be why we hadn't heard of him up to now, in spite of the professional exposure he's already had.
Well, it worked pretty well for the Rolling Stones, but that is going back a ways (and besides their arrangements weren't particularly that interesting.)
To step off the Allison bandwagon I've managed to associate myself with, I both agree and disagree with your comments about Adam. To me, Adam has been by far the best "contestant" this year. He has hit it out of the ballpark numerous times and when he fails at least he fails interestingly. The arrangements of other people's songs argument I consider somewhat bogus. As much as the judges claim they want originality, what gets audience votes (and judges adoration) is doing a decent job performing very well known songs. Aside from right issues, that's why you get so many of the same songs performed year to year.
My basic problem with Adam is I don't see a unifying musical theme to his performances. My favorite performances by him have been
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction and
Black or White, though his vocals may have been better on other songs, especially compared to the former, he managed to connect them both to the trashy glam rock of the 1970s and come closer to what I consider real rock n' roll to be than all the Daughtrys in the world. I think this is especially true with
Black and White, a somewhat generic pop song that rather safely promoted racial equality in love that through the sheer force of his personality Adam managed to subtextually turn into a gay protest/love rock song.
The problem is that his covers of songs like "Born to Wild" and "Play that Funky Music" are almost too on the nose and karaoke-ish. Adam doesn't need a "funk" song to be funky. And when he goes for the high notes, he can come across as a bit too Axl Rose-ish for my taste. (Though others might rightfully compare it to Queen.)
I also don't see how the ballads fit into his over all "style." He certainly sells them better by miles than anyone else on the show. But I don't see how they mesh with his better rock performances. Though I do think he arguably gave the only really good performance this week, I agree his "emotions" came across as pure acting. At the same time, when you see a professional performer in the midst of a world wide tour, how often do you think their emotions during their songs are truly genuine?
Of course, all this is just me randomly hypothesizing. Anyone should feel free to disagree with me as I'm fully comfortable with the idea that I have no idea what I'm talking about.