Clash of the Choirs

December 20, 2007 12:39 AM

've been watching Clash of the Choirs on NBC for some reason. Actually, I know the reason. See, I'm kind of a sucker for choirs.

There's something about a bunch of people coming together to sing with one awesome voice that I really get into. I really like the interaction of a bunch of different voices, and there's not a more natural-sounding musical tone than the human voice. So, yeah, I like choirs. So I've been watching Clash of the Choirs.

But here's the thing. I've been recording all of the episodes on my DVR and I've been using the fast-forward feature to skip all of the nonperformance aspects of the show. That's right. I'm completely ignoring all the faux-reality nonsense thats built into the show. And I'm also ignoring the absolutely terrible host they've got. She's fucking terrible.

In any event, the choirs themselves have been really, really underwhelming. Most of the choirs--each of which is lead by a pseudo celebrity like Kelly Rowland or fucking Michael Bolton--have chosen extremely boring songs to sing. More damningly, they've attempted to bury their performances in ridiculous slick choreography and overproduced backing tracks. And I haven't seen them do anything that makes me think that any of the choirs are particularly talented. They haven't been doing any complex harmonies or anything like that. In fact, they haven't been doing any harmonies at all--they've just had one or two soloists singing lead--which is itself antithetical to the whole choir thing--and the rest of the people sing in unison behind them. It's really sad.

Sad, that is, except for Nick Lachey's choir which has somehow overcome the douche-iness of their leader and have turned in by far the best performances on the show. They just did a frankly awesome a cappella version of "Flight of the Bumblebee." I had never heard anyone do that before, and I really liked it because it demonstrated that the singers could actually sing and harmonize without the distractions of slick prerecorded music.

But the worst thing, though, has been Patty LaBelle's choir. See, a bunch of the others have turned in pretty bad performances where they just didn't hit the notes or where one voice just didn't blend with the others. But Ms. LaBelle's choir has done that and has chosen to do only gospel and Christian songs. It's really sort of ridiculous.

Anyway, if Lachey's choir doesn't win, America is a bunch of idiots.

And yes, this post really just happened.

2 Comments

Anonymouse said:

I knew nothing about this show until I stumbled across it last night. Unlike you, I have a certain fondness for the host. Why? She's hot. And yes, I am that shallow.

As for the choirs, I only saw one. They did some sort of rockabilly thing, but they had one woman up front who I don't think can really sing, but she too was hot. Ahh, made for tv choirs. Singing ability, nice. Hotness, absolutely required.

December 20, 2007 6:06 PM

dicta said:

"There's something about a bunch of people coming together to sing with one awesome voice that I really get into."

hmmmm, you really would've loved our drunken karaoke in central ohio.

also, say what you will about kelly rowland, but "time, love, and tenderness" is timeless.

December 20, 2007 7:30 PM

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