it burned like fire, this burning desire…

Well, that sure was one anticlimactic finale to this season’s American Idol.

I really hate how the Big 3 shamelessly pimped Archuleta to the unwashed masses as Your Next. American. Idol!

Now, I’m not a fan obviously, but I will admit that the kid can sing. Unfortunately, the kid is severely lacking in the personality department. He can sing the hell out of sappy ballads, yes, but he can’t sing any other genre of music (as demonstrated by his mangling of last week’s With You). And I can only take two or three sappy ballads at most, what more a whole albumful of Archuleta ballads?

I didn’t mind him much in the beginning. He was pretty solid early on. But as the weeks passed, he brought nothing new to the table. He was still pretty solid, but he became predictable. Boring even.

And now, I can hardly stand him at all. Something about him just rubs me the wrong way. He feels fake and plastic-y. Especially his “I’m about to cry, thank you for being so nice to me” look while the judges praise his performances to high heavens. He’s done that week after week after week after week and, thankfully, he’s done it for the last time tonight. That being said, Archuleta did well tonight. I still liked his version of Imagine, but well, I’ve heard it before, and I wasn’t really clamoring to hear it again. I would’ve appreciated something new, especially that Archuleta’s been tagged as boring by many.

Cook didn’t do anything in the neighborhood of his Hello and Always Be My Baby performances. I did enjoy his version of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For however. But then again, I am a big U2 fan, so no surprise there. So, pretty much middle of the road for Cook tonight, which is still pretty damn good.

So who should win this season? Simply really. For me, it all boils down to this: if I were to listen to an albumful of songs by either finalist, who would I rather listen to? And as I said, I could only take two or three of sappy ballads at a time… therefore I’d choose Cook’s album over Archuleta’s, especially if he takes on non-rock songs and gives them a rock makeover.

Thankfully DialIdol.com has Cook leading over Archuleta by 12 points right now. The pimping of Archuleta has thankfully backfired and my faith in the unwashed masses has been restored.

~ by dare on May 21, 2008.