THE DAILY MOJO by Adam Daniel

Last night’s Australian Idol ep began with the thankfully-not-prolonged verdict. G reminds us that to not make the Final 2 is going to be “devastating” for whomever misses out. He also shares with us that “no matter what happens from now on, you are already winners.” Except for the loser who gets booted tonight, of course.

The first Idol safe is……. Wes Carr! YES!

Ouch. Just looking at Spano and Luke waiting for the guillotine to drop makes me feel queasy in my stomach with empathy.

The second person going through to eventual defeat at the hands of Wes at next week’s final is…… Luke Dickens.

Crowd goes nuts. Marcia looks like she just threw up in her mouth. Spano is gracious in bowing out, as expected. G must be disappointed he is not a “devastated” weeping wreck. Spano calls Wes “the best musician I’ve ever known” and Luke is “a freak of nature”. Not exactly equally complimentary labels.

Mark’s “Idol Journey” clip package reminds us of all his great performances throughout the season – in my opinion, his audition song, ‘Come Said The Boy’ and ‘Angie’ were his standouts. He sends himself off with a very decent ‘Never Tear Us Apart’. Shame to see him go, but I think it’s a push; neither he nor Luke will beat Wes in a final 2.

Kyle tells him to “get his stuff out there, people want to hear it.” Count me in on that call. Dicko and Marcia are equally effusive about his talents; Dicko even going so far to organise a meeting at BMG with Mark. Good signs.

On to the battle of the remaining two; the Shearer vs. the Shepherd (well, he does look a lot like Jesus at the moment).

Luke Dicken’s musical journey is actually pretty inspiring. What an amazingly rapid progression. I’ve pointed it out before, but I actually ranked him dead last in my predictions for the season. Totally underestimated how quickly he would refine his rawness into the rough-hewn, natural perfomer he’s become.

Luke follows this up with a performance of ‘Turn The Page’. It’s totally in his wheelhouse, edgy and masculine. It’s not going to win any under-20 votes, but it’s a solid cover.

Wes’ journey has some hilarious footage of a young Wes. I appreciate that he’s totally comfortable with unveiling some pretty embarrassing moments in his past; that humility and honesty definitely translates to his music.

He definitely lives up to his label as the most consistent performer in the history of Australian Idol. Not one performance in the season was short of very good.

He continues this streak with a spectacular version of The Living End’s ‘White Noise’ – it only takes about four bars for the huge gulf between he and Dickens to become evident. It just looks ridiculously easy for Wes, and he clearly feeds off the crowd like any good performer. I am such a homer for Wes I even worked out what my sign would say if I had made it to a live show this year: “I am a Wesbian.”

For the first time in six seasons, they have had songs written specifically for the performers for the final. It’s a great idea, but the execution is totally botched and I’ll explain why. Here’s Luke Dicken’s final song, ‘When We Hear Hallelujah’:

And Wes Carr’s final song, ‘You’:

First off, I think Luke was really feeling the nerves more than Wes. He’s does a great job with a really tough ballad that’s quite a bit out of his vocal comfort zone. You can tell in the final moments after he cracks that one high note that he’s annoyed with himself. I would be more annoyed at whomever foisted that song on you mate. On a scale of difficulty I’d give that song a 7 out of 10.

With ‘You’ however, Wes gets handed a song that’s about a 2 out of 10 on the difficulty scale. On a silver platter. It just feels a bit like heavy-handed favouritism. I’m not really complaining, I think Wes would win even if he was simply doing his own version of ‘When We Hear Hallelujah’. It’s just his song is a melodically simple, foot stomping bluesy pop song with no tricky vocal hooks. It’s okay but definitely not transcendent. In fact I wouldn’t really be massively excited to hear either song on radio; both guys are capable of far better in my opinion. I just think it’s unfair that Luke has to shoot a moving target whilst Wes gets his target tied to a pole.

Either way, it’s probably the highest quality Top 2 since Shannon / Guy in Season 1. Let’s hope the Wesbians don’t get too comfortable with Wes’ apparent domination on the show and vote vote vote. Yes Wes Can!