They just couldn’t grasp the Bee Gees rhythm or spirit
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The Times’ pop music critic’s take on “American Idol”:
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THE real loser on Tuesday’s show? Barry Gibb. Even though the Final Four contestants got two songs apiece during the series’ quarterfinal round, none of them did much justice to songs they chose by guest vocal coach Gibb, although Jordin Sparks’ old-school R&B; treatment of “To Love Somebody” fared best.
One big problem, exacerbated by the house band’s cement-overshoes-in-mud rhythms, was the singers’ curious penchant for heavy, labored musical pulses. Bee Gees songs should crackle, but even the rare up-tempo selections -- LaKisha Jones’ “Stayin’ Alive” and Blake Lewis’ “You Should Be Dancing” -- sagged under these weight-of-the-world-on-their-shoulders arrangements.
More troubling, all these young performers seem to have ditched music school on the day the importance of sonic and rhythmic space was taught. Chinese philosopher Lao Tse wrote in the “Tao Te Ching” that “profit comes from what exists; usefulness from what does not.”
Were he an “Idol” judge, he might sagely advise: “A good singer knows when to sing; the great singer, when not to.”
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