2K15 Live Show 1

[aradia22]

Sorry! Sorry! I completely forgot. Post your thoughts here.

 

You have got to be kidding me. Not available in the US!?!

Edited November 1, 2015 by aradia22

[yamashinaryu]

Seann

Louis

Che

4th Impact

Monica

in that order.

[aradia22]

Lauren Murray: Love the makeover. It could have been more impressive. It wasn't bad but don't step to Whitney if you can't bring it. Whitney in her prime was clean and flawless. That's what so many people forget when they shriek her songs. It was also odd to put her in black with that set. It made her seem like an Over who had come from a funeral had crashed a Katy Perry concert.

Max Stone: On the one hand, when the song started I thought, yup, that's exactly the kind of bland awful spin I would assume Max would put on a good song which is why I would never listen to his music. On the other hand, it wasn't the worst. Just like a scratchier Jack Johnson/lamest version of Jason Mraz rip off. Woo!

Alien Uncovered: Good song choice for them. Kind of gross. Not heavy on the vocals. Starting with Britney Barbie was a terrible idea. Her squeaky voice has no edge or gravitas. It's not intimidating. Her stomps could have been those of a 5-year-old. Aside from that it was decent. They don't need that many dancers though. It makes them seem more faceless. Does Minnie Mouse ears have to rap every week though? And was that supposed to be twerking. No, girl. No.

Kiera Weathers: Terrible outfit. Why didn't they turn up her mic? It wasn't horrible but it seemed to get the best of her a little. Good but meh.

Anton Stephans: A little creepy but he managed to keep that annoying sound at bay for the most part. Yay!

Che Chesterman: Enjoyed it. Still prefer Amy, obviously, but unlike Kiera and Lauren he had stage presence and made it different enough for it to work. Not pushing too hard to show off but good vocals.

Mason Noise: Vocals not bad but not impressive. Lacking in charm... Not slick and not genuine.

Reggie N Bollie: Not the best vocal but I really enjoyed it. Not the most family friend/party song though.

Louisa Johnson: So lovely. If she could only stop trying to pretend to be a black woman, otherwise known as Iggy Azalea syndrome, it would have been perfect.

Bupsi Brown: Had a nice smoky, rough Tina Turner vibe. Lacking a little strength. She didn't look/sound completely comfortable.

4th Impact: Could immediately hear the sloppiness when her voice cracked. I happen to really like Ariana (I know not everyone does) and her singing is super smooth and clean. 4th Impact's is not. I need more than people shrieking at me. And DON'T trick me X Factor. Some of those harmonies clearly came from backup singers off stage. They're good at being fake so they nailed the Iggy Azalea part... which is embarrassing for Alien Uncovered.

Monica Michael: Ah, so they snuck her in anyway. Fine. A little boring. Good for Monica though. And I've always said she knows how to perform which is going to make a big difference now.

Sean Miley Moore: Didn't nail non-theatrical. This is totally cabaret. Didn't love the song choice (very dated) but he did well.

 

My rankings

1. Louisa Johnson 2. Che 3. Sean Miley Moore 4. Reggie N Bollie 5. Anton 6. 4th Impact 7. Monica Michael 8. Bupsi Brown 9. Lauren 10. Kiera 11. Alien Uncovered

12. Mason 13. Max

[aradia22]

Guardian Liveblog Highlights

 

Max Stone

 

HOWEVER, he’s singing a REGGAE version of Someone Like You, which improves it by about a thousand percent. A sandblasted mannequin doing a lacklustre Adele cover in a weird patois that I think might actually be quite offensive. This is brilliant. Is Max Stone Joss Stone’s brother? Have we checked this out? If he isn’t, the pair of them need to get married. Their babies would be AWFUL.

Alien Uncovered

 

This is a little bit what Do It Like a Dude would sound like if it was being performed by five people who didn’t know how Do It Like a Dude went, but in dramatically different ways from each other.

 

Simon Cowell’s thing this year seems to be ‘unbridled enthusiasm’. It’s weird. I’m not sure it suits him. You know what suited him? That beard. You know what else suited him? Sighing for a living, which was basically his career between 2001-2011.

Anton Stephans

 

Oh, he’s THIS contestant. The older one who really needs this, but doesn’t quite get there and ends up doing West End musicals two years from now. I get it now.

Mason Noise

 

Mason’s singing Sorry by Justin Bieber. I suppose both of them are currently most well-known for being unapologetic bellends, so at least the theme fits.

 

Bupsi’s singing a Marvin Gaye song. I mean, she sounds like she’s singing it through a pillow, but that still counts. And, you know, this must be what it’s like to watch someone else’s kid perform at a school talent show, because I don’t care about a single second of it. But it still counts.

Seann Miley Moore

 

This is... I’m not sure I could watch very much of it, but I think I’d take it over about 90% of this year’s contestants. It’s properly barmy. It’s like the musical interludes in American Horror Story. More of that please.

[Kaoteek]

Lauren Murray, Max Stone, Alien Uncovered, Kiera Weathers : Boring, boring, boring, boring, whether due to the song choice, the orchestration or the performers.

Anton Stephans : Liked it. I like the guy, I like his voice, he probably won't win, but at least he wasn't boring.

Che : Nice one. The style suited him, and he felt effortless.

Mason Noise : So he must have slept with one of the judges, and got a few compromising pictures out of it, cos otherwise I can't explain why he's here with that degree of blandness & attitude.

Reggie & Bollie : One of them barely sings at all, and it wasn't particularly memorable, but at least it was somewhat fun.

Louisa Johnson : I like her very much, she's got a great voice... but that song choice wasn't the greatest, imo.

Bupsi : She's just there to get eliminated, really. Twas okay, but nothing outstanding.

4th Impact : The overproducing, oversinging & overrehearsing is starting to grate. We get it, they're quasi-pros, but that doesn't mean that repetitive performances week in and week out are the way to go.

Monica Michael : for once, I really liked her performance. The song suited her.

Sean Miley Moore : I really like Sean, but he must be careful not to veer into way too camp/drag club karaoke territory. This one was right on the edge, with slightly too much theatricality for me. Still a cut above half the contestants, though.

[aradia22]

 

Oh christ, why won’t X Factor kill the group song? Here it is. They’re all apparently singing a song called Perfect, which is clearly an act of cruel irony on the part of an X Factor producer. Because here is a song being performed by about 25 people, in about 25 different ways. It’s like that BBC Perfect Day advert with Tom Jones and Gabrielle from the 1990s, except this time it sounds like it’s being performed by an all-star line-up of injured cats in binbags being pelted with shards of broken crockery by a gang of malicious street urchins.

 

In summary, in the cold light of day, everyone was slightly worse than you remember, but the judges are compensating by pretending that they were much better than they ever were. Same as it ever was.

[aradia22]

RESULTS: Please put them in spoilers so I don't have to start a new thread.

 

I can't believe 

Max Stone

is through. I didn't think

she

did that badly last night but I'm not broken up about

Bupsi

being eliminated. I did not expect we'd have a

Kiera/Alien Uncovered

sing off for the first live show especially with

her being a bookie favorite

not too long ago. Are we looking at redemption arc storyline or did they just decide they didn't like

her

for some reason? Well, goodbye,

Alien Uncovered

.

[Kaoteek]

Yeah, can't say I'm heartbroken about the bottom three, to be honest. Still not sure how

Max & Mason

are still in, but unless they suddenly get the perfect song choice next week, they won't stay long in the competition. Same goes for

Kiera

.

[Rockwello]

I'm sorry, Che I don't get

[AussieBabe]

Monica just isn't likeable to me, so I still wish the wildcard had been Jennifer. Maybe Simon should've went with talent over gimmicks with Bupsi, and he might not be down a contestant this week.

Max is just boring. I literally walked out of the room and went to get some ice cream.

Alien Uncovered just doesn't do it for me. It's like they're trying too hard to be individual and stand out. Basically overcompensating for the lack of talent.

4th whatever. Way too karaoke/cruise ship liner. Just because you're professional telly competitors doesn't mean you're any good. There's a reason why they haven't won. I'm bored of them.

Lauren. I wish she hadn't been dressed in black. I've never seen her in bright colours, but with bumble gum pink and bright coloured set, the black was too severe.

[CloudySky]

I kinda expected this bottom 3 because

Bupsi is a joke, Keira didn't have a good night and with 2 girl groups one was bound to be in the bottom. Color me shocked though that Keira was saved. Alien was horribly pitchy, more so than usual, and Keira was at her best but that's never stopped the judges from sending the wrong person home before. Guess they're putting their girl group eggs in 4th impact's basket.

 

I really like Keira and am rooting for her so I hope she gets it together and grows in the competition. Still hate Lauren but predict she and Max will be those two annoying contestants that get raving reviews and stay in despite being completely generic.

 

Anton is too awkward and over-the-top for me to be able to enjoy. Che has an amazing voice and range too, but utilizes it better and in a more audience-friendly way.

 

That was Sean trying not to be cabaret...? Then what is Sean in full on cabaret mode like?? He kinda reminds me of Adam Lambert. He should pull back on the theatrics, but still one of the best of the night. He looks weird without the cap though!

 

Mason was pretty lackluster. I only ever really liked him with that vocal at judges houses and thought he was overrated before that.

 

Reggie 'n Bollie are fun but there are the competition this year is too stiff for them to be able to last long. It will depend on song choice how long they stay in...

 

4th impact was not as good as usual. The cracks are starting to show.

 

Alien was okay.

 

Simon's Overs are all losers. Sam has a nice voice, but is boring and I'm with Cheryl on not digging the reggae Adele. Bupsi has a weak vocal and is dated/wedding singer. Anton is awkward to watch and that same vocal gets boring after a few weeks. Simon made the wrong choices. He should have brought Jennifer, that teacher Carrie-Ann or something and that other black woman from six chair with the curls...don't remember her name, but remember her performances.

 

I liked Monica's song, but not a fan of the hair! Makes her look too severe/bitchy. I prefer the curls. Louisa is the clear winner of the night for me, with Che as a close second. Keira had a bad song and Lauren was overrated as usual.

 

 

[Rockwello]

I won't see part two till Monday night but Nick could have picked better guys

[aradia22]

 

That was Sean trying not to be cabaret...? Then what is Sean in full on cabaret mode like?? He kinda reminds me of Adam Lambert.

Is it bad that I want to see Sean go full cabaret eventually? Now that you mention the Adam Lambert thing I see it. I don't remember them talking about "theatre" this much before this episode... but I also haven't watched much aside from the performances before now. If I remember right, they also sold Lambert as a "rocker" and most of the musical theatre stuff didn't come out until later.

[Kromm]

I'm almost a week behind in seeing this. Oh well.

 

Lauren "Orange You Glad" Murray: Overhyped. It wasn't bad.  It also wasn't really good either (despite the narrative of the show).

Max "Boring As A" Stone:  Yawn.  What a snooze.

Alien Uncovered aka "Winner of the Most Marketable Award": Their lead(s) still can't sing. But as I noticed last show, they make up for that a lot with actual decent harmonies.
Kiera "Who Is She Again?" Weathers:  Ordinary. 
Anton "Faces" Stephans:  Ugh. This is the version who DOESN'T pull faces?  Riiiiiiiight. 
Che "Oversing" Chesterman: Surprisingly good for most of it. And to give Nick credit (who thought he'd deserve it?) that mashup of those specific was a good idea. But it went to shit and got oversung (as he's done before) later in the song.
Mason "Fake Humble" Noise: Saying he sang than song better than Bieber is not a huge prop. 
Reggie N Bollie aka "The Nigerian Party Machine":  They're really not very good in any technical sense (the rapper is way better than the singer, who's always off-key). That said, they DO legitimately get crowds behind them.  They're a party machine.
Louisa "Disney Princess" Johnson:  Horrible song choice from the producers. That said she had the talent to almost pull it off. Which speaks well of her and badly of the producers.
Bupsi "Nasty In A Bad Way" Brown:  Go away, Bupsi. That sucked. Whoopsie!
4th Impact aka "Mouthing It": I keep saying it. For pity's sake, the two who sing English in stilted way need to make way in the leads for the two who don't. The one who rapped is the best of the bunch, actually.  One of the others is okay. The two who can't sing in English?  Ruin every song. (I'm sure they're great singing in Malay).
Monica "Utterly Disposable" Michael:  Right. The camera just HAPPENED to be there when Rita called?  Is the show even TRYING to seem real?  I actually liked her performance. But something indefinable here makes her seem like she's not here for the long haul.
Sean Miley "Cyrus" Moore: Yes it was still a showtune.  Sorry Miley.  Gotta truth tell here.