Best Of 2011, Guest Editors: Tom Moon On The Disappointment File

As 2011 comes to an end, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts of the year by our guest editors.

You might know award-winning critic/journalist Tom Moon from his bestselling book 1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die, his contributions to NPR’s All Things Considered or his freelance work in the likes of Rolling Stone, GQ, Blender, Spin and Vibe, but around the MAGNET office, when we think of Moon, we think of the nearly two decades he spent as the music critic of our hometown newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer. When you regularly read a writer’s work for that long, you feel like you really get a sense of who someone is, so we were shocked to find out that Moon is also a musician who just made an album. Into The Ojalá (Frosty Cordial) is credited to Moon Hotel Lounge Project and came out earlier this month. MHLP is an impressive, instrumental, jazz/lounge/Latin-leaning project featuring Moon and six local musicians playing nine Moon-penned tunes as well as a cover of gospel standard “Rock Of Ages.” We are excited to have Moon guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with him.

Moon: Sometimes I think American Idol creator Simon Cowell lives in a parallel universe, where a singer’s skill is measured in decibels and words like “artist” mean something altogether different from the common understanding. One example: Cowell is probably the only music business person to call Susan Boyle an “artist.” Nuff said.

Something is missing in Cowell’s empire, though. Despite oceans of free press and enviable TV ratings, this Svengali has had astoundingly limited success transforming his singing seals into bonafide recording artists. Cue the ever-growing list of coulda-beens who somehow didn’t “break big” even though they had every possible industry advantage: Clay Aiken! Ruben Stoddard! David Archuleta! Bo Bice! Each year after the competition, at least a few of the Idol finalists are offered a contract. Cowell gets to pretend he’s an A&R guru, and months later a record appears on his 19 imprint, distributed by Sony Music, with fancy artwork and everything. Some of these titles do sell, in numbers. Usually the music on those records feels—how to say this?—fake. Overcooked. Tricked-out to resonate with a focus group. Inconsequential on arrival.

I had hopes that Crystal Bowersox might break the Idol curse. The husky-voiced singer brought a bit of defiant individuality to American Idol last season, several times pushing back against Cowell’s “advice.” Alas, though her debut, Farmer’s Daughter, wasn’t produced by Cowell, it smells like his brand of cheese. At times, you wonder whether some of the lyric-writing chores were outsourced to members of Boyle’s team. (Or, perhaps more economically, some proprietary Idol software program.) The opening track, “Ridin’ With The Radio,” might just be the most generic rock-culture anthem ever. Cringe-worthy! Next comes a dismally lost cover of Stephen Stills’ classic made famous by Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth.” Throughout, it feels like the calm confidence Bowersox radiated on the show has been replaced by a near-desperate, reality-show-contestant desire to please. It’s like when she entered the recording studio, she lost touch with what made her interesting in the first place.

Here’s hoping that the next season’s judges—Jennifer Lopez and Stephen Tyler—as well as the show’s new über-mentor, Jimmy Iovine (chairman of Interscope Records), will take steps to undercut the Cowell machine and encourage honest-to-goodness individuality among the artists. Can you say “longshot”?

Video after the jump.