Everyone hates
\nAmerican Idol<\/i> and so do I.<\/p>\n
I won’t go into the homophobia, racism and sheer mediocrity that
\nsurrounds it; that’s another whole editorial. Simply put, the
\nboring show doesn’t quite do what it’s supposed to do; that is,
\nshow how real life can be more thrilling than fiction.<\/p>\n
There is one exception. Nobody would suspend disbelief if Clay
\nAiken’s story was a movie. A former teacher to autistic children,
\nthe nerdy, nobody-ish Aiken visibly shocked the judges in auditions
\nwith his voice, became a finalist, was voted off, was brought back
\non as the wild card, went to the finals and lost to some forgotten
\nguy who Aiken creamed on the Billboard charts. This is what reality
\nTV was supposed to be and was, for a single glorious season on a
\nsingle show.<\/p>\n
The almost-as-dramatic
\nMeasure Of A Man<\/i> tackles familiar themes in pop music, which
\nmay not be as familiar as you think… when was the last time you
\nheard a power ballad that worked? By a man, no less. “I Will Carry
\nYou” and “Run to Me” are cinematically evocative, and illuminating
\nto compare with the failed “This is the Night” or “Invisible,”
\nwhich are themselves decent songs that either sound better live or
\nneed snazzier production. Aiken’s success goes to show that singers
\nwho can pull off the drama without making millions of listeners
\ncringe are actually pretty rare despite the many that try (again,
\nwitness
\nAmerican Idol<\/i>, which is essentially an audition for power
\nballadeers, no matter what they claim to be).<\/p>\n
The album is seriously marred by its demo-quality instrumental
\narrangements (PEOPLE…. STOP USING DRUM MACHINES IF YOU WORK IN
\nR&B!) and some of the songs don’t work: “Shine” and “Touch” are
\nunnecessary attempts to update the sound of the album by throwing
\nin some white rock chords, “No More Sad Songs” isn’t nearly as
\nconvincing as “I Survived You” (which is even more convincing than
\nKelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone”). And I would’ve appreciated
\nmore songs like “The Way” that shows he’s not just a belter; this
\nis a voice that can tell stories and it’s frustrating not to hear
\nit used to that potential (apparently he’s on some kind of cover
\nsongs tour… yikes!). But these are inevitable clunkers and
\ncriticisms in a debut album that contains twelve songs. If the more
\nthan fairly consistent Aiken was stock, I’d still invest, a
\nlittle.<\/p>\n
\nMeasure Of A Man<\/i> sounds like a rushed album, but it’s still
\na solid, understated showcase for a promising singer. It’s just so
\nmuch better than the other
\nIdol<\/i> crud they’ve saddled poor consumer
\nexploitation-ignorant young listeners with.
\nIdol<\/i>, a show successful only in ratings, will have to do
\nbetter than one good singer to get any kind of immortal validation
\nit aspires to through its title.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7201],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38516","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-clay-aiken","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38516"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}