Although I'm angry with what Josh had done to be kicked out of the show, I'm glad it was Carmelo that Mel chose to bring back.
PARTY WEEK!!!
Ok, so this week's theme was (to) PARTY! So with the balloons in the air and the music ready to blast, this week was nothing short of controversy and let's just say, misinterpretation of the theme. Have you ever gone to costume party with people who walk around and they clearly did not think about their costume? Well, that's how I felt like with some of the song choices for this week. Pre-warnign to anyone who's a Bella fan, I'm going to be really breaking down her performance this week, so skip it if you don't like hearing/reading anything negative.
Alright, first things first, I won't deny that she can sing and she has a great voice. But I just think this week's song choice did nothing for her. It's week two and I feel like she's done nothing to make me think, "Wow!" For many people, I think, Bella's just been singing the same types of songs and keeps getting away with it. I don't think she's growing at all. I say this because yesterday's rendition of What Makes You Beautiful was the most infuriating thing that I had seen the entire night. It wasn't that she slowed it down, because I've hear decent versions of WMYB that have been slow and acoustic, but it was more that it was a selfish rendition of the song.
On Nat's part as a mentor, she had the chance to choose a funky indie song that was upbeat enough to dance to that Bella could've really flourished in vocally. Nat's justification of "One Direction is 'party'" falls short when Ronan clearly reminded her that yes, "the original version" is 'party'. There was nothing party about Bella's performance besides the balloons.
Bella's justification of her arrangement being "prom-like" seems plausible, but only to the extent of the lighting. I found it odd that she had giant boxes on stage and a random guy playing an accordion - although, tops to that guy, he was the highlight of sitting through her performance. If you were going to set that kind of scene, then set it - have a typical cheesy high school band behind you, sing with a stand and have dancers slow dancing around you. What annoyed me even more was that this rendition even had the potential to have a climatic rise towards the mid-section, but it didn't. It was just so linear musically and vocally that at no point did you even want to sway or bring your lighters out.
I thought it was unfair for both Bella and the rest of the contestants. For Bella, I think she's stuck. I personally think that this just emphasises that she's one dimensional and that she's not willing to challenge herself. For the other contestants, I just feel like she got the easy way out with Nat's comment of "not wanting to produce manufactured artist" and that's offensive to not just the show, but also to the rest of the judges who stuck to the criteria. I just think that these themes help shape the individual sounds - it pushed them to the limits and sees where the barriers are and where the untapped potential of their voices lie. For Bella, it's like she's a fixed, one-dimentional singer that really doesn't have anywhere else to go. And I don't really think that's the case. BUT right now, we're just seeing repeats of her first audition, except it's like a re-run that looses the wow factor by the minute.
One group who seem to be getting stronger each week is The Collective. When I heard they were doing Footloose, I was like, "Ooooh..." but when they got onstage I was like, "Yes!" I love that Will and Trent are taking turns in leading the songs and Zack's doing all the trills and ad-libs, but I'm fearing that this format might bore us in the next few weeks. I'm beginning to worry about all the added rapping as well, I mean it's great, but I don't think it should be done each week. I want to be able to see all five boys have their turn in the lime light. I think potentially this is possible and it would really challenge the group as a vocal ensemble.
The Verdict
This week's bottom two were teen favourites, What About Tonight and wedding singer Nathaniel Willemse. I have never been more relieved when I heard What About Tonight's name called out as the group leaving the competition. I have nothing personal against these boys, but based on last night's performance, I have to say it wasn't a shock to see them in the bottom. I was shocked to see Nathaniel there, considering he worked really hard on his choreography and showed that he was willing to take up a challenge.
To justify my relief, What About Tonight have had no solid footing besides resonating with One Direction. I know the footage shows 1D saying that WAT "reminds them of them", but to be honest that's not at all true. I mean being young artists fine, granted they were of a similar age when they all auditioned separately, but just because 5 boys step onto the X Factor stage - that's important - and claim they want to be the next One Direction does not make them the answer to One Direction. Dressing like them and huddling around together after a song is also just mimicking them - sure, the "best form of appreciation and imitation" - but imitation is exactly that, a copy. Just because your main point of difference is that you're Australian isn't a strong enough basis to claim that you're the "answer to" 1D. What happened with WAT is people were just seeing what they wanted to see - our version of 1D.
That's why I was so against the idea of having a super group and the girl's group proved that at the home visits when they didn't get through. I was even a little shaky about having The Collective in the top 12 because their performance was not as succinct as could've been. When you're thinking of a group that can answer to One Direction you need to look at One Direction's journey. It's not just about moulding a band of individual singers with 'great' voices and a sense of camaraderie to hold it together, it's about about the inner workings of the vocal arrangement. I always revert to the Judges Houses of X Factor UK 2012 when 1D sang Torn as a comparison for any of these groups because that's where we see, not just the hard work that the boys put into their song choice, but also how they individually understood their own voices, each other's voices and how their individual voices worked together which formulated their vocal roles as One Direction. For WAT, I felt like the boys didn't even know their own sound before they had time to get to know each other's. Also, WAT's individual members all have common vocal ranges, so it's hard to really pick out a lead vocalist or someone to drive the song. This isn't usually a problem, but let's face it, every band needs to have a frontman. Not just that, but the dynamics of the song choices could end up becoming one dimensional (that's be a great name change - *kidding*).
Overall, I was really worried about the deadlock, but in the end I think Australia made the right decision, because frankly you can have only have one direction (and that's Jesus - ok sorry, that was inappropriate).
sL xxx
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