Whine & Cheese: AI7: Diamond Not A Girl's (or Guy's) Best Friend

It was a wild and wacky night on American Idol. I was pretty much exhausted by the end thanks to the unwise decision to cram 10 songs into a hour... no wonder our little Paula was confused by it all! Of course, tonight they're going to strrrrrrrrrretch it out to an hour... why, why, why!

And on top of it all, it wasn't a very good night. I have nothing against Neil Diamond, but as we are at the stage where all the remaining contestants will likely have some sort of music-related career, it would be more interesting to give them more freedom to choose their own songs... or heck, maybe have the theme be "songs from the the past 10 years!"

Since we are down to five contestants, figured I would picture them all... but as you can see I've done some visual editorializing...

David C ("I'm Alive" / "All I Really Need Is You") - David likely made a smart move by going with two lesser known Diamond songs. I kinda sorta maybe knew them, but they sounded good enough and new enough for me. Didn't blow me away on either of them... but by far the only two songs of the night that would ever make it to the radio today.

David A ("Sweet Caroline" / "America") - Unlike his cooler David counterpart, Archie went with two of Diamond's biggest hits. I preferred the first song. David hasn't gone up-tempo much this season (and when he has it hasn't been "da bomb"), so this showed me something slightly different. Though no fault of his own, "America" is just one of those kitsch-ier songs and the swelling orchestra and the American flag waving behind him was just a bit too much for me.

Syesha ("Hello Again" / "Thank The Lord For The Night Time") - Now that we're at the end, I am starting to like Syesha... and even contemplated having her crash the David #1-#2 party. Thought she sounded strong on the first ballad, without pushing it too far... and the second gave her that theatrical chance to perform a song... which does seem to be her wheelhouse.

Brooke ("I'm A Believer" / "I Am... I Said") - As you can see in the above visual, my goodwill stops with Brooke and Jason. It is probably a good thing that the judges didn't get time to critique the first round as "Believer" was pretty darn painful... better on the second song, but don't think she knocked it out either. And couple of oddities on that one too... nice lyric change from "New York" to "Arizona born and raised"... but not sure it quite works with next line ("... I'm lost between two shores")... and did she actually write the lyrics on her palm... before she was going to play the piano?!?

Jason ("Forever in Blue Jeans" / "September Morn") - I think Jason is starting to wonder, what the heck am I doing here and/or what have I got myself into? As mentioned, towards the end of the competition, contestants should just sing what they want to... Jason is never going have to sing showtunes or Neil Diamond... he is certainly showing "theme night" fatigue. That said, other are stepping up to the proverbial plate... but just feeling like Jason is "done"... whether his fanbase will let him go, well not too sure about that for at least this week.