American Idol Reaction - Top 10 Males

American Idol flipped the script on us, and the performers, tonight when the guys took the stage. Seems Crystal Bowersox had some health issues and they had to switch the nights around. The guy’s had a lot to prove tonight coming off their total train wreck of a show last week. Let’s see if they kept pace with the ladies.

Quick note on scoring and format: 10= Could be next American Idol, 5= I forgot about the performance by the time the judges spoke, 1= cats screeching in my backyard. I write all notes before judges speak and then add their thoughts if anything strikes me as interesting. I’m putting this disclaimer in here because I was particularly prescient with my comments tonight. I guess I’ve just watched too much Idol.

8.5 - Big Mike Lynche (This is a Man’s World) – A little softer touch and right up Big Mike’s alley. I liked this much better than when it looked like he was holding a baby guitar last week. Additionally, this type of music suits his voice, style and overall look so much better. Like Ruben Studdard, but actually in shape. This performance was so completely opposite of last week; in a good way. The judges felt the same way, and really how could they not.

6.5 - Alex “Don’t Call Me Adam” Lambert (Everybody Knows ) – Can anyone this nervous ever be the winner of a talent competition? Sidenote: his own language? Come on dude. Anyway, his performance: 100 times better than last week (Simon voted a million times, he always has to one up me). Maybe the guitar does make a huge difference in his talent level. I was fully prepared to hate whatever he sang. But I didn’t. It sounded smooth and actually pretty good. I thought for sure he’d be sent home on Thursday, but now I’m thinking he should stick around.

6 - Casey James ( I Don’t Wanna Be) – Another contestant (Crystal B) who claims to have never seen the show before being on this season. The jury is out on whether letting people on to this info is actually a good thing. It can sound pretentious. I thought Casey was the strongest male, by far, last week. I don’t know if tonight’s performance was the most perfect follow up. It was fine and he can obviously play guitar, but this Gavin Degraw song isn’t the best way to showcase vocals. There is no chance he goes home and I expect a great deal from him going forward. The judges may have disagreed with me as they generally raved except for, GASP, Kara. And I can’t believe I’m about to say this, I agree with her.

5.9 - Aaron Kelly (My Girl ) – You don’t really expect this guy’s voice to come out of his little middle school body. I really liked the country twang that he put on, what is usually, a pretty bland song. Thought he did about as good as can be expected from this kid. I took him down a couple of points because, really what was there in his performance?

5.5 - Lee Dewyze (Lips Of An Angel) –This guy is right on the cusp of being real, real good. He is just falling a note or two short. For instance, David Cook would have slayed this song because he had the vocal prowess. Lee doesn’t have it (and here is where I completely disagree with Simon, at least from what I’ve heard). At least not yet. Song choice was perfect, but his problem is strictly talent based.

5 - Andrew Garcia (You Give Me Something ) – Two James Morrison songs in two weeks. It flopped for Alex last week. Andrew was better, but not by any great degree. This was the perfect performance for a 5 score. At times it sounded cool, but it never went anywhere. I wonder if he peaked in Hollywood Week with “Straight Up?” (typed before Ellen’s comment, I swear) I’m worried he did, because he is one of my favorites. One of his problems in song choices is they’ve been too slow. Get the guitar and do something really upbeat.

4- John Park (Gravity) –Man, I want this guy to be good. He just seems like a nice fella. Unfortunately, the song he sang tonight almost made me fall asleep and he just doesn’t have the vocal chops to compete over the long haul; that much is obvious. At times it sounded serviceable, while the rest sounded pretty darn bad. There are a ton of John Mayer songs to pick and he chose one that is entirely forgettable. He could go home and I wouldn’t be surprised.

3 - Todrick Hall(What’s Love Got To Do With It )- He chose not to dance tonight. He should have. It would have distracted me from the singing. Just sounded out of key and all over the place. Right as I was typing that last sentence my wife chimed in, “I like him a lot.” Uh-oh, are my ears failing me? With my marriage on the line we headed to the judges. I win. (Again Simon just copies what I already said in my living room.)

2- Jermaine Sellers (What’s Going On) – He was almost a screeching cat last week. When I heard the song choice I just said, “Uh-oh.” It didn’t get much better from there. The wife chimed in, “Yikes. At least he looks good.” She is starting to sound just like the judges. The judges said pretty much the same thing, right before they destroyed that ear-piercing mess. It was gross.

2 -Tim Urban (Come On Get Higher)- Needed to be good because I love this song. It wasn’t. Frankly it just sounded like a coffeehouse open mic night. He hit one note, but folks don’t let that fool you. This was a bad performance. Think he goes home after this week. When Ellen says his strength isn’t in singing he has to know it’s over. Shocked at Simon’s eval because he and I rarely disagree.

Some other random thoughts:

- Could this episode have just been an hour and a half? One singer per segment was just a joke. The DVR got burned out tonight.

- I wonder how much of Kara’s reaction to Casey was her trying to move the lovefest attention away because last week it was so heinous.