No excuses this week... the contesants couldn't whine about not being familiar with the music of this decade -- though admittedly it was stil a bit disconcerting for me to hear that some of them were in high school, but I got over that. Not the best Idol night for sure... a couple of good performance, a lot in the middle, and more evidence of who should be the next few contestants shown the door.
So here we go, in order from first to worst from last night... and the rolling rankings and averages in paranthesis.
#1 Carrie Underwood - (#1 overall/1.83 average) - "Independence Day" - As usual, Carrie gave us flawless vocals - something that could not be said for most of the other contestants tonight. She is consistent. Only criticism would be that it was yet another straight-forward physical performance and that she did not stray even a centimeter away intepretation-wise.
#2 Vonzell Solomon - (#6/4.83) - "I Have Nothing" - Vonzell continues her march up the rankings. While I originally tagged her to finish out of the Top 5 she is showing signs of life. She managed to approach the Whitney version of the song, which is about all you can ask for.
#3 Constantine Maroulis - (#5/4.67) - "I Can't Make You Love Me" - What a perfectly named song for Constantine to sing... folks either love or hate Consty and this song and performance was not going to get any of his detractors to jump the fence. I thought Constantine made love to camera with his eyes last night (ok, I said something much more crude than "make love") - other called it creepy. The song is probably high on my list of favorites, so it was a good thing that I didn't think he ruined it. And yes, time to stop calling Constantine a "rocker" (or Simon please! comparing him with Bo)... yes he was/is in "rock" band... but he has only sang one song that could be classified that way ("Hard To Handle" in the semis).
#4 Nadia Turner - (T#2/2.83) - "I'm The Only One" - Thought it was a nice rebound for Nadia this week... although being a big Melissa Ethridge fan, I think her version paled in comparison to the original. Melissa has "meaty" vocals, and I think this brought to light some of her vocal limitations. But good performance and hopefully she will stay out of the Bottom 3 for awhile... things got a bit too scary last week.
#5 Bo Bice - (T#2/2.83) - "Remedy" - Another week that I wasn't liking Bo all that much... I take back all I said about last week when he slowed it down with "Time in a Bottle." Admittedly part of my problem was that I was not familiar with the song... so that always makes it hard to judge. Still a good performance (though I am tiring of the drag around the mikestand technique)... and that hat has got to go.
#6 Jessica Sierra - (#4/4.00) - "On The Side of Angels" - Well, if Jessica was great last week that pretty much means she is just going to be "aaaight" this week. Again nothing terribly wrong with the vocal, but there wasn't anything special about it... as with Bo, did not help any that she picked a song that I did not know. Too bad she went with a Leann Rimes song... when she mentioned The Dixie Chicks in the pre-performance piece I was pretty stoked... think she would have done better to go with a Chicks song. Would not be surprised if she lands in the Bottom 3 again... I agree with Simon that she has a "like-ability" issue... she might just get undeservedly bumped off on one of these "aaight" weeks.
#7 Nikko Smith - (T#8/7.00) - "Can We Talk?" - Ah, Nikko this week finally confesses up to being the son of former-MLB-er Ozzie Smith. But here we have yet another case of hard to judge due to not being familiar with the song. More of a problem for me was that I really don't get that much into this genre of music. I know this type of song has a lot of runs, stylistic stuff and improvisation... but I just find it to be messy.
#8 Anthony Federov - (T#8/7.00) - "Something About The Way You Look Tonight" - Ok, Anthony loses the glasses still does not do an all that bad job vocally but I am really not connecting with him all that much. He is just coming across and too vanilla for me - bland and boring. I expect him to land in the Bottom 3 again and place pretty good odds that he may be eliminated.
#9 Anwar Robinson - (#7/5.67) - "I Believe I Can Fly" - Anwar continues to be the biggest disappointment in the finals. The start of this song was just excruciating -- just very shallow and warbly. Simon was right that he usually saves it in the end with the big note... and his voice has a whole other tone when he opens it up. Paula's over-the-top praise for this performance was proof that she really must be on something (not that we needed further evidence!).
#10 Scott Savol - (#10/8.33) - "One Last Cry" - The slightly overweight, Southern country boy thing can only get Scott so far and unless I am seriously underestimating his fan base Scott should land in Bottom 3 for the first time in the competition... and probably deserves the most to be booted. Another case where an contestant gets into serious trouble trying to sing a song by a very stylized singer (Brian McKnight)... I think McKnight even sounds not so great in parts of this song... so what can you really expect for an Idol contestant?
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