Whatever Adam said or did to Tim Urban. It worked and Tim has moved up
to #3!
1. Crystal Bowersox. She opened the show and set a standard that was pretty tough for anyone else to live up to, leading “Saved” as if ‘Idol’ was her own personal revival tent. At one point she stopped playing her sparkly electric guitar and made a hand gesture that made me think she should ditch the instruments more often — I think she’d be pretty electric with her hands free.
2. Siobhan Magnus. How geeked did this season’s spiritual heir to Adam Lambert seem to meet her rival? On top of that, she performed “Suspicious Minds,” which is probably my favorite Elvis song. Her rendition was split in two stylistically — the first half was straight, the second in half-time, with ample opportunity for her to break out the high notes. There’s still an odd hollowness to her voice on certain notes that I can’t quite place. And for some reason the opening camera angle, which swooped down on her gradually, made her look kind of like The Joker? But I thought she sounded strong overall, and she at least gave the song a sort of dramatic arc that indicated she’d actually listened to its lyrics.
3. Tim Urban. His performance of “Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” brought to mind a fine blend of Jason Castro (the finger-picked sensitivity), Joe Jonas (the hair), and Simon Cowell (the cleavage-revealing top). It wasn’t perfect by any standards (dude needs to work on holding his low notes), but it was sweet and quite indicative of how far he’s come since that first awful performance of “Apologize” all those weeks ago. (I almost typed “years” there! This has really been a long season.)
4. Lee DeWyze. I don’t really see how Lee’s Blueshammerish take on “A Little Less Conversation” could have been seen at all “modern” or “current,” as the judges said it was. While he was much more animated this week than in his previous performances, there was something that was preventing me from fully connecting to it — perhaps it was the shadow of Elvis, which loomed larger on this song than on others thanks to the Junkie XL remix of the track that hit the pop charts a few years ago? (It is also kind of odd that Lee, who has been rendered mute every time the camera’s been trained on him when he isn’t singing, would take on a song with lyrics about talking less, but we can just chalk that up to delicious ‘Idol’ irony.)
5. Casey James. The shaggy-haired Casey closed out the show by passably turning “Lawdy, Miss Clawdy” into Jason Mraz’s “The Remedy,” which, sure, why not. At least he’s turning an old song into something current! Or at the very least “more recent than bar-band blues that was last on pop radio sometime during the late ’80s.”
6. Michael Lynche. The best thing about his deeply felt performance of “In The Ghetto”? Finding out that it was Siobhan who introduced him to the song.
7. Katie Stevens. Give her five years and some actual problems in her life that are deeper than “wahh, the judges don’t like me” and maybe she can pull off a song like “Baby, What Do You Want Me To Do” convincingly. As it stands now, she’s like singing toothpaste — the kind without stripes.
8. Aaron Kelly. And the other half of the “stage kids gone wild” equation was just as unfortunate this week, singing “Blue Suede Shoes” in such a way that suggested an extended dress-up session in a grownup’s closet.
9. Andrew Garcia. As if it wasn’t bad enough that he blatantly tried to tug America’s heartstrings by telling Ryan that he thought about being a father during last week’s elimination episode, the geeky Andrew performed “Hound Dog” as if it were a slowed-down ode to his pets. Yuck, yuck, yuck.
NEXT UP: Adam returns to the ‘Idol’ stage! Plus “a lot more,” which means in part a double-elimination and probably also means lots of ridiculous attempts to fill the allotted hour.
2. Siobhan Magnus. How geeked did this season’s spiritual heir to Adam Lambert seem to meet her rival? On top of that, she performed “Suspicious Minds,” which is probably my favorite Elvis song. Her rendition was split in two stylistically — the first half was straight, the second in half-time, with ample opportunity for her to break out the high notes. There’s still an odd hollowness to her voice on certain notes that I can’t quite place. And for some reason the opening camera angle, which swooped down on her gradually, made her look kind of like The Joker? But I thought she sounded strong overall, and she at least gave the song a sort of dramatic arc that indicated she’d actually listened to its lyrics.
3. Tim Urban. His performance of “Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” brought to mind a fine blend of Jason Castro (the finger-picked sensitivity), Joe Jonas (the hair), and Simon Cowell (the cleavage-revealing top). It wasn’t perfect by any standards (dude needs to work on holding his low notes), but it was sweet and quite indicative of how far he’s come since that first awful performance of “Apologize” all those weeks ago. (I almost typed “years” there! This has really been a long season.)
4. Lee DeWyze. I don’t really see how Lee’s Blueshammerish take on “A Little Less Conversation” could have been seen at all “modern” or “current,” as the judges said it was. While he was much more animated this week than in his previous performances, there was something that was preventing me from fully connecting to it — perhaps it was the shadow of Elvis, which loomed larger on this song than on others thanks to the Junkie XL remix of the track that hit the pop charts a few years ago? (It is also kind of odd that Lee, who has been rendered mute every time the camera’s been trained on him when he isn’t singing, would take on a song with lyrics about talking less, but we can just chalk that up to delicious ‘Idol’ irony.)
5. Casey James. The shaggy-haired Casey closed out the show by passably turning “Lawdy, Miss Clawdy” into Jason Mraz’s “The Remedy,” which, sure, why not. At least he’s turning an old song into something current! Or at the very least “more recent than bar-band blues that was last on pop radio sometime during the late ’80s.”
6. Michael Lynche. The best thing about his deeply felt performance of “In The Ghetto”? Finding out that it was Siobhan who introduced him to the song.
7. Katie Stevens. Give her five years and some actual problems in her life that are deeper than “wahh, the judges don’t like me” and maybe she can pull off a song like “Baby, What Do You Want Me To Do” convincingly. As it stands now, she’s like singing toothpaste — the kind without stripes.
8. Aaron Kelly. And the other half of the “stage kids gone wild” equation was just as unfortunate this week, singing “Blue Suede Shoes” in such a way that suggested an extended dress-up session in a grownup’s closet.
9. Andrew Garcia. As if it wasn’t bad enough that he blatantly tried to tug America’s heartstrings by telling Ryan that he thought about being a father during last week’s elimination episode, the geeky Andrew performed “Hound Dog” as if it were a slowed-down ode to his pets. Yuck, yuck, yuck.
NEXT UP: Adam returns to the ‘Idol’ stage! Plus “a lot more,” which means in part a double-elimination and probably also means lots of ridiculous attempts to fill the allotted hour.
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