WE COULD HAVE HAD IT ALL: It's Sing Whatever The Hell You Want Week (again) on Idol, limited only by The Songs Of This Century. Will everyone stay in their boxes? Of course, as Kim and I review...
Adam: Well, that's a new place to start American Idol -- it's the Redemption Island singers! Oh, I miss Naima. And Smiling, Twitchy Paul doesn't belong within 200 yards of a Pink song. (Also, I completely forgot that Karen Rodriguez existed.)
Kim: Karen who?? It must be strange to be Paul and come back on the show the week after you get booted.
Adam: It's all (I assume) in reaction to the story that Pia's going to sing for DWTS soon; time to remind these kids who made them stars. Anyway, Scotty's batting leadoff, and ... does it matter what he does, or what we think of it? I found it boring even by I'm City Folk And I Don't Much Cotton To Country Music standards, but perhaps your ear is more subtle.
Kim: The thing that bothers me the most about Scotty McCreery is the wiggly eyebrows.I stopped caring about Scotty weeks ago. James, on the other hand, is in it to win it. I love the snare drum guys and everything about this performance. James is a wall of sound guy, and I love when they arrange him that way.
Adam: Really? It felt like watered-down Adam Lambert to me and I couldn't help but experience it in that light. On its own merits, it's fine, but I couldn't love it. Similarly, that Adele song is so ubiquitous right now that Haley felt tepid in comparison. It's a great, great song and I've love to have heard Siobhan Magnus sing it. Or Carly Smithson. But not Haley Reinhart.
Kim: I find James more genuine and less contrived than Lambert. (And I loved Lambert.) I might be the only person watching AI who doesn't know who Adele is, so I liked what the song did for her voice. (I know none of these songs. And here I was thinking that I was starting to get back up to speed on popular music courtesy of a second grade daughter.
The fact that Luther Vandross is alive and well and making music surprises me. That's really all I have to say about Jacob.
Adam: [First: here's the Adele song.]
I hate to break it to you, Kim: "Dance With My Father" was released in 2003; Luther died in 2005. It was a restrained performance ... too restrained. He should have done The Song Occasionally Referred To As "Forget You" instead. Casey, however, did perform a song by a judge on The Voice, and "Harder to Breathe" is the best he's been since "I Put A Spell On You." Intense enough, and then with such a sweet ending.
Kim: Well, that explains why I was surprised to find Luther still alive. What's the opposite of premorse?
I did love Casey, and was tickled by the fact that both he and JLo were blushing. Upbeat Casey is a lot of fun.
Can Stefano please go home now? He's cheesy in any decade.
Adam: Oh, hush. That wasn't much of a singing demonstration, but it was a fun performance. It was contemporary. There was a dance move or two involved. It's one of the best things they've done this season -- which isn't to say that Crystal Bowersox didn't have six or seven performances better than anything else we've seen in 2011. (And she did.)
And then came Lauren, I guess. It was spunky. I was not impressed, not that there was anything bad about it.
Kim: I think it's sweet that Lauren has all this insecurity this far into the competition. She looks exceptionally pretty tonight. The song was cute and fun, and she sang it well.
So for me, the remaining tiers go like this. Top three: James, Lauren, Casey. Floating around in the middle: Hailey. Get them off my stage: Scotty, Jacob, Stephano. I realize that I am disaggregated from the voters at this point, but these are my views.
Adam: Jacob, Haley and Scotty were the weakest for me tonight, and I'm guessing the Pagonging of all women continues tomorrow with Haley's ouster. We're still looking at a final with James v. Last Country Standing, which'll probably be Scotty.
