The Top 9 Perform - 3/31/09

[The4thJudge]

Tight Black T

So, I thought the theme for the night was iTunes Top 100 Downloads. I guess I was misinformed because no matter how much I like the songs, Play that Funky Music and Ain't No Sunshine can't be in the top 100. My confusion aside, it was another night where I was thinking that this show has definitely seen better days. My hopes for a season that compared to Season 5, and it's very personable and now successful class, have been almost completely dashed. 8/9 of the remaining contestants can really sing. My question is why aren't they?

After a great performance two weeks ago, Anoop seems to have decided that he'd rather be a sleep aid than the American Idol. Can anyone tell me how an up-tempo Usher song can put you to sleep? I may have asked this question before, but are the band and backup singers particularly bad this year? To some extent, they both seem to be dragging down the singers.

Please, please I beg of you America, do not continue to vote for Megan. I don't care if VFTW tells you to, you've just got to stop this madness. WTF was that? She said she wanted to give us some good lovin' and all she gave me was a massive headache.

There was no doubt in my mind, and that of my viewing partner, that Danny felt every word of "What Hurts the Most." While once again the softer, gentler parts were a bit shaky, he totally killed once he hit the power area. I know there have been many comparisons made to Taylor, but in the middle of the song there was a moment where he was Taylor – a soul-stirring growl that just grabbed me and shook me. God do a love a good growl.

Allison's look and performance were both disappointing for me. I agree that it looked like she was playing dress-up and it was hard for me to take her seriously. And while I am definitely not a fan of No Doubt, Don't Speak is one of their most tolerable songs, and I had high hopes. I liked the slow guitar portion of the song most of all, since she screamed the rest.

Even though Scott sang a song by one of my favorite artists of all time, Billy Joel, he did nothing to engage me. It really is all the same, week after week. Though this week, I thought that his piano playing really did shine.

Matt, dude, that was just . . . awful, and I'm really disappointed. The Fray is, for reasons unknown to me, popular right now. You Found Me is just not a good song and not the kind of music he should be performing.

I think my biggest disappointment of the whole competition has been Lil Rounds. Week after week I keep waiting for her to hit it out of the park and she just doesn't. She seemed devastated after the judge's comments, and cried while Ryan asked her daughters if they wanted to punch Randy. One of them said she did, but hugged him instead. Aww. I just have to take this moment to profess my love for Ryan. This season, I have seen many truly caring and tender moments from him. Last night there was another. When he returned to the stage and saw Lil crying, he gently wiped a tear from her cheek. Yeah, I'm a sap.

I know there was a gasp among the SP when Ryan announced that Play That Funky Music was Adam's choice for the night. Music Maven in her blog today http://musicmaven.wordpress.com/ called it sacrilege. Well, not sure if I'd go that far. While I am not fond of Adam, each week I give him a chance to impress me. He did it last week and I was sure he could do it again. Uh, no. He was back to the same screaming, over-the-top Adam. There is no doubt this boy has a voice. It's how he chooses to use it that I have a problem with. In my opinion, he always takes the performance one-step beyond what he has to.

Finally, the surprise of the night, and of the season actually – Kris. In the last two weeks, Kris has proven that he's in this thing to win it. His performance of Ain't No Sunshine, one of my favorite songs, was original and current. He showed his versatility by putting away the guitar and stepping behind the keyboard. The judges always talk about the package. I'm seeing it in this kid. Let's see if he can maintain this momentum.

Bottom three: Megan, Scott, Matt. Saying a prayer that Megan goes!

Lil' Dawg

Anoop Desai: Draggy. He didn't make it his own.

Megan Joy: OH BOY! That was . . . shall we say, interesting? I think she should have been gone weeks ago

Danny Gokey: GAH! I believe I thudded at one point in that song. So good. Can't wait for the iTunes version.

Allision Iraheta: Vocals were great, as always. But I agree with the judges that the outfit was a little much.

Scott MacIntyre: Not too bad. Probably my favorite performance from him so far.

Matt Giraud: I didn't think it was as bad as the judges did . . . but it certainly was not his best performance. Definitely not bottom three material.

Lil Rounds: I was kinda bored. I don't think it was the right song choice. Good vocal, but boring.

Adam Lambert: Screaming. It was original, but it made me very . . . tense.

Kris Allen: Mmmmm. Teehee! He really is good. I think we need to watch out for him.

Bottom 3: Megan, Anoop, Scott. Goodbye Megan. PLEASE!


Seacrest's Hair

We don't get what this theme is. "Pick whatever you want and find an iTunes chart that it's on"? Okay then. We're going to be brief today, because it just wasn't worth talking about.

Anoop sang "Caught Up", an Usher song we don't know and apparently don't like. He was technically good but just not our bag, baby.

Megan (Joy) (whatever) sang "Turn Your Lights Down Low", which we remember as being a soft, sexy kind of song. However, Megan (Joy) (whatever) can't handle soft and sexy, because she has to put that annoying affectation into her voice, and it was quite, quite painful. And for the fifty-millionth time, Kara, women do not have falsetto! We're so tired of having to say that.

Danny sang "What Hurts The Most"; a perfect choice, really, because the women who seem to like him are also generally Rascal Flatts fans (as far as we have seen, anyway). The beginning was fine for us, but then he proceeded to beat the crap out of the rest of the song and we felt like he lost the melody. Simon, oddly, loved it.

Allison grew up listening to No Doubt, so she thought "Don't Speak" would be a good choice. It was just a'ight for us, not our favorite performance, but the Cyndi Lauper look was cute (if a bit light for her) and she's decent with the guitar. We would have arranged it differently, that's all. Paula used big words: is she feeling okay?

Scott put us to sleep, but we're pretty sure he sang "Just The Way You Are". His problem is he has no emotion or passion. Is he autistic or something in addition to being blind? Seriously. And the new hair: better, but reminds us of... well, we're not sure yet, we'll get back to you.

Matt Giraud sang "You Found Me", which is on the Top 10 station we listen to at work, and we can't stand it. He had a rough start, not much better the rest of the way through, and he did bad things to a melody we didn't like to begin with.

Lil is looking better this week (holy cow, has she got a booty!) and picked a better song ("Surrender"), but a very difficult one melodically. She was sliding all over and we're not certain she pulled it off. The big notes, in fact, could have been a lot bigger. It was like the difference between a good massage and an orgasm -- she needs to find the orgasm next week.

Adam is the only one we really woke up for. He sang "Play That Funky Music", and we kinda hoped he would borrow Taylor's paisley shirt, but no such luck. As it was, he kept last week's tame look, although a bit more casual, and he's a totally awesome dancer. So cute. He put a smile on our face, but we wouldn't really put that on a modern album. Still the best of the night. And Kara, again... Studio 57? Really?

Kris Allen sang "Ain't No Sunshine"... he has this habit of taking songs we either like or have no opinion about, and turning them into what we like to call "pussy hipster rock ballads". He's just not our genre, and we're never going to like him, although we can acknowledge he'll probably go on to sell vast piles of records. Dammit.

Can we get rid of Megan now? Please? Scott and either Matt or possibly Anoop to round out the bottom 3. (Not our bottom 3, that would be Megan, Scott, Kris. We recognize that America thinks way differently than we do.)

BTW, we hope we are providing a public service by voicing the minority opinion here, because otherwise we'd probably give up watching the whole irritating show and just download Adam's performance every week for our own gratification. You're welcome.

[TaylorsDame]

AHAHAHAHA! Awesome review!

[keb]

This is American Idol Ryan reminds us every week and you never know what will happen. Do I think Adam will win hell no, he might not even make it to the top three or even past this week. Actually I really don't think being an American Idol winner would serve him or TPTB in the long run.

Right now he is a judges favorite as is Danny, but Alexis was also a favorite and she was one of the first to go. Damn she didn't even make the tour. Past seasons have given us the "surprise" eliminations of Chris Daughtry and Michael Johns.

Nothing is ever written in stone maybe that is what keeps us coming back each year.

Thank you 5th Judge for your valuable opinion/opinions.