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.