None of us are doing a good job of keeping tabs on American Idol, but Stereogum’s usually up on its Lionel Richie. We have history together. Where else will you get frame-by-frame analysis of the Prof. Richie-stalking-his-blind-student video, or find out about the “Hello” Project wherein sculptors were blindfolded and made to reconstruct the jeri-curled cranium of our man, or learn that Scott named his cat Lionel Richie? Hence J‘s email this morning (Subject: Slackers):
I totally expected to see David Cook’s rocking version of “Hello” on Stereogum by 10:02pm last night.
Fair point, J. Our Lionel Richie TiVO alert didn’t catch that. But Cook’s judge-beloved grungy take (or in the words of the Dawg, “slightly emo version out of an extremely pop Lionel Richie song”) easily qualifies it for most Daughtryesque cover of Lionel Richie we’ve ever heard. So watch it and get used to his name for when he tops SoundScan next year.
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Is it just me or does this guy look like he’s a couple chromosomes away from Down Syndrome? He’s not a bad looking guy but there’s something about his face that just screams mongoloid.
PS – I don’t know his name but I can’t wait to see the fag who sang the Wham song last night to get sent packing.
Um, I think most people are not even a couple chromosomes away from Down syndrome.
I wonder how much Air Canada paid for that product placement on his guitar there.
Anyone surprised he plays left-handed?
To me it sounded less emo or grunge, and more like a hacky Lionel Richey song, alternately mumbled and whined by a bad singer while playing beginner’s guitar.
If it’s emo, though, it would explain one thing — why I hate emo.
Re: left-handed playing
No surprise there, all left handed people are inherently evil. Everybody knows that.
-G.
I guess it sounded emo, in that he sounded like a bitch. How does this rock the slightest bit? The guy sounds like Michael Bolton with a cold and Michael Bolton definitely rocked harder, way harder. “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” would rock this guy into a coma.
“Emo” is civilian speak for anything that features a dude with a girl haircut.
Wow – a lot of negativity in the comment section folks.
Loved the version of “Hello”. Great job!!!!!!!!
ac stands for animal collective, obviously
That sucked as hard as all of his other performances.
When did they start playing instruments on AI?
Is this new this year?
I think it’s so cool that they have a differently abled person on American Idol. David Cook is an inspiration to all people with Down Syndrome.