American Idol Review: 3.23.10

Well folks, I nailed it on the head last week when I said Lacy Brown would go home. Can my prediction be correct two weeks in a row!? We’ll see. Last night the producers at Fox gifted us with the undeniable mentoring of the great Miley Cyrus. I mean, I honestly can’t think of what music would look like today without the vast contributions of Ms. Cyrus. If it weren’t for her, I would hardly know that I should actually “put my hands up” whilst partying in the USA. I digress…

Theme: Billboard #1s with celebrity mentor Miley Cyrus (barf).

Initial Thoughts: This could be really great depending on song choice. There are countless options here, so contestants better pick something that really makes them shine before they get fucked by Country Night. Let the show begin!

Lee Dewyze The Letter - I thought the arrangement was a bit too much, but I enjoyed his vocals. I really love the tone of his voice. My only criticism would be that every verse of this song ended up sounding the same. He wasn’t flexible with notes and didn’t provide a ton of difference from line to line. That being said, I really enjoy him and hope he goes far. Song choice was a bit skeptical, but I got what he was trying to do. Score = 8

Paige Miles Against All Odds - WTF happened? This was straight up terrible. A mess, really. I want the Paige who rocks back. She’s in trouble tonight and I’m not sure she has enough of a fan base to avoid elimination. Score = 3

Tim Urban Crazy Little Thing Called Love -Snooze. The performance was boring, his vocals were ok. This didn’t show off what he could do and Simon is quite right: the whole thing was corny. He’s cute though and probably will survive another week. He needs to step it up if he wants a chance at all. Score =4

Aaron Kelly Don’t Want To Miss A Thing – You could tell he was sick as he was holding back a lot of notes. That being said, I can’t criticize him. I might have underrated this one. I’m starting to get his appeal and it’s quite possible he could go far in this competition. Not a bad performance at all for having tonsilitis! Score = 7

Crystal Bowersox Me and Bobby McGee - She just plain rocks doesn’t she? What’s not to like about her. Her vocals were outstanding tonight, as usual. The only thing that bothers me is that the song choice was quite predictable. People have compared her voice to Janis Joplin so I felt this song choice was a bit obvious. I would love to see her without the guitar and doing something completely different. She’s still the one to beat. Score = 9

Michael Lynche When A Man Loves A Woman - Kind of a weird song choice, but pretty good vocals. I like him and want to see him do well, but I think he tries a bit too hard. If he just stood there and tore the song apart, he’d be fine. I like his falsetto and his tone. But this was a bit boring. Score = 6

Andrew Garcia I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Meh. If you’re going to do Motown, put a little stank on it PLEASE! This was boring and uninspiring. What a great song and a sub par performance. I like his voice, but dude needs to figure his shit out. Score = 5

Katie Stevens Big Girls Don’t Cry - I kind of just don’t like her. There I said it. She’s too automatic and her vocals are almost too robotic. She seems so into performing it precisely that she doesn’t seem to pay attention to her pitch and tone. I dunno. People have been raving about her, but I just don’t get it. It was ok, but I didn’t love it. Score = 6

Casey James Power of Love – He’s another one that I just don’t get. He’s kind of hot, plays the guitar well and has a nice voice. But he picks the dumbest songs! I can’t take him seriously as a musician. He’d be a great lead for a cover band. Score = 7

Didi Benami You’re No Good - I actually liked this more than the judges seemed to, but I do see their point. It seemed a bit “showy” and unlike her. I think she has one of the more interesting voices and really think she’ll be around for a while. There were probably 100s of songs that would have suited her better, but I didn’t think it was that bad. Score = 7

Siobhan Magnus Superstition – This was just ok for me. I think she could have done a lot more with the verses and made it a bit more soulful. You can’t deny she can hit good notes, but she has to be more than that. Adam Lambert got a rep for just screaming all the time, but the thing that made it work was how amazing the rest of the song was. She needs to mix it up and come out with something completely different next week. But I liked this to a degree. She’s still one of my favs. Score = 8

Bottom Three: I’m going to predict that Paige, Tim and Andrew are in line for the bottom three tonight. My guess is that Paige is going home. It’s possible it’ll be Andrew and I think Tim has too big of a fan base right now for him to be in trouble. We’ll see! Overall, not a stellar night. This season hasn’t left a lot to be desired.