You can purchase by clicking the the banner here –>. You help support the site too if you click, so thanks in advance! My take on this week’s recordings:
1. David Cook — “Always Be My Baby”
2. David Archuleta — “When You Believe”
3. Jason Castro — “I Don’t Wanna Cry”
4. Brooke White — “Hero”
5. Carly Smithson — “Without You”
6. Kristy Lee Cook — “Forever”
7. Syesha Mercado — “Vanishing”
ETA: TPTB have take away the popularity bars for AI recordings, but the iMix thingy still works. You can check out the charts at Rickey’s . David Cook’s “Always Be My Baby” is #1 on the iTunes Top 100 right now… As of this morning:
- David Archuleta - “When You Believe” - I didn’t like this song live. The recorded version of the song is even duller. Please, no more puppies and rainbows. Save it for the coronation song, Mkay?
- Carly Smithson - “Without You” - I’m not loving the cabaret, Celine Dion version of this song. Not digging the background vocals, either. Carly would be right at home performing this in Vegas. Is this really Carly? Performing in Vegas? Just who is Carly Smithson? Will we ever find out?
- Syesha Mercado - “Vanishing” - I love the recorded version of this song. Once her vocals on the high end are tidied up, she sounds fabulous. So pretty. Syesha chose her song well this week.
- Brooke White - “Hero” - Eh. Not a great song to begin with. I hate the syrupy guitars and strings. I would have preferred the piano front and center. Brooke sounds fine, but the entire effect is rather dull.
- Kristy Lee Cook - “Forever” - Kristy Lee has a good recording voice. Fewer strings and more pedal steel would have been nice, but overall I like the arrangement. With a little tweaking, I can hear this song on country radio. I think this is Kristy’s best performance.
- David Cook - “Always Be My Baby” - The original version of this song does absolutely nothing for me, but I love love LOVE David’s arrangement of this song. Nothing can match the passion of his live performance, but this recorded version is very, very good.
- Jason Castro - “I Don’t Wanna Cry” - I’d prefer Jason recorded without strings and background vocals, but it’s OK. His quirky vocals and exquisite phrasing still manage to draw the listener in. Just lovely.
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Wow…David Cook is amazing.
His studio recording of “Always Be My Baby” = Love.
I like Jason’s recording a lot, too.
Once again, I will take your word on the rest.
I bought Carly’s Without You, and now I regret it. I mean, it’s just 99cents, so no big loss, but ugh. The last part is so bad, I cringed and a few seconds later had to turn it off. It is amazing to me that I can love her lower register so much, and hate her higher one. When she doesn’t belt the higher notes, it’s okay…but ugh. A waste of my 99cents.
Brooke–oh how I love the sound of her voice. There is just something about it, that I could listen to her all day. I don’t like Hero (the original) at all, but with Brooke singing it…oh. I cannot wait for her to have an album.
David C–I agree with you, MJ, that the live version was so much better. It’s interesting to me that last week the live version (Innocent) was not so great, but the studio recording was amazing. It’s been stuck in my head all week. This week, I prefer the live over the studio.
Jason–He gets better and better every week. (Ugh on the backup singers!) Wow, this is a beautiful recording.
I wonder if TPTB are kicking themselves for not having putting studio recordings on itunes in years past. They’ve got to be making a killing. I wish they’d put the group sings up for sale too.
Syesha’s ‘ Vanishing’ is 4:44 minutes of recorded bliss, even better that what she did on stage.
Once again the studio version is superlative.
The AI vocal coaches are to be commended for the work they’ve done with what was initially a raw talent.
And there’s no denying Syesha’s coachability and willingness to learn.
I just linked from you, mj, to buy Jason’s. It’s great. I probably will cave later to buy me some Cookie.
David Cook’s track = Love.
I agree that nothing can match the passion and intensity of the live performance, but that falsetto is just money. This song just melts me. I have officially crossed over to full blown fantard.
And I agree Jason’s is so pretty. I love his voice.
I agree with you mj, regarding the background vocals. They have ruined so many songs, both live, and on the studio recordings. I’ve especially noticed it with David Cook’s recordings. The song will be sounding great, and then all the sudden these female voice pop in, and it sounds totally out of place and bizarre. I don’t understand the need for them on some of these songs. Or if they think David needs them, I would much rather them let him perform his own backup. At least it wouldn’t stick out so much.
Anyway, enough of that rant, off to download David C. and maybe Jason. :)
David Cook’s “Always Be My Baby” suffers a little bit from cheesy instrumentation. I wish they had left in the violins, which added to the intensity of the live performance. He sings it beautifully and tenderly and I think would pay $9.99 for the falsetto at the end. I would pay $99,999 for TPTB to hire a freakin’ male background singer. Geez.
I need to go listen to Jason’s. I didn’t buy the rest because I really only liked the rearranged versions of these songs.
I liked David A so much more live. That is the first week I was totally disappointed in his studio version. I didn’t get Syesha’s yet, now I must. I think she’s a keeper. She is a recording artist, fo’ sho’.
Does Mariah get a cut of this. Not sure how much more I wanna line her coffers. Oh well, not like ALW or ND are gonna need the dough either.
I haven’t listened to David C. yet but I agree with many of you on Jason’s. I think this recorded vocal sounds more professional than his previous one’s. I definitely could do without the background vocals. And I’m not usually a big fan of falsetto, but I think it sounded great used sparingly as it was here. Off to download David C. next!
mj,
Thank you for the reviews.
I’m glad Jason’s is good. Except for Michelle - the drummer on which should be fired - I think his studio recordings have been awesome.
I LOVED Carly’s recorded version of Without You. I think they went with the Mariah version of this song for the studio recording which fit the theme of it and her voice sounded great. I also really liked Syesha’s and David Cooks studio recordings. I thought David Archuleta’s dragged on longer then anything in my life and Jason Castro’s was hard to get through due to my dislike of both the song and Jason.
Thanks MJ for reviewing the studio songs. Now that they killed the popularity meter, it’s tougher to tell which songs will be worth the investment.
Jason’s voice sounds fabulous on this, but I prefered the arrangement he did on the show. What’s up with the producers on some of these tracks?
Always Be My Baby, I Don’t Wanna Cry and Forever are my picks. They are all top 40 hits in Pop, Rock and Country.
Rickey.org still has rankings up, somehow. I think the “complete my album” trick might still work? David C. is in first by very wide margin, followed by David A & Jason.
I agree, pj. Although compared to what ended up on say, the Season 5 compilation album, the production is decent. I remember the music on those tracks sounding like a drum machine and a middle school jazz band.
I guess we have to cut the producers some slack since they literally have days to make these tracks. Not much time to really go beyond the tried and true.
Yeah, it does.
oh nice! is there a trick to hear a preview of the song?
HollandX, you can listen to all the studio versions of the Top 7 here -
http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DDCE66FF68E36491
Back from just purchasing my weekly tracks. I’m not liking DC on iTunes. Prefer his live performance from Tuesday evening. On the other hand, Jason sounds just amazing with I Don’t Wanna Cry in studio version. He just keeps getting better and better each week.
Wow, purplesmile, thanks for that.
Well, David A. is sort of bland, huh?
Brooke…I like her, I think she’s sweet, but that was sub-par even in the studio version.
Syesha is just alright.
I had much higher hopes for Carly at the beginning of the season. Somewhere in there she has a good voice? Not better than the original Eric Carmen, not as good as Mariah. For God’s sake, scream in someone else’s direction. My eardrums are bleeding.
ok i’ve listened to the studio recordings (all except david A’s cuz i would have to jam a pencil in my ear after listening to it )
favs by a long long long mile
David C and Jason C awesome awesome and freaking awesome :)
Thank you for the link! I already bought Jason’s and love it but hadn’t heard the rest. I couldn’t make it through the end of Carly’s, the shrieking was not pleasant.
Per Rickey, David C has the number one spot on iTunes, with a pretty comfortable lead on Madonna and Leona. David A. is #12, Jason is #16 with Over the Rainbow and #18 with I Don’t Wanna Cry. DC is #17 with Billie Jean
CC ftw!
Mariah’s Forever is at #10 on the R&B charts! Good job Kristy!
Ps, Did you know her boyfriend proposed to her last night on the show?
Idolbeat, Kristy’s boyfriend or Mariah’s?
idolbeat, Really? Aww! :]
And I love Jason’s studio version. Its so great, and he is getting better and better. I agree about the background vocals. lol. He doesn’t need them. :]
And DCook’s is also amazing!
Thanks, purplesmile on the link!!! I’m Scotish (translate frugal) so I like to hear what I’m getting before I plunk down my 99 pennies. I already bought everything Jason has recorded (my ‘pod is very happy) ‘ceptin’ “Michelle”. You couldn’t pay me to listen to that.
Kristy’s boyfriend! Haha! He actually proposed on March 15 in the sauna at the apartments where the contestants live. They had to go there for privacy! He did it right last night, I’m not sure if it was during a commericial or after the show? Congrats to Kristy!
LOL. I bought it, but it didn’t make it to the iPod with the other Jason songs. LOL.
So while I wasn’t lovin’ the performance originally, after a few times watching the video (okay, more than a few!), DC is as always great! Yes, I even liked Innocent.
The studio version is amazing.
Thanks for that link, Purplesmile. I liked DC’s studio version but probably won’t buy it. I don’t like Jason’s all that much. I think I have to see him to like him. I’m saving my dollars now that Michael’s gone.
DC at #1 again…love it. so how does the iMix trick work to see the popularity bars?
That’s great, idolbeat! I hadn’t heard that!
oh yeah…congrats to KLC!
idolbeat — Well, at least Kristy has him to lean on now that she’s gotten the boot. Never liked her much, but congrats to her anyway! :)
ITA. The instrumentation in the studio is a bit awkward like cheese was saying, plus nothing is going to top the raw emotion he put into the live (I can still picture his entire performance in my head every time I listen to the live, LOL). I’m going to get the studio recording like I always do, but I doubt that it’s ever going to get as many plays as my live track. Still a very, very good recording from him, though.
Loving Jason’s studio recording of IDWC. The band’s doing a little too much and I don’t like it when the background singers came in, but I love it anyway. I think this is the most powerful I’ve heard his voice to be, and I really like it. :)
Ok, all you MJ readers, I have an iTunes question that I hope someone here can help me with. Is there a way to convert iTunes files so that they will play in Windows Media Player? iTunes won’t recognize my mp3 player (it is a SanDisk), so the only way I can get the idol tunes to my player is to burn them from iTunes, rip them to Media Player, then convert them to my mp3 player. This takes too long and wastes CD’s! Help!
Someone, anyone??? Help!! See above^^^
Listening to Carly’s studio version of Without You reaffirms my thoughts that Randy was crazy last night concerning it. The first part of the song, she is brilliant. And really, everything before the extended belting at the very end is quite good. Where she tries to go higher at the very end it falls apart a bit though and I wish she would have kept it more restrained there, since sadly that is the last impression you get of the song.
Steph, for audio files if you have a CD drive in your computer that will burn CDs then you can have itunes burn the tracks to a CD. Then you can rip the CD that you made using windows media player to an mp3 format that you should be able to use on your mp3 player.
Thanks, Allen. I was hoping that there was some easier alternative to the burning/ripping, but I guess not. Thanks for the help!