American Idol Reaction - The Top 12 Perform

Last week, the American Idol faithful dismissed a contestant who probably deserved to stay (Lily Scott) and kept around a bunch of folks who should have been sent packing (Tim Urban, Katie Stevens). Alas, Idol is a cruel mistress and the most talent doesn’t always translate the longest run on the show. Tonight the Top 12 took the stage to perform Rolling Stones hits, which had me more than a little excited. I always love a good clip of Mick Jagger chicken-walking around the stage and revel the chance to see Keith Richards’s corpse show up on screen.

A note on format as this is the first night the guys and gals will perform together. I will score each song (1=sucks, 5= fine, 10=I will YouTube it later), will go in order of performance rather than score, and don’t look back at previous week’s ratings. It’s easier in terms of my individual comments. I write all my notes during the performances and include anything of note the judges contribute (often not much).

6.9 - Mike Lynche ( Miss You) Last week the judges basically lost their minds over Big Mike’s performance. I didn’t get it. I mean I get the love to a certain point, and I suppose on a relatively mediocre season, Mike stands out to a certain degree. Tonight’s performance was fine. He hit a couple of nice notes but I find his overall demeanor and, I guess I would call it, girth distracting. Overall, a good performance and Mike started off the night nicely.

7.5 - Didi Benami (Play With Fire )I could do a little less with the sultry staring at the camera. When I was writing notes and looking down I was in love with her singing. When I looked up and saw her staring menacingly at me from the stage, I got a little turned off. I thought her singing was strong right up until the rough last note which dropped her down a bit on score. (I had her at an 8) A shame too because the rest of the song was pretty awesome, but at this point your arrangements need to be great start to finish.

7.2 -Casey James ( It’s All Over Now) Yesterday Steve West claimed I had a man crush on Casey James. I have given him consistently high ratings because he’s been consistently good (seemingly difficult to do in this crowd). I don’t know if I knocked his score down because I feel emasculated or because tonight’s performance was merely average. I thought he was good, but not up to what he had done in previous weeks and a bit bland even for all its bravado and energy. That being said, he is still one of the frontrunners in this competition. Simon agreed with me on this one.

6 - Lacey Brown (Ruby Tuesday ) One of my favorite Stones songs. Lacey is a confusing contestant. I feel like she should be awesome. But she’s just not. She has the look, but something is missing in her vocals. I can’t help but feel Lily Scott’s voice on Lacey’s head would have been a legit contender to win American Idol. This song just never went anywhere for me, even with the little Regina Spektor ending.

4 – Andrew Garcia ( Give Me Shelter)Before this song Andrew Garcia is in uh-oh territory. Bu uh-oh I mean that he might be a one trick pony and just might not be the singer we thought. Is it fair to judge all his performances against one awesome, Hollywood Week covers song? Probably not, but tonight’s performance exposed him vocally to a frightening degree. It just didn’t sound good. At all. Even the last note lacked any power. Of course Ellen loved it, although I can’t imagine why. Awesome call out of Kara by Simon when she gets mad at Andrew for not singing the lyrics with the correct mood. (**More on this at the end)

4- Katie Stevens (Wild Horses) I hate it when singers say they are singing songs because the “lyrics speak” to them. It just sounds so stupid. Maybe it’s true, but is that ever why they are choosing the song? If it is, then there is a huge problem. This girl still reminds me of Tatiana Del Toro. I wonder If that affects the way I hear her sing. And then, oh my god..The outfit. What the hell was with the dress? Maybe it’s just the light, but she kind of looked like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. On to the song; it wasn’t good and sounded fairly out of tune for the most part. Then she hit the end and I almost went for the mute button. Randy liked it, Ellen made fun of her outfit, Cara gave her a backhand complement, and Simon knew the song because the famous Susan Boyle recorded it. He makes millions in the record industry folks.

5 - Tim Urban (Under My Thumb ) Now here is a guy who shouldn’t be around anymore and in a couple more weeks could end up in Sanjaya Malakar territory. He started by talking about himself in the third person. Then he got on stage. Poor kid just isn’t a great singer, although this week he at least he picked a song he could manage. It was pretty boring but not awful. I give higher marks for not going beyond ability. Not much problem here for Timmy. Overall, he was good. He just has no chance of ever winning. I didn’t mind the arrangement as much as Randy and didn’t think it was worse than Andrew or Katie (I might catch heat for that). Ellen said it best, “there was nothing wrong with it.”

2 - Siobhan Magnus (Paint it Black )This song always makes me think of the old show Tour of Duty. Siobhan did a good job of sucking most of the energy out of a pretty haunting and yet energetic song. Everything about this was odd. The vocals, her look, her facial expressions, her vocals, and especially the last note at the end. I mean really, what the hell was going on here? I don’t know what to say about it. And then: Randy loved it?! So did Ellen?! And Cara?! Flashbacks of Adam Lambert? Simon praises it? Okay, so this is the one I might get hammered on. I am sticking to my guns. That stunk.

7 - Lee DeWyze ( Beast of Burden) I thought this was one of Lee’s better vocal performances because he didn’t try to overdo it, but instead let his voice come out here and there. Not a spectacular performance by any means, but standard and strong. I liked it for its subtlety and think this is the kind of song he should be singing this way every single week. Wow, and I actually agree with Kara’s assessment that he did well in all the right places this week.

9 - Paige Miles ( Honky-Tonk Woman) I have been a back and forth on Paige so far. One week I thought she the best. Another I thought she was underwhelming. This was a good week for her. Unlike Siobhan, I thought her whole performance seemed natural, well balanced and she kept her vocals in an attainable range. I thought this was the best performance of the night by a healthy margin. I disagree with Randy on the energy, she was fine. And she had laryngitis? That was uber-impressive.

7.5 - Aaron Kelly (Angie )Aaron is another performer who has me confused from a winning standpoint. I just have a great deal of difficulty picturing him standing on the stage down to the final two. Whereas David Archuleta used his general teenage weinerosity to totally surprise you with a phenomenal vocal performance, Aaron hasn’t had that (to quote Simon) “moment” yet. Tonight was a pretty big step forward. He was strong and capable with a fairly slow song. One of the better performances of the night.

8.5 - Crystal Bowersox (You Can’t Always Get What You Want )It’s no secret Crystal has been among my favorite this season. But when she started I was ready to give her a relatively low score. Then she turned it up a notch and proved she understands exactly what kind of song she can, and should, sing. I didn’t think it was as good as Paige’s, but it wasn’t too far behind either.

A much stronger night of Idol tonight as the performances gathered more in the above average range and less in the “my god what is happening” area. It was an encouraging sign.

Other notes:

- Can we please have a moratorium on Kara’s complaints concerning the contestants misinterpreting the lyrics of a song? It is such a trivial and insignificant thing to focus on. If it is blatant, like singing Nirvana’s “Rape Me” to a polka tune, then sure complain away. Otherwise, give it a rest.

- Any thoughts on my Siobhan ranking? She was the clear judges’ favorite and I thought she sounded just awful. I would love to hear what other people thought about her performance.