Let’s do an exercise, shall we?

As we embark on a new chapter (or, rather, volume) of David’s journey, how about we look at David’s first and last performances of Imagine on American Idol, including his 2 conversations with Ryan Seacrest afterwards, and share our impressions?

The point of this exercise is not to say which performance is better (which is pretty pointless – they are the same person for Archusakes!), but to reflect upon how David has changed (or stayed the same) over these 2 years, personally and musically… and to reflect upon our own parallel journeys as fans.

I have some thoughts of my own of course, but I’ll save them for later. See you on the other side…

February 2008:

April 2010:

[audio:http://www.thedavidchronicles.com/audio/Think_of_Me.mp3]

I haven’t written much about the studio recordings because for the most part I don’t really like them. They rotate the kids through the studio as quickly as they can and it always sounds it. The cuts from a technical standpoint are generally professional (although some of my audio engineering colleagues have even questioned that aspect), but they invariably feel rushed and incomplete from an artistic standpoint. You can’t really win with this Idol set up: The live performances are better but too brief, while the studio performances are longer but fall far short of their potential.

In David’s case, my feeling has always been that he just hasn’t had the benefit of the right studio producer, one who knows what he’s capable of and how to get it. The energy of a live audience is enough to drive the dynamics of his performance into a realm of intensity that he has yet to achieve in the studio. David’s current tendency seems to be to “lay back into the lovely,” with his instrument, and although possibly a wise tactic in the midst of a long competition where vocal stress is a constant risk, it nevertheless compromises his power in the studio; on the bigger songs especially.

What we hadn’t really had until Think if Me was a song of such intimacy that David’s current studio tendencies really pay off. It was difficult at first to get past the insanely sentimental arrangement–complete with overdone glissandos, sappy violins, and a freakin’ harp for God’s sakes (I think a hiring criterion for American Idol arrangers must be a predilection for extra cheese)–but gradually I was able to appreciate what David himself had accomplished with this one, and it is quite remarkable.

His voice has never sounded better. Clear, rich, resonant, and in a strange way both round and sharp. There isn’t a hint of labor in this performance. Like Fred Astaire, whose legendary commitment to practice and craft made his flawless performances seem so utterly effortless, David sings as though a pure conduit for the plaintive heart of the song. He channels the music more than he performs it.

Ironically, though perhaps not surprisingly, David’s musical crafting is much smarter than the arrangement. The sophistication of his musical intelligence might be most evident in the melodic variations from “imagine me, trying too hard…” (at 1:43) through to “…think of those things we’ll never do…” (2:01). With all the riffing and melisma going on in popular music today, it is extremely challenging to come up with unexpected choices, but David does it with an unerring ear for restraint.

I was gratified to learn in a recent interview with Dean Kaelin, David’s voice coach, that David and his team were not terribly thrilled with the arrangement, either. They had apparently been lobbying for a jazzier, more contemporary treatment. Doesn’t surprise me in the least, and gives me hope that when the industry gets a hold of him, that he won’t capitulate his instincts to their greed. David must have had at least some impact on the ultimate approach used for the live performance (which comes after the studio recording in the weekly production sequence), because Tuesday night’s arrangement was perceptibly less saccharine than the studio version (note the dissonance added to the guitar intro for starters).

It’s incredibly easy to go overboard with R&B-rooted genre stylings but David never does (even despite encouragements in that direction from notable producers like Randy Jackson). David has what so many gifted entertainers often lack: taste. I’m convinced this is the reason that his detractors find him “boring.” These are the same people who find boring the sumptuously subtle in any artistic form. These are the people, God bless them, who don’t even notice something unless it’s completely over-the-top. There is plenty of bombast in American popular entertainment today. I’ll take my David Archuleta without all the extras, thanks.

Rascal

Okay, tonight was a better night for some of these contestants. Michael  connected with the audience, Crystal sang well in her stiletto heels, Andrew made a bit of a comeback, and Lee came out of his shell to show off his fine chops.

But oh, the rest of the crew was insanely boring, pitchy, bland and robotic.

There will never be another Season 7 for us – we know that. But at least we should be able to get a little bit excited about someone on this show. There isn’t even any real controversy to mask the lack of talent and personality on the show this year.

Is it me, or is this the worst AI ever?  Am I being harsh, or are my expectations too high after Season 7?

DTE Energy Music Theater

CONCERT & VIP REVIEW:Grand Rapids & Clarkston: A Newbie No More! by Betsy

SET LIST:
01. Touch My Hand
02. Waiting For Yesterday
03. My Hands
04. Somebody Out There
05. Works For Me!
06. A Little Too Not Over You
07. Don’t Let Go
08. Barriers
09. Apologize
10. Zero Gravity
11. Crush

01 TMH HQ thanks to kristynlovesarchie

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VG_K1SDiZ4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpMfBaej_VY

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jn517cFkjM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDWy8ekHJoQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIpOmjbKYB4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8anTnTo14w

02 WFY thanks to lovexandxpeace

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8jBYJGiTpQ

02 WFY HQ & 03 MY HANDS p1 thanks to kristynlovesarchie

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmBmQVYe0CE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ihUzAOq97o

03 MY HANDS HQ thanks to mirmandbay17

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1TwJXyZu7o

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH61cSJ6UBI

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmwX9_SaJCE

04 SOT HQ thanks to lovexandxpeace

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv9ehRasQUc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHknC4Bq26Q

05 INTRO/BANTER OF WFM! HQ thanks to TheBlankPage22

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2UJDcRJLyQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5lumXQ6eVs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGKzH_B2JPQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7sXZaMKljI

www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2HAAghoQzc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_GzD3mAuxE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXvV7Q-HJ94

06 ALTNOY HQ thanks kristynlovesarchie

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGKzH_B2JPQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aIHe42GiUk

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULSQV0vtcms

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooar59GspiM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLlZCVfDva8

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GrFRH5pVh8

07 DLG HQ thanks to emilysnowflake

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKzii6tnHdE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTvW1lEwMkY

08 BARRIERS HQ thanks TheBlankPage22

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukjkoC2waVM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIO9kK1VYU8

09 APOLOGIZE UPCLOSE HQ thanks to swimlena

www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3eXKbJMpt4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP_EzwjPY5U

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-arOZVmEzQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=In9JtU0rbcw

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPGjhGUU_LE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-LH1YHVBIU

10 ZERO GRAVITY thanks to emilyosmet55

www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-RfhMDlHOk

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcsRcXF26eo

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUMomwQHEVk

11 CRUSH UPCLOSE HQ thanks to swimlena

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHy4Z8FrZEI

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOJgw3YnTv0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXb3xAhW_Vc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltjjK_ClMP4

It’s hard not to feel protective or defensive of an artist about whom you feel so passionate. It’s also hard not to make comparisons, almost always a misguided proposition. That’s why when Adam Lambert appeared on the cover of Entertainment Weekly toward the end of the season eight American Idol competition as the crown certain, I couldn’t help but feel a little tweaked that David hadn’t gotten similar press love when he was in precisely the same position. But then again, I quickly told myself, EW never liked David. Or, more accurately, never got David.

Neither do I put much credence in the opinions of that publication anyway; the editorial staff reminds me of a gaggle of bitter queens and their fag hags, the kids from high school who got chorus parts in the school musicals and then proceeded to snark and snipe from the wings about those with real talent and a passion for hard work. David was never marginal enough for these wannabes. He was too clean, too mainstream, too morally grounded, too freaking nice. EW proclaimed Adam to be a “true original — and just what the show needed.” What a bunch of malarkey. Where I come from, Adam is about as original as every third twentysomething walking down the streets of the East Village or Williamsburg. Since when does guyliner make you original? No, Adam got EW love because he was way more their type: flamboyant, iconoclastic, insecure, and over-the-top.

But then came the Rolling Stone cover, at a point when Adam was officially #2 — the same role, again, that David was in a year ago. Why the press love for Adam? Or, more to the point, why the absence of same for David? I think tagging Adam’s not-so revelatory acknowledgment of his sexuality as the basis for the attention is a little too facile. It is a story (I guess), an easy one anyway, one that still — for perhaps just a few more cultural minutes, at any rate — retains the faintest wisp of something scandalous or at least unconventional, but it does not on its own account for the high profiling.

No, I put it down to identity entertainment. Just as all the debates over identity politics during the long presidential election gave us insight into the difference between using personal attributes (race, religion, history) as a primary measure for competence rather than performance and policy, so too it is easier, for both press and public alike, to assess and embrace an entertainer based on similarly dubious measures. Familiar models outpace true originals in almost every case. Far from being original, Lambert’s glam-rock goth boy persona trods a well-worn path, blazed decades ago by the likes of David Bowie, Ozzy Osborne, Pete Burns and Boy George, among others.

The David Archuleta persona does not fit into any neat, familiar models. There are highly original, even revolutionary aspects to his persona, but they are deep rather than broad. Indeed they are unspectacular, even as they are rare and even transcendent. David’s generosity of spirit, his remarkable compassion, his gentle nature staked with a steel spine — these unusual qualities don’t lend themselves to shortcut symbols or iconic illustration. David, to put it simply, is not a type.

But neither, I would argue, has David given the press or the public sufficient reason, so far, to connect him with any of the more performance-related attributes on which he should be building his renown. As he undertakes writing and reconnaissance for his new album, I pray that David has the wisdom to make something of a return to his roots, and offer up at a least a few pieces that will help to seed the market with the one attribute by which he will inevitably come to be known and revered. Namely: The Voice.

On one level, David’s first album was an obvious attempt to answer a chorus of critics whose expectations of him as the boy balladeer seemed already entrenched. But beat-based pop music doesn’t test the mettle of vocal prowess, nor does it reveal true vocal sophistication. There is nothing wrong with that, of course. The appeal of beat-based pop music lies in other dimensions. But when it comes to the expressive sophistication of the human voice alone, nothing offers as suitable a setting as the ballad. For all their successes in up-tempo numbers, great one-for-the-ages voices like Ella, Frank, and Barbra were never more revered than for their work on ballads.

By being balladeer, David solves two critical issues in the trajectory of his career. First, it provides a shortcut-hungry media with a tag, a category, a bucket for the David Archuleta brand. Like anything else, categories have their pluses and minuses. At one extreme, without any way at all to identify an artist, they simply won’t be covered, or will be covered in too vague a manner to seed memorability or even interest. At the other extreme is the risk of being pigeonholed. My sense at this point is that David’s first album went too far in the anti-ballad direction, which resulted in proof that he could successfully take on other categories, but failed to illuminate what makes him so uniquely gifted and powerful in the first place. And second, being balladeer will capture new fans in broader demographics by bringing the The Voice in all its glory to the market: the enormous subtlety of phrasing, the sleek charcoal tone, the hunger and yearning that opens caverns of emotion. In a phrase, David needs to make us cry.

Even if he does get pigeonholed to a certain degree, I’m left wondering what is so god-awful about that. Who is the contemporary male singer who owns the ballad? Is there anyone? Not only is David the Balladeer an opportunity for strong identity, it is a thrilling prospect for sublime heart connections all over the world. Then, David can finally be recognized for what is truly his, and which no one else can conceivably match.

– Rascal

“My heart’s still pounding, David. I’ve got chills up and down my arms. The sun’s never going to go down on you because you bring out so much sunshine in everyone throughout the whole world through your singing. And, David, that was a beautiful, beautiful stunning performance.”

This was Paula Abdul’s typically gushy comment after David Archuleta’s AI finale performance of DLTSGDOM. Funny thing is, the following was Randy Jackson’s comment about the same performance…

“It doesn’t matter what happens right now, you gotta know one thing, this is one of the best performances of this whole season, and you picked the right time to peak, baby. That was flawless and unbelievably molten hot.”

So which is it, sunshine or molten hot lava? Apparently, David Archuleta is hot either way. But I ask you, “How do you prefer your Archuheat? Sunshiny or lava bomb?”

Me…I prefer the lava bomb. Not that I am not a fan of sunshine, quite the contrary, I am a sunshine lover. I love its soothing warmth on my face and the glow it imparts on my skin (not to mention its life giving rays). It’s just that the sun is… so far away…. and…. so common, and well,….. taken for granted. As “countless as the stars in the sky”, blah, blah… No ma’am,…this is not a fitting description of David Archuleta.

Lava on the other hand, is exotic…dynamic, molten hot, and flowing with the power of 2500 degrees, the evolving earth blowing its insides out…in the process it reminds us up close and personal of the consequences of trapping all of that incredible energy …. Just the thought of it, gets the blood flowing. What happens when the heat and pressure builds up? It finds a way out. One way or another…the molten hot lava finds a way out, even the Earth’s crust can’t contain it. Yes sir,….. a much more fitting description of an Archuperformance.

Of course, some of you astronomy types are thinking, lava vs. the sun? Get real. “Lady, what about a supernova? Supernovas create blackholes, masses with such attractive forces that nothing can escape….not even light.” Surly this evokes the inescapable power that is the performing David Archuleta? Well, you have a point… stars ARE fitting too I guess. But Paula said “sunshine”, no mention of stars and supernova, so I stand by my molten hot laavvaaaa……..maybe it’s just that I enjoy the volcano imagery more.

~happy

So how far has he come? Take a look:

Season 7 Audition -- Waiting On The World To Change

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE9lRnAZvm8

Hollywood Week -- Heaven

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKcfoNg147s

Week 1 Top 24 -- Shop Around

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5pI-jMtRoQ

Week 2 Top 20 -- Imagine

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTPmPu6YujU

Week 3 -- Another Day In Paradise

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMW5rWYiJl4

Week 4 -- We Can Work It Out

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnxkAaIUCY4

Week 5 -- The Long and Winding Road

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SymPAutvQoo

Week 6 -- You’re The Voice

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1XeP5BkwZ0

Week 7 -- Smoky Mountain Memories

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RS4nrqaNOM

Week 8 -- Angels

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EkFE9v8lT0

Week 9 -- When You Believe

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBDeLj4XKsA

Week 10 -- Think of Me

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv4xS2uMqG0

Week 11 -- Part 1 -- Sweet Caroline

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf4xTFGKtOw

Week 11 -- Part 2 -- America

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnTp9J_8J6g

Week 12 -- Part 1 -- Stand By Me

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqu4d-bB7eo

Week 12 -- Part 2 -- Love Me Tender

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeeXV9xtfbY

Week 13 -- Part 1 -- And So It Goes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS1JcLuYSQg

Week 13 -- Part 2 -- With You

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT6sRaB3-Lg

Week 13 -- Part 3 -- Longer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzWNhZ06o9w

Week 14 -- Top 2 -- Part 1 -- Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecxisy_2aVw

Week 14 -- Top 2 -- Part 2 -- In This Moment

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZWHiAvtb9o

Week 14 -- Top 2 -- Part 3 -- Imagine

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLa5qYP_HCw

Finale -- David Archuleta and One Republic -- Apologize

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiT75Uo6U2M

I realize that you were never–or at least almost never–in it for the win. But it may still take some time for you to realize how fortunate you are to have avoided the heavy mantle of “American Idol.” You’ll understand someday that your potential for legitimacy on your own terms is vastly improved without it.

Because your opportunity to work and create in the music industry is for all intents and purposes identical to what it would have been had you in fact won the dubious distinction of a title, it is just as important for you to assess this inevitability with care and measure. I offer the following to you for whatever worth, if any, it may have.

1. Don’t Rush
In regards to the first music you select as your calling card to world, your producers and sponsors will tell you that the most important thing to them is quality, as well as your own satisfaction. Don’t believe them. What they really want is speed. They will want to capitalize on your current success and visibility. Many of them will cynically believe that your teen girl fan base will buy anything you release at this point, and they fear losing the momentum and attention you’ve gained. Don’t be pressured. Stand your ground. Learn to say “no” until you feel something is absolutely right. Your youth gives you an enormous advantage in this respect: You’ve got all the time in the world. Everyone else needs to rush. You don’t.

2. Beware The Sycophant
This is going to be difficult for you, David, because your compassionate nature inclines you toward giving people the benefit of the doubt. You see the good in others and want to trust them. You’ll need to temper this inclination. The entertainment industry is full of great actors, most of whom are not on a stage or in front of a camera. And it’s not even so much that they don’t mean what they say when they say it, as much as that they are capable of saying just the opposite ten minutes later and meaning that, too. Integrity is in short supply in this industry. It doesn’t mean that they are bad people. They just do questionable and selfish things. There’s a Buddhist saying: “Love the bee but beware the sting.”

3. Avoid Categorization
In the course of your discussions with producers, agents, and publicists, you will hear time and time again (so often, in fact, that it will sound like a skipping CD) who or what you should be “like.” Understand that the one thing the entertainment industry is designed to avoid at all possible costs is originality. They can’t explain it, they can’t package it, they can’t promote it. You need to trust your audience more than you trust the industry. Your audience will get it. They will understand you. Don’t let anyone put you in any labeled buckets other than one labeled “David Archuleta.”

4. Play
Successful creative people know that art comes from a sense of play. Your most treasured skills and techniques were probably developed not in practice sessions with Dean or in contests or performances, but in your own room, listening to recordings and experimenting with your voice, or noodling around on the piano. It is sometimes very hard to remember to bring that sense of play into a studio when a lot of highly-paid people are standing around. Don’t let it throw you. If you’re not having fun, call a break. Go play a video game. They will wait for you. Artists are not considered Divas because they require certain ways of working but because of how they treat people. That will never be an issue for you, so don’t shy away from having everyone work the way you want to work. They will respect and appreciate you for it, because they’ll know that it means getting a better result.

5. Live and Write
One of your biggest challenges may be in finding the courage to live who you are more than what you feel is expected of you. And that has everything to do with who you are as an artist as much as it does who you are as a person. If the proposed idea is to trust the God in your heart more than the one on the page or in the pulpit, it is not intended to contradict spiritual teaching but to emphasize the power of a personal connection to the source of all things. Spiritual work involves cultivating an awareness of that connection. If you are here, you were meant to be here just as you are. Don’t let anyone tell you that you need to change. Your contributions to music might well involve writing. Maybe not now, or even in the near future, but someday, and possibly in a big way. Great writing flows from a deep immersion in life and in being human, with all its messy contradictions, its bliss and its terrors, from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Godspeed, David. You’ll never know the depths to which you have touched and connected so many lives.

And lo, he looked out over the landscape of the nation, over all the watercooler debates and snarky press dismissals, over all the producer manipulations and judge coercions, the skepticism and rationalizations, and he saw the non-believers, the unfortunate faithless, and he said unto them, “behold, and hear me, and you shall doubt no more.”

Don’t let the Sun Go Down on Me
Dont_Let_The_Sun_Go_Down_on_Me.mp3

In This Moment
In_This_Moment.mp3

Imagine
Imagine-Top_Two.mp3