American Idol - The Top 10 (R&B) Performance

The first performance show of the summer-touring finalists didn't go as smoothly for some frontrunners as I'd have expected a few weeks ago.

My rankings, best to worst:

• Casey James, singing "Hold On, I'm Coming." Somehow he was able to transcend the repetitiveness of the song as well or even better than the original, and display his vocals to top ability. He looked more confident and relaxed as well.
• Lee DeWyze, singing "Treat Her Like A Lady," ran a close second that might have been first had he not veered into unpleasant Scott Stappness in his first few lines.
• Andrew Garcia, singing "Forever," and so beautifully too. What a gorgeous version of the song. He still needs to relax a little bit more, but at least he might know where to go from now on.
• Crystal Bowersox, singing "Midnight Train to Georgia" only barely holds on to this spot. This performance was not impressive, from the staring at the piano keys to the wearing "stilettos" but not walking in them, to the girl Pips accompaniment, to telling Randy to say "Hi Gladys" (not Ms. Knight?Hello!)
• Katie Stevens, singing "Chain of Fools." The song was a mistake. Too many people have done it so well, and there was no way she was going to do it better or even as well. But she did fairly well. Unfortunately she's back to pulling faces---this time Sexy! Angry! Tough!---and apparently paid tribute to Paige Miles with a poorly thought-out getup of leather leggings beneath a woolly shorts romper that gave her a belly and flattened her chest.
• Aaron Kelly, singing "Ain't No Sunshine." In this case, earnestness and honesty broke through any other shortcomings. I worried at his first slight wobble, but then wobbling disappeared, and he performed well.
• Michael Lynche, singing "Ready for Love." He almost beat out Aaron. I had their ranks switched at first. But on second watching, I noticed he had some wobbles throughout, and he just doesn't seem quite as earnestly honest and real to me. But his performance this week was better than last's, and last week was miles ahead of where he'd been.
• Did Benami, singing "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted." She might have been above Michael had she not done that bizarre and incongruous end on her otherwise okay performance. I didn't want to see. But to give her possible credit, she was smart enough to know not to dive into the déclassé pit again by trying to ride on the sympathy of having lost a friend as a teenager. She resisted every attempt of Ryan's to drag the story back out of her. Other people must have felt as disgusted as I did when she did that during auditions, and she must have realized it.
• Siobhan Magnus, singing "Through the Fire," was a mess. Off key, shouty, possibly thinking she sounded good at times, because she was wailing it out like your drunk aunt Ethel. The few times she went a bit quieter, she actually sounded on key and pretty lovely, which was all that kept her from the horror of ranking below Tim Urban. She's going to have to do something quickly to prevent a full-on slide into the reject pile. She's got the voice to sing. I don't know what she's doing with it, though.
• Tim Urban, singing "Sweet Love," apparently got lost on the way to the 10th grade musical auditions (they're doing Aladdin this year, yes, it's that kind of school, no Rent or Gilbert & Sullivan at his cheeseball school. Once again Tim embarrassed himself not only with a poor performance, but with blank looks alternated with plastered-on toothy grins. He comes off like the quintessential "pretty but dumb" girl---when he doesn't understand, he just smiles real big and hopes y'all just forget about that. A high point was when Usher gave him advice and he delivered the song exactly the way he had before the advice. Why was that a high point? Consistency, man.

I'm hoping Simon was wrong and this week the Tim-fiends are finally willing to loose their grip somewhat. He's in the top 10, girls! He'll tour. You can't hope for much better. Unfortunately, I did see a girl say he was her top pick, just because he's cute---"that's how I'm picking my favorites this year." So sense and proper judgment may not enter into it. In that case, I fear for Didi (she's not very likable, and she's getting tiresome), Katie (more young girls may be jealous of her than supportive of her, and the mugging like she did again this week does her no favors), and Aaron Kelly (good but slightly wavery, and many girls who might have found him cute are probably instead won over by Tim Urban. Unfortunate, since this is a singing competition and Aaron clearly sings better.

American Idol - The Top 11

I started writing this post on March 22nd, commenting on the Top 12 elimination of Lacey Brown. Tim Urban definitely should have gone home, but Lacey wasn't so much better, so as long as Urban goes sometime soon, it's not so bad. But we may have another (though far less humorously entertaining) Sanjaya. I just hope he doesn't give another fairly good showing like he did with "Hallelujah," or we'll never get rid of him.

I apologize, I missed last week's commentary, but of course I was again disappointed that Tim Urban stayed. Paige Miles was probably the worst of the Billboard Number Ones week (what happened to teen idol? I'd heard that was the theme), but she had a few excuses. Not enough that she should have stayed much longer, but enough so that she should have been on the Top 10 tour instead of Tim. Maybe. If they could have taught her to actually say the words and not just breathily expel the vowels sounds of the lyrics.

There were a few other surprises last week that completely changed around some of the standings for me. I don't have my rankings list on hand, but I know that Crystal Bowersox was the clear winner. It was a surprise to me because she finally went all the way to Janis Joplin, which she's been playing with every single performance, and I expected it to be less satisfying for that. Instead, she showed that she is not just a Janis knockoff---why she's even using that sound is puzzling to me, since she's much better than it and could handle a great deal more. But she showed the ability to transcend Janis and definitely to transcend this competition with last week's performance of "Me and Bobby McGee."

Casey James stayed near the top, Aaron Kelly climbed very high, Lee DeWyze inched up in the top tier, Siobhan Magnus continued a slow descent, and Didi Benami slid quickly to lower-middle levels with me after that disturbingly blah performance of "You're No Good." What a terrible song choice for her. And she's not staying with the broadening of vocals she started a bit with Stones week. If she goes bad to the silly scratchy Mae West/Betty Boop singing, she's not going to last long. Katie Stevens also returned to her face-pulling and bigger-than-me inexplicable song choices. I beg to differ with the judges on the appropriateness of "Big Girls Don't Cry", because to me it has a mature pop sound and I'm not sure how a song sung (co-)written and sung by a 32-year-old is "young" enough for a 17-year-old. But there were worse performers than she, and I was surprised she ended up in the bottom three over them---like Andrew Garcia, who needs to quit doing whatever he's doing and go back to the basics. He's nearly as bad as Paige with his treatment of lyrics, but instead of skipping the consonants, he's popping each word out like a little bb. The result is the same: you lose the meaning and therefore the effect of the lyrics.

I'm looking forward to tonight's Top 10 performance, although R&B with Usher isn't really a favorite theme of mine. It seems like American Idol is slipping this year---Miley Cyrus and Usher as mentors? I hope they're saving some really good people for later.

American Idol - The Top 12

Well, no matter who they are or how they got here, the top twelve went at The Rolling Stones. Please note that all my determinations are made before I watch any judges' commentary. In the past, I have often reacted very similarly to Simon. However, this year he's surprised me a few times and we were absolutely opposite in opinions. Last year I noticed Kara also sometimes mirrored my reactions, but not quite as strikingly as I've always matched with Simon. Also note that whenever I refer to gauging people's performances, I'm only counting the stage show performances, no tryouts or auditions. The list is in the order I rank them based pretty much only on last night's performance, of course heavily influenced by how much I generally like their voice/delivery style.

1. Didi Benami, singing "Play With Fire." One of my favorite Stones songs, so good choice in my opinion. :) Honestly, I do think it's a great choice for a female singers. She also is doing less of the awkward schticky phrase breaking she's done in previous performances. A little scary in the faces. . . and did she stumble over some words? Hm. She did a good job, but those stumbly bits probably mean she was less totally at ease with the song than she could have been. Still, it was really very good. I wouldn't haveguessed that she was anything but totally at ease up until then, and she didn't even quite let any unease show through. I think this was my favorite performance from her. Less affected, very full of feeling. And I really love the tone of her voice.
2. Katie Stevens, singing "Wild Horses." Oh, oh, if she doesn't get this right, it's going to be a catastrophe. I don't know if she has the knowledge and understanding of the song and its feeling to pull it off! She's a sweet girl though, and does have an amazing vocal instrument, so I hope she can. I'd also hate to see all the crap she'd get from critics if she fails this week. Her first note is shaky. Her voice is oddly quite like Kelly Clarkson. She looks nervous, but she isn't showing it. She's delivering quite well. She's still posing for animal crackers, but her voice is doing enough of a job to overcome it. And speaking of comparisons to former AI contestants, her looks are reminiscent of Katharine McPhee. Katie's voice is better, though, I think. Richer, with more to offer. I don't think she does really feel and understand the song, but she's singing it with passion nonetheless. An altogether quite awesome job. I think this may have even been her best performance.
3. Casey James, singing "It's All Over Now." A bit of a country sound to the song, I guess just because of something in his delivery. A little off on some of the lower notes. But he grew stronger as he grew more into it. Good guitar, growing confidence. And by the middle point, it was sounding sort of early-mid '90s rock-vocalist rather than country, which was surprising but enjoyable. I'd have to think hard about who exactly his voice reminded me of there. More than one band ('s singer), certainly. What is it? Love Battery crossed with Big Head Todd? Garage/grunge vocaled country blues? Perhaps I shouldn't even bother---I usually shock and irritate most people with my similarity notes. Don't want to offend any early Pearl Jam fans. I know how defensive we learned to be. I think Casey here was a little more nervous than he showed, and that's pretty impressive, because he was quite good, and very charming. But he shouldn't be as nervous at this point. . . how come he's not getting cocky? It would be bad if he got too cocky, but I think he needs a bit of it to succeed. At least enough to show absolute ease onstage.
4. Aaron Kelly, singing "Angie." Uh-oh, uh-oh! Okay, I guess I can't worry too much for them, I just have to let them do what they've chosen to do. And he starts off better than I've ever heard him! Hm, maybe he should try a Bryan Adams song, if the opportunity for that arises. He has a great tone for this song, and he's singing it just right. A nice modern boy band/young man Top 40/Country crossover version. Glossier and cheesier than the original, but really nicely done. Nearly perfect. Man, have the young folks rebounded from last week!
5. Lee DeWyze, singing "Beast of Burden." Ah, now this is an interesting choice. This song, to me, is less definitively stamped with the soul of the Stones, though of course it has the stamp of their sound. I think it's a smart pick. Even though it sounds like he's starting "Tears in Heaven" with the arrangement. Messy with some of the lyrics. But I guess that's his style. It's not really my style, but he's doing a good job here, and showing what he can do vocally, which I feel like I've never heard before. There's all nice things like Springsteen and John Cougar Mellencamp mixed in with the cheesy Rob Thomas and Dave Matthews. A good show, I think. His own, and aptly done.
6. Crystal Bowersox, singing "You Can't Always Get What You Want." She's probably the most well-suited for the Rolling Stones, and this is a likely choice for her. Maybe I'd have liked to hear something a little less predictable, more exciting/interesting. It's a nice version, I guess. She isn't really my style. I don't like that very Janis sound she has. But she is an amazing singer. But she could do so much more with her voice than she does, so it's frustrating to me that she always stays in the same sound and the same vein. Eck, even the little talky to the listener bit---yuck. I'd like to hear her maybe do a little progressive country or something. Even to hear her do a little Aretha or Melissa Etheridge, just something even slightly afield from this same old sound would be so nice. And I'd love to hear her do pretty instead of always just gritty. She doesn't even really have a naturally gritty voice. I think she easily could do pretty, she just never does. And she's always behind that damn guitar. But she's kind of in a different league than everyone else tonight. She seems like a professional performer already, albeit one I don't particularly dig. She's very good, but she's a little tiresome.
7. Paige Miles, singing "Honky-Tonk Woman." Why in hell do they keep outfitting her in shorts with tights? That's a very hard combo to pull off, because the tights stick to the shorts and move them in very unflattering ways as you move. But we'll have to set her outfit for the moment. She seems nervous at first, but is delivering. Her lyrics get a little messy and hard to understand. The country honky-tonk vibe is nice. And her voice has some beautiful points, but it also goes awry when sometimes when she's low or switching gears. She's trying so hard on this song she's going off key at times and getting herself hoarse. But unlike some other performers tonight, she's showing confidence and performing well physically. The vocals were impressive as well, in spite of a few wobbly bits.
8. Siobhan Magnus, singing "Paint It Black." Hrm. Maybe everyone's just picking well-known songs. I guess they only have as certain list to use, and it's probably mostly the top hits. This will be a difficult one, but she may be able to do it. I like the little dollhouse tinkling. The opening was pretty good. But once she got to the main part after "until my darkness goes," she went right into a part of her voice I've only heard touches of before. I don't know if it's her nose or a certain shape of her throat, but it sounds like she's trying to sing while holding her nose after drinking a gallon of chocolate milk. Especially for the "I look inside myself" section. And the backup singers chanting "paint it! paint it!" sound imported from the TV/Adam West Batman theme song. The ending was much better, although the scream was pretty much like a real scream, not very pleasing. Very Adam Lambert minus the scary vibrating tongue wriggling in his mouth. The soft high a cappella notes at the very end sounded good, but I just don't understand the version of the song as a whole. I don't know. The vocals were fairly good, as I'd expect from her, but the tone wasn't as nice as she usually has, and it seemed a little overdramatic to me.
9. Andrew Garcia, singing "Gimme Shelter." Yikes! How is he going to do this? I'm nervous for him. Hm. Somehow the song is nearly unrecognizable and sounds very Seal and Terrence Trent D'Arby like. Strange, because for about two weeks I've been saying I think he should try a Terrence Trent D'Arby song, but I think he should do it with an actual Terrence Trent D'Arby song, not a Rolling Stones song! It was a very good performance in many ways, but for me there was something missing in it. I feel like he started to go there; past the Seal & TTD sounds I started to hear a turn toward Soundgarden/Chris Cornell, but then that quickly evaporated into some strange Duran Duran-esque music and a shift back to Seal/TTD. He had a couple of off-key notes, and I simply never heard the danger and haunt that lies within this song. I don't know if that's a requirement for it, but for me it kind of is. He needed more power and feeling. So while I thought this was ably done, and I liked that he seemed comfortable, it wasn't a top showing to me.
10. Michael Lynche, singing "Miss You." Hm, I wouldn't have expected the Rolling Stones could sound so much like cheesy 1980s R&B. But I guess if that's what you want, he also did it fairly well. The arrangement and actually staying on key was done well, but I still think his voice doesn't deliver the richness and the power most pro singers should. He has to try too hard, and he never actually gets there.
11. Lacey Brown, singing "Ruby Tuesday." All right. Before I actually watch her sing, I am immediately frightened with this choice of song. This is an absolute beauty, and she's had some stinking performances. She has to pull this off right, and without any of the shortness in notes that seems to be her trademark. So I'm worried. The first part works with it all right. A little babylike, Lisa-Loeby. She's not the best, that's for sure. And she always performs the same way (physically). Boring, and she doesn't seem to be really feeling the song. Yuck on the "still I'm going to miss you" arrangement. What is that supposed to be? All right with the "catch your dreams before they slip away," but then she goes right back to her nasally baby voice tone. And that "still I'm going to miss you" is like a bad Carpenters Christmas song arrangement from 1978. All in all, not a very good showing. Lacey definitely has a niche and some ability, but while this wasn't her worst performance (I'd even say it was her second-best), she just wasn't shown off well here. I think she either chose the wrong song or did the wrong things with it. And she has to develop a different stage routine than undulating, sitting, and pursing her lips at the camera.
12. Tim Urban, singing "Under My Thumb." Aw, oi! What's up with all the scary contestants choosing my favorite songs? I don't know how he'll do this. Nobody here really has the conviction to pull off Jagger's vocals---although I'm looking forward to Paige Miles---but I think Nickelodeon boy here has the least strength to. Oh my god. He's making it reggae. Does he even understand the song? Reggae makes no sense for this. He's also not staying on key. This is so wrong in style, though, that it's making me sick. Watch people like this, though. Ugh, it's gross! His vocals got more stable in and past the a cappella bridge, but to me that hardly even matters unless someone else performs just atrociously. In doing this arrangement, to me he's shown that he doesn't understand music at all. Sickening.

In spite of my personal choices here, I'll admit it's hard to tell who is really in danger this week. that's partly because there was such an uproar about last week's voting that there will likely be backlash voting this week, and you never know what effect that is going to have. People may rabidly vote for their favorites, but those favorites may include those who really belong off the show. But I guess I'll go with my bottom four as the ones most in danger, possibly adding Paige Miles as more likely lost than Michael Lynche. I don't understand why people like him. While he does stay on key most of the time, he never offers very powerful vocals, which is strange given his size. Everything seem "lite" from him, like it's a getting squeezed out a mono speaker.

I'd like to remark more on some of the judges comments---I only caught a bit of a few, but it seemed like I was generally agreeing with a lot of them. And I was shocked to see Randy even made the same comparison I did between Lee DeWyze and Rob Thomas & Dave Matthews! But he didn't hear any Springsteen or Mellencamp, I guess. Also, Kara's connection with the scream, although that was pretty obvious---as long as she really meant Adam Lambert when she said Adam Lamberg. :P

Lilly Scott's Paradoxical Petulance and Sour Grapes

The petulance and the sour grapes aren't paradoxical. Pretty much everything she has to say about herself and American Idol is.

Lilly Scott followed up her elimination last week with some conceited sour grapes remarks, displaying an inflated sense of her value as a singer and a serious lack of understanding for how American Idol (and even the music industry) works. Miss Scott also feels that at least with her elimination from AI she "can keep her indie cred." Well, no, Miss Scott, you can't. If you had any indie cred, you lost it when you were non-independently packaged and promoted by a television talent show with tens of millions of viewers. Indie artists don't so that. Hence "indie."

Miss Scott went on to insult anyone who may have voted for her (and clearly people did, since she wasn't eliminated in the first two weeks) by explaining that the viewers of American Idol are tweens who don't know Patsy Cline or Radiohead. I'm a bit confused as to what all her excuses about that add up to, in fact. She claims she "picked [I Fall to Pieces] because I love Patsy Cline. It really describes who I want to be as an artist. But, then again, the 'American Idol' voting demographic is probably mostly tweens, and I'm sure they don't know who Patsy Cline is." But when asked about with whom she would love to collaborate, she said "I would love to meet Thom Yorke from Radiohead and people like Björk, just really like the king and queen of the indie world. They're really who I kinda strive to be like as an artist, and their fanbase is so huge. . . " Yes, oh yes, those huge-fanbased indie artists, choosing them really solidifies her indie cred. Nevermind the fact they started achieving some mainstream popularity back around the time she was born.

Even setting aside the insult about viewers not knowing Patsy Cline, how does Lilly Scott go from saying she wants to be like Patsy Cline to saying she wants to be like Radiohead? I guess I could see some slight connection, but none highlighted in her performance, which was just exactly the same delivery as every other song she's done. In the same interview, she complains that the producers "swayed" her (very independent-minded, I must say) into picking Patsy Cline after wanting to do Radiohead's "Nude," which she claims (incorrectly) was their top-performing song ever. It was a Top 40 song, although of course she's labeling it as indie, which is fine in the context of Radiohead's history. But not when you follow that up with comments like "But, unfortunately, indie underground music isn't really ready for a breakthrough." Huh? Just a Top 40 hit, then? Many, many Top 40 hits, actually, if you look at all the "indie" bands that have made it to the mainstream. But hey, she may not even be talking about Radiohead there. She later said "I think that was kind of reaffirmed last night by me getting voted off, that America may still not be ready to have that kind of music in the mainstream." So perhaps she saying her rather straightforward (accented and shouty, but otherwise pretty plain) version of "I Fall to Pieces" is indie underground! Ah, the humor of it all.

Her stance is that the viewers of American Idol know neither classics that are performed regularly (all those indie-underground standards) nor recent Top 40 hits (the indie-underground Billboard Top 40). I would think she'd have to choose one or the other to complain about. And while you're doing that, Lilly, pay close attention to the fact that nearly every contestant on AI has sung a '50s/'60s-era classic, and several winners have sung songs that were largely unknown and/or discouraged by the producers. They just didn't listen. That's what truly independent souls tend to do.

Lilly Scott seems similarly confused about how voting works on American Idol. She suggests that she would like to know her numbers, because she doesn't want to think it's rigged (emphasis added to show her fairness), but then says "I think my voting demographic is more of the underground scene, who don't even own a TV. They were probably all out riding their bikes and or doing something more productive than watching TV, let alone American Idol. . . .The audience I was playing to probably wasn't voting, except in their hearts. Or maybe people assumed that I was safe and chose not to vote.. . . I know there's a fan base out there, but I don't think it was the American Idol voting demographic and that was what I was worried about from Day 1." So you knew American Idol didn't provide the kind of audience you thought you'd appeal to, but you gave it a chance anyway. You don't think the fan base is there now, even though you were successful for two weeks so it obviously was there at some point. But you do think maybe the fan base is there enough to know you were on the show and see your performances and like you enough to vote in their hearts. They're just busy doing productive things like riding their bikes on Tuesday nights. So who voted for you the first two weeks? And how do those bike-riding underground indie folk know about you when they're too busy to bother with silly mainstream American Idol?

The truth is that truly underground indie folk may not be watching American Idol. It's quite possible they're at work, or getting ready to go see or play some genuinely independent, probably local, music. But really, Lilly, it's the digital and cellular age---people are aware of American Idol contestants whether or not they even own a TV. People voted for Siobhan Magnus---exactly how mainstream and tween is she? If people really cared and thought you were great, they could have voted for you whether or not they were home watching AI on a TV, and probably would have. Do you care? You seem to think AI voters are useless. It's a mystery why you'd want to stay on the show at all, when you're so dismissive of it. Interesting, though, that you think being on it these three weeks now qualifies you to play at Coachella.

I think I know the reason people didn't vote for you. I know the reason why I didn't! I would have voted for you in the first two weeks. I did once, in fact. I voted because I thought you had a good voice. But then you kept using that voice to do the same silly thing over and over again, never showing any breadth or depth in your style at all. There's room for schtick and stylings in music, certainly. But yours was one-note boring and grated after three weeks. You kept putting different songs through the same boring Lilly cookie-cutting machine. And your voice wasn't even holding up all that well either. So goodbye! Too bad you didn't learn anything from it except to make excuses and put other people down. Good luck with your plan of "fit[ing] in the big film and festival circuit doing things like Coachella and Bonnaroo and really just doing some mass touring. I know that I can have a whole entire different kind of audience coming out to shows if I did tour. Recording is definitely on my list of things to do." People generally do a little writing and recording before they tour, and tend to be recognized artists before they hit the big festivals (unless the plan is just to attend). If you did record with the band you fronted, how come you didn't just tour with them and build a reputation for yourself based on that, rather than a televised talent show? One thing I do know is you are indeed likely to have a different audience if you tour, since I would expect anyone who heard about your post-elimination whine and putdown combo isn't going to want to hear anything from you anymore. Here's a hint: indie artists tend to appreciate the fans who support them. You should try it.

I maintain that if anyone should have stayed, if there were any real mistakes last week, it was probably Katelyn Epperly and Alex Lambert. Katelyn's parting remarks were also humble and insightful, which makes me like her even more than when she was on the show. She was honest about trying to use AI as a leg up, and expressed a real ambition to make it in the music industry through whatever reasonable means necessary. I'm glad to see she's already well into working toward a BA in music and recording her own music.

Alex Lambert

. . . was the only shocking elimination for me last night. When only he and Andrew were left in the guys' section, I was upset enough thinking Andrew was going home. But as Ryan smirked and dallied asking Simon questions, I realized OH NO it was going to be worse than that, it was going to be Alex going home.
Now as I have said, Alex isn't really my total cup of tea, and I did think his performance was a little nasal the other night, but he was definitely one of the top three men left in the competition, no question. And I don't really understand, because he's so cute to me, I can't see how he wouldn't get "the cute vote" also. Is it just that Aaron Kelly is younger? He's certainly less attractive. He reminds me of an over-eyebrowed, bigger-nosed, pasty Glenn Madieros, or a female version of Miley Cyrus. maybe with a little Glenn Scarpelli thrown in.

Glen, Aaron, Glenn

It's funny, because although I find Alex really cute, the person he reminds me of most is (teenaged) William Zabka, the '80s movie blond tough. But Alex has sweeter eyes and a more delicate nose.

Alex, William, Alex

It's not just my imagination, is it? Maybe it's just the mullet. But I think there's at least a reminiscent look there beyond the haircut.

You know what, though? I think Ellen was on to something when she encouraged Alex to be more confident but not get cocky. Maybe he would have gotten cocky if he'd kept on in this competition. Maybe he'll do better for himself if he just keeps trying on his own. I know in the past, people eliminated earlier in the competition haven't been very successful in terms of the larger music industry, but times have changed, and that could easily change also. Alex might end up a better person for not having gone on here.

I don't know. I'm looking for a positive spin!

American Idol - The Top 16

All right, I though I'd have time to finish my post on the top 20 before I got to this one, but I want to get in my rankings for this week before the elimination show airs, so I'll just have to back-date my old top 20 picks. And hurry along with my top 16, because I'm hungry also.

Week 3 - The Top 16

• The Girls

1. Siobhan Magnus, singing "House of the Rising Sun," again is on top because she just sounds the best, feels the most, and does it all like she is meant for it. She still bugs me, especially her tortured squinching of otherwise lovely lips. She reminds me of that girl you know who has to be artsy and wear weird shoes, but hey, I'm not going to judge her on that. Yet.
2. Lacey Brown, singing "The Story." Finally she shows that she can sing! I knew it was in there, because I remember being shocked and horrified when last year's nightmare seal was chosen instead of her. I don't know what's been going on with Lacey up until this performance, but with luck this will be enough to get her back on track. She seems to have enough fans out there supporting her when she's wretched, so let's hope they're there when she's great.
3. Crystal Bowersox, singing "Gimme One Reason." Only her voice keeps her in this position, because the performance and style and type of song is already old and stale. Yes, you're a hippyish jam-rock girl with a real rock voice. Try branching out a little, please.
4. Didi Benami, singing "Rhiannon." Oh, it could have been so much better. But in light of how bad it could have been also, it was pretty terrific. I love Rhiannon, and now a whole bunch of new little fans will think that's the way to sing it. A major coup for Miss Benami. She's not giving Stevie Nicks or anyone else a run for their money, but on tonight's show, she was definitely among the best.
5. Lilly Scott, singing "I Fall to Pieces," is still doing what she's done every time. And her schtick is much less malleable than Didi Benami's. It worked okay for this song, but she's going to have to do something different right away or she'll be in heavy danger of getting the boot.
6. Katelyn Epperly, singing "I Feel the Earth Move." Ugh. I heard Carole King and was briefly interested until I heard she'd chosen this Carole Kind song. It's bad enough she's taking her hair out on a limb to do Carole King, but to waste the time on this one? And then deliver it so lamely, with no ambition at all.
7. Paige Miles, singing "Smile," was all over the place. As she was singing, I couldn't tell if she was nervous or upset, and said that I'd never be able to sing that song; I find it so sad I would start catching and crying. Alas, it seems that's what happened with Paige, and worse, she knew it might! Really inexcusable. Why would you pick that song then? I repeat: no picking songs just because you love them! Sing those at home, in the shower. Pick the ones you can sing well for the performance in front of millions of people.
8. Katie Stevens, singing "Break Away," was off key for the whole first part of the song, and not too on key for all of the second half. Unfortunate. She's also still posing for animal crackers while she sings, although she seems to have tamed her eyebrow raising a bit.

I think Katie and Paige are in the worst danger, and rightly so, but Katelyn and Lilly aren't exactly cushioned by swell performances either. I think Didi is probably the safest bet of the day, but judging by past voting displays, Lacey Brown should be also.

• The Boys

1. Alex Lambert, singing "Trouble." Whoo! Very good. Way more nasal on this performance than others, and not really my style in general, but still extremely good.
2. Casey James, singing "You'll Think of Me." My sister and I both thought his performance was better than the original. I thought so mostly because to me the original sounds horrifically flippant and jovial. I preferred this more sincere and straightforward version, although I still think the line "take your cat and leave my sweater" is just pitiful.
3. Tim Urban, singing "Hallelujah." It wasn't Jeff Buckley's version, since he kept to very all-in-one-(half of an)octave notes, but Tim pulled a Lacey Brown here, choosing the simple song that finally showed off his voice. He also pulled a Didi Benami by choosing the scary song but keeping it plain enough that he could handle it well. Clever! And probably in time, factoring in his looks appeal. Eck, not my type, but he does look like a teen actor.
4. Lee DeWyze, singing "Fireflies," was okay. He still lacks control and gets too rough and loose with his singing, but it was pretty good.
5. Mike Lynche, singing "This Woman's Work." Um. . . okay, this is one of my favorite songs, as sung by Kate Bush. I don't know the Maxwell version, but since I've heard some of this recent butchery, I listened to it once, and found it quite similarly butcherous. So Randy's comment that the performance was as good as Maxwell's may in fact be true, but the whole thing still sounded like hell to me, and doesn't make a lot of sense coming from a man. I guess it could be a man coming to that realization also, but. . . fine. It still sounded just gratingly awful to hear those frightening falsettos from Mr. Lynch. I thought it was just bad. "Me Hulk see all things me could give but not!" And then Kara fake crying so she could slobber onto Simon's shoulder some more. Oh, darling, make it go! Make it go away.
6. Todrick Hall, singing "Somebody to Love." His best performance to date, but not good enough, especially for that song! I could do better. They did better in Ella Enchanted.
7. Andrew Garcia, singing "Genie in A Bottle." When I heard he was doing Christina Aguilera, I joked that it was going to be Genie in a Bottle. Oh, sadness when I saw he was actually doing it. It was boring and plain except for the very last bit, and the whole performance was made worse by the fact that he was kowtowing to the judges instead of forging ahead and being himself, which I thought was going just fine and seemed to be working with America. Let's hope America keeps him around to give him more chances, because he deserved to be higher up this list, just not based on this performance.
8. Aaron Kelly, singing "I'm Already There." I don't know what happened, but Aaron fell apart on this one. He was as all over the place as Katie Stevens was during the first part of her performance, but he never recovered anywhere. The song was fine, in his vein, perfectly acceptable as a story told by someone outside the situation. But he sang it terribly. I think he's just too young. It's really too bad, because maybe if he had waited, he could have won a later American Idol. Maybe he'll be able to continue on his own, or maybe they'll bring Nashville Star back and he could have a chance there.

I think Todrick Hall and Aaron Kelly should go, and probably will. But I'd say Andrew Garcia and Lee DeWyze are also in slight danger. I guess Mike Lynche, revulsed as I am to say it, is safe with that vile version of This Woman's Work, and I'd also say Casey is still safe, hope Alex is, and assume Tim is (although 90210 is back on this week---his fan base could have gotten distracted!)

American Idol - The Top 20

American Idol - Week 2

Apart from Joe Nunez, I wasn't too surprised to see the eliminations from Week 1. I wished Janell had chosen a better song, or at least sung "What About Love" better. But I don't think she would have won anyway, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

The Top 20

• The Girls

1. Katelyn Epperly, singing "The Scientist." I think she could have done this better, but I still liked it as it was.
   
2. Siobhan Magnus, singing "Think." The note wasn't a perfect one for me---it devolved into screechy. Also, she gets a little too mouth and crazy when she sings songs like this one.
   
3. Crystal Bowersox, singing "Long As I Can See the Light." Ah, much better, more genuine than last week. And it feels like a more relaxed song for her, less "look at me, I'm a real hippie." Although of course she's still doing that.
4. Lilly Scott, singing "A Change is Gonna Come." This was great to hear in her style, really. But is a change ever going to come with her? I'm starting to get a little uneasy that she's going to be doing this exact same delivery for every song she ever does. That's going to get tiresome.
5. Didi Benami, singing "Lean on Me." It was okay, well done, but the song didn't feel quite as genuine with her, and I think it was a strange fit.
   
6. Katie Stevens, singing "Put Your Records On." This girl needs to quit posing for animal crackers, and she'll be better. I don't understand why she doesn't just sing. If she loves singing so much, she should be able to do that, to stop being grown up Shirley Temple tap-smiling on the good ship lollipop.
7. Paige Miles, singing "Walk Away." Fine, but fairly forgettable. I don't know what she's doing, but she's wasting her chance.
8. Haeley Vaughn, singing "The Climb." Oh, my. Well, that's just too bad. I think she's just too young. And I hate to say it, but she has to work on that lisp. It's not incidental. She has a really amazing voice there if she could get complete control of it, and she is just adorable and winning in every way except actually winning.
9. Lacey Brown, singing "Kiss Me." What?! She can't even do this properly? I don't understand. I could have sworn that she was good last year, so this makes no sense. Is she just nervous? But then she seems to think she performed well after these first two disastrous showings. Well, she's wrong. This was better than last week, but considering the nightmare that was, it's not saying much to be better. Barely passing, Miss Brown.
10. Michelle Delamor, singing "Arms Wide Open." I don't know if this was an attempt to show range or what. I appreciate the try, but it just didn't work. When it comes down to it, Arms Wide Open is a pretty cheeseball pop song anyway, it just usually has a testosterone-drowned overly deep vocal grunting it out. Her version was sweet, but not even a perfectly done rendition of this rather boring song.

I think Lacey and Michelle should go, but Haeley and Paige are in the doghouse as well. It's a shame that Lacey hasn't been able to show us anything but dreck.

• The Boys

1. Alex Lambert, singing "Everybody Knows." Wow. Beautifully done, and such a great voice.
2. Aaron Kelly, singing "My Girl." This was sweet from him, which was a surprise, because who can cover this song? I think being an almost-child helps a lot. But he also sang it sincerely and well.
3. Casey James, singing "I Don't Want to Be." It could have been a lot better. The lyrics got a little muffled and jumbled at points, and he didn't have as much power and conviction as he could have. But he played the guitar well (especially for an American Idol contestant) and he didn't have a lot of competition this week.
4. Lee DeWyze, singing "Lips of an Angel." I don't know what he did with this that was different than the original, but he performed it about as well as the original anyway.Which means he was pretty good. I've always found the song odd and disturbing, but it was an interesting choice here.
   
5. Jermaine Sellers, singing "What's Going On." The problem here is that if you're going to do this song, you have to be amazing. This wasn't amazing, but it was okay. It was fine. And he does have such a great voice. It's just a little frustrating he didn't show it more.
6. Andrew Garcia, singing "You Give Me Something." This fell a bit flat for me. I feel bad for Andrew, because he seems to be losing his verve and fun side. I wish he could be happier and get back his easy confidence of the audition phase. Maybe if the judges stopped hounding him and focusing on one tiny aspect of what he can do, it would help.
7. Mike Lynche, singing "It's a Man's World." Again, the problem here is that you are not James Brown, and you're never going to be James Brown. Mr. Lynche is just not a soulful, real vocalist. He's okay, he's got a decent set of pipes, but he's poppy, R & B at best, no deeper blues soul. I don't even see a rock soul. His performance was okay, but not stirring or terribly sincere.
8. Todrick Hall, singing "What's Love Got to Do With It." Yikes. Well, better than last week. And he didn't totally change the song, in spite of what the judges said. I think he changed it up just enough. But what's with only singing lady songs? Is he ever going to get to really make vocals? It sounds like he's pushing to stay in the higher register, and he doesn't have to, it doesn't feel totally comfortable and appropriate.
9. John Park, singing "Gravity." He may have scored higher if he had chosen a more lively song. What a snooze, and no real display of his vocal talent. It's a shame, because I thought he was a real contender this year, and he's so cute to boot. But it looks like he's going to come and go.
10. Tim Urban, singing "Come On Get Higher." This poor fellow. . . I don't know what's going on. I thought he was okay in the tryouts and audition period, but he is just making a horrible showing here. I think it's almost worse that he's gotten on, with what he's putting out there as his ability now. But seriously, they did get rid of the actor who played Ethan on 90210 last year, so don't they need someone new now? Does One Tree Hill need a little brother character?

This really seems like it will be a lady's year. The men have a few very good choices, with the cute and able Casey James; and the unusual and charming Alex. But the ladies have more able-bodied souls belting it out throughout their ranks, while the guys are slim pickins indeed. I'd say Tim Urban and Todrick Hall should go, but if Tim Urban was safe last week, he'll probably be safe this week. So John Park is definitely at risk, and next I'd guess Andrew and Jermaine, since inexplicably, Mike Lynche seems to appeal to the judges and voters. He's okay, but I don't see how he would have any real radio appeal.

So I wrote that before we knew the results, and of course I wasn't too surprised with the outcome. I wish Jermaine had gotten to stay instead of Todrick. I think Jermaine had a lot more talent and more to show, but he didn't earn the right to stay, unfortunately. And it doesn't matter that Todrick stayed instead; he'll be gone soon anyway.

American Idol - The Top 24

So I used to amaze and astound my friends with my uncannily on-target American Idol breakdowns and predictions. Granted, these were friend who either agreed with me but weren't interested in taking the time to voice their own takes first, or didn't watch American Idol anyway. But still, I've been told I have a knack, and I've been encouraged to revive that tradition, so I recommence here!

I'm going to include the rankings for the first couple of episodes before I get to the current episode. I know they could have been back-adjusted, but why would I bother, really? I'm already wasting time including them here, do I really want to waste more time?

Week One

• the girls

1. Siobhan Magnus, singing "Wicked Game." I don't really like the changes she made to the lyrics, and she bugs me in general, but her voice was the best.
2. Katelyn Epperly, singing "Oh Darling." Yikes! The outfit. She's escaped from a 1983 cheapie music video that took place in a bordello. And her mugging bugs me. But again, she's tops.
3. Lilly Scott, singing "Fixing A Hole." Good. Reminds me of someone else, and she's still doing what she did with the Ella song in tryouts, but still better than most.
4. Crystal Bowersox, singing "One Hand in My Pocket." Which I hate (the song), and she's someone who actually give peace signs, so. . . ugh. But yet again, good singing.
5. Haeley Vaughn, singing "I Want to Hold Your Hand." I disagreed with the judges here. Although she was at times a little uncontrolled, I really liked what she did with the song and her ernest energy. Sweet.
6. Didi Benami, singing "The Way I Am" would have scored higher had she sung more and schticked less. Her mouth was literally caging in her voice during several parts of the song. Why? To be soundalike?
7. Katie Stevens, singing "Feeling Good." I hate you, Michael Bublé, for covering this song. You suck. Katie Stevens was okay, although she emotes like a drama clubber and I agree the song wasn't very fun for a 17-year-old.
8. Michelle Delamor, singing "Falling." Eh. Cute getup, cheap lite Whitney version of what is a soulful and grittily emotional song when Alicia sings it.
9. Paige Miller, singing "All Right Now." Yeah, what? "All Right Now" when you've got the whole Billboard Charts catalog at your fingertips, and you're a soulful chick? I don't get it. But she was passable.
10. Janell Wheeler, singing "What About Love." Oh NO! Why would she have chosen this song? And why would she have worn those legging-jeans? Both wretched choices, pulled off badly. A shame, because she has real talent. What a waste of a try on American Idol.
11. Ashley Rodriguez, singing "Happy." I never understood how this girl made it, because she just isn't as good as other people. It was always her "look" that got her through, from the very first audition in front of Poshy Vic. This was better than I'd have expected, but still not good enough.
12. Lacey Brown, singing "Landslide." A nightmare. It was like a QVC jewelry salesperson suddenly started giving birth to a snake and decided to sing Fleetwood Mac through the labor.

Although my assessment would ideally put forth the worst singers as the most likely to be eliminated, that's not always the case, and wasn't here. My top choices for elimination were, in order, Lacey Brown, Katie Stevens, Janell Wheeler, Ashley Rodriguez, and Paige Miles. I'd have guessed Haeley or Michelle would be next in line.

• the boys

1. Casey James, singing "Heaven." What a perfect song choice! And great shy-but-sincere delivery. What a charmer!
2. Andrew Garcia, singing "Sugar We're Going Down." I don't know what the judges were talking about. I thought this was exactly the kind of thing he did with the Paula Abdul song, and I thought it worked well.
3. Joe Muñoz, singing "You and I Both." I hate Jason Mraz, but this was well done. I'm surprised he made it through the tryouts with his looks, since they seem to prize that above other factors, like his great voice.
4. Alex Lambert, singing "Wonderful World." He didn't perform as well as he could have, but he's got an easily heard good voice, and a unique one at that. He's also the cutest this year, in my opinion.
5. Lee DeWyze, singing "Chasing Cars." Very good, although his voice is a tad rough and a bit too uncontrolled at points.
6. Aaron Kelly, singing "Here Comes Goodbye." His voice was surprisingly good, but he seemed nervous and just looks way too young. I almost feel like it'd have been better if he'd come when he's older.
7. John Park, singing "God Bless the Child." I thought it was all right, but he could have chosen a jazzier, more modern song, or at least had some more fun with it. I hate it when people choose sentimental songs for their first. What, you think you won't get another chance to sing it? Well, sing it and you might not.
8. Michael Lynche, singing "With This Love." Unexpected, and good, but the unexpected part sort of made the whole thing slightly comical, which wasn't so great.
9. Jermaine Sellers, singing "Get Here." Definitely could have been better, but you can hear this guy has a good voice.
10. Tyler Grady, singing "American Woman." Yikes. I never understood why they let this guy through at the auditions---again, another one they seemed to like for his "look," which seemed to me like that one guy in the other dorm at college. You know, that guy. The one with the Doors poster who has leather lace-up pants. Okay, so maybe I didn't know that guy at college. I went to a small college. I'm sure he's at most colleges. He's certainly at most dive bars. Not singing.
11. Tim Urban, singing "Apologize." As soon as I heard the song choice, I was scared. So when Mr. 90210 got to the part where the high notes were supposed to be, I was almost ready for the epic fail. It still was a cringe.
12. Todrick Hall, singing "Since You've Been Gone." Mr. Hall only landed below Mr. Urban because Mr. Urban did sing some of his song, and did okay in those parts. Todrick Hall---I don't know what he was doing. Chanting?

I didn't know who to guess would go home from the guys, because you sort of have to gauge who the girls think is cute this year. Certainly Tyler Grady should go home, but was he cute to people? You just can't tell until you get a sense of things.

It turned out people must not have thought he was cute, because he got the boot. 90210 Tim must be high on the hottie factor, though, to beat that nightmarish performance. And sad to say, Joe Muñoz was this year's Jorge Núñez. Not appealing enough, for some reason, to win the votes his voice deserved. It's crushing when someone who really could sing beautifully is shunned by America because he doesn't fit the "idol" image. But the show is called American Idol, I guess.