The Spectacular:
- ALEXIS GRACE. Who knew that switching up the haircut was going to reveal such a performer? Her "Never Loved a Man" was one of the most sophisticated performances I can recall seeing on any season of this show. The unquestionable highlight of tonight's first-twelve. And her father is apparently Meat Loaf!
The Good:
- Robert Downey Jr. Jr. I'm with Simon on this one -- Danny Gokey was good, but not as good as Kara/Randy/Paula thought. I'm a Gokey fan (although I don't think he can win the year after David Cook), but I didn't love his Hero.
- Ricky Braddy. That was an awfully dull song (not to mention one I've never heard of), but he sang it well. Based on the judges reactions, he should land in Wild Card Week even if it doesn't boost him into the top three. (And his parents are Vicky and Ricky Sr.!)
- Jackie Tohn. I really liked that she went down a different road than the designated rocker chicks usually choose. I'm with Simon on the "trousers" -- dude, they're spandex, and with the Reebok hightops they land you squarely into the realm of 1985 aerobic instructors leading their troops of low-impact aerobicizers in another chorus of "Let's Get Physical."
- Tatiana del Toro. Who knew that someone so hopped up on Lithium can actually perform a challenging song successfully? To my -- and every single one of the judges' -- shock, Tatiana actually did quite a nice job on a Whitney song, of all things.
- Repeated NPH sightings!
The Meh (oh, it's good to be back, AI fans, in the post-Hollywood rounds, where The Meh gets to be a category again!):
- Anoop Desai. Oh, Anoop! What were you thinking, picking such a gloppy song? Have you never watched the show before? You never pick the song that's "really special to me," or the song that "I just really really like." Glurdge. He should make the wild card round, though, so maybe he'll get another shot. He deserves it, if for no other reason than that he deserves to have a good brow artist get to him with a pair of tweezers.
- Brent Keith. It wasn't a good draw for him, ending up in the same group as Michael Sarver, especially when Sarver picked the familiar song and Keith picked a more nichey country tune. But he sang it well -- certainly better than some of the stylings of the Bucky Covingtons of the world.
- Michael Sarver. He's totally better than this performance, and I think he's another good candidate for the wild card show if the fans of the roughneck call in for someone else. But this was a really awesome bar band performance and not a lot more.
- Ann Marie Boskovich. I thought she sang it fine. But, to paraphrase my favorite Tim Gunnism -- that's a lot of song. If you're going to take on Natural Woman, you've got to go big or go home. She'll do the latter.
- And then there's the flaw of the 4-judge format: when they all agree on something (which tonight was most of the time), it takes a long, long, loooong time for everyone to speak their piece.
The Ick:
- Casey Carlson. Ow dear lord make it stop now now NOW!
- Stevie Wright. See Casey Carlson.
- Steven Fowler. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. AI's black male tenors are not well served by picking their songs from the universe of uptempo R&B songs originally sung by black male tenors. (This, incidentally, was the great tragedy of Jamar Rogers' too-early ouster -- he knew how to pick a song.) They are not singerly. They are not vocally impressive. They are often great dance party songs, but that does not make them great AI song choices. As you were.
It's hard to handicap outcomes at this point, since in the past we've never really known who the top votegetters were in any given week. Alexis Grace, for sure. RD Jr. Jr., presumably. But then who's the third? I think it's one of the guys, and I think prior pimping will trump vocal quality. So I'll go with Michael Sarver for now.
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