I am not exaggerating when I say that never before has a Paula Abdul critique been less relevant and more wrong than her contention that Brooke White should've employed Rickey Minor and the band on her beautiful, heartfelt cover of ''Love Is a Battlefield.'' The only thing more off base was Randy telling the G-rated nanny that she brought nothing new to her interpretation of the '80s classic.
Seriously? Was Paundy sitting around, shooting the breeze about the ''Dance Like There's No Tomorrow'' video shoot while Brooke sat on the edge of the stage, accompanied only by an acoustic guitarist, and gustily transformed ''Love Is a Battlefield'' into a downloadable slice of angsty folk? As Simon pointed out, you wouldn't expect Brooke, with her reedy warble, to shine on a song by Benatar, a classically trained artist with one of the meatiest voices in the modern pop era. But as Brooke said herself, why bother to follow Benatar's arrangement when it would only leave the audience longing for the original? Instead, she stripped it, flipped it, and slowed it down, and in the process, made me hear every word of the lyric in a way I hadn't since that dancing-homeless-teens video was in heavy MTV rotation back in 1983. Brooke might not yet have my vote to win season 7, but after tonight, she certainly has my respect.
The same can be said for Carly Smithson, who for the second week running exhibited a masterful level of vocal control on one of my all-time favorite minor '80s hits, Cyndi Lauper's ''I Drove All Night.'' Yes, I should probably deduct a point for her bizarre wardrobe choice — designers, stop trying to make mom jeans happen! — and one for coloring inside the lines of Celine Dion's 2003 remake, but Carly's big, genuine smile at the end of her performance melted away my case of the mean crankies (at least temporarily). I raise an imaginary pint of Guinness to celebrate her inevitable trek to the top 12!
NEXT: Is there a best in the rest?
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