TV Review: AMERICAN IDOL – Season 10 – “The Top 9 Perform”

By PETER BROWN / Contributing Editor

Posted: April 7th, 2011 / 07:51 AM

Cast: Ryan Seacrest, Randy Jackson, Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez
Network: Fox, airs Wednesdays and Thursdays
Original Air Date: April 6, 2011

After losing two contestants last week on the world’s greatest karaoke competition, AMERICAN IDOL, there are no more second chances and whoever gets the least amount of votes now, is going home.

Not sure how I feel about the “Judges Save” thing. On one hand I like it because they saved Casey two weeks ago. On the other hand, I’m not sure if anyone should get a second chance. However, it is a reality show, so I guess that goes with the territory.

This week the contestants did songs from the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, which pretty much opens up a wealth of songs for them to choose from. Of course, instead of giving the contestants a chance to go all rock and roll, they played it safe by going for Elvis, Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson and more Beatles (George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” – ugh!).

Jacob Lusk – Jacob is sporting a pretty fancy all-white outfit, hopefully he won’t being any dumpster diving later asthat would get messy. But I digress, he sang “Man in the Moon” by Michael Jackson and while I am no fan of MJ, an especially this song (although his earlier stuff is fine), you could tell he was not at all comfortable with what was going down. Not his best performance as he told us it wasn’t going to be right from the get-go, but he won’t be going anywhere for a while (at least I think). Grade: B

Haley Reinhart – Haley is starting to win me over. That’s a bad thing because she’s probably gonna get eliminated soon. I like her cause she isn’t going the ballad route, which is also why I like James. Once again she came out rocking with “Piece of My Heart” by Janis Joplin and why she is no Janis, she still made it more modern and relevant to today’s music, which is always what they are looking for. She rocked it again and is finding her niche, which is good. Hopefully she won’t stumble or she will probably be gone. Was it enough to save her this week? I think so. Grade: B+

Casey Abrams– We haven’t seen Casey’s bass in a while so it was nice to see him up there strumming … but not sure about the toned down version of “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. It seemed a bit weird. I know they are supposed to mix it up, but it felt like a bit of a lounge act. I know the judges loved it but I think that he’s gotta keep doing more upbeat stuff in order to connect with the people that have grown to like him. I don’t know if he will be in danger this week, but I don’t think he did himself any favors with the song. Grade: C+

Lauren Alaina – Not sure what ’80s movie Lauren came out of during this performance but she could have come right out of MANNEQUIN. That’s not a good thing. She tried to tackle Aretha Franklin’s “{You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” but it was boring. It wasn’t sleepy, but it had nothing really to it. I was sitting there waiting for it to end and was hoping the next few songs were gonna be better. Again, the judges like it much more than I did but that doesn’t mean that other people also felt it to be boring. We’ll see. Grade: C

James Durbin – James says that he wants to showcase a softer side to him and he picked the fairly obscure “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” by George Harrison to do it. As anyone that reads my reviews knows, I’m no fan of the ballads, especially in a karaoke competition. While I liked the orchestral aspects of the arrangement, I was gently weeping as I didn’t get to see James rock it out and run around stage being crazy. Hopefully people won’t think ill of him for doing it and will keep him around to see what he will do next week. Grade: C+

Scotty McCreery – Why is Will.i.am there? He is bringing really nothing to the table for these people other than just sitting there being annoying. At least give them something they can use instead of just combining music genres to make funny words. Oh boy, Scotty. You choose poorly. “That’s Alright Momma” by Elvis while on paper might seem like the right song for you to showcase a more personable side of yourself it was a mess and just what was he doing with that microphone and stupid faces. Dude, we know you look like a live-action Alfred E. Newman, you don’t have to hammer the point home. I don’t get what the judges saw that I missed because I thought it was just silly. Grade: C-

Pia Toscano – When I heard Pia singing an upbeat song during her time in the results show I was dreading her singing something upbeat as it wasn’t good. I was wrong. She picked the right song with “River Deep Mountain High” by Tina Turner as it fit her husky voice and tempo perfectly. Plus it got her out behind the microphone and interacting with the crowd which is something we haven’t seen at all from her yet. It also allowed her to show off that fabulous voice. By far the best of the night. Grade: B+

Stefano Langone – Well, I’m shocked. Dismayed. Flabbergasted. Amazed. Stefano is singing a ballad. He hasn’t done that yet on this show. I mean he’s been rocking out like nobody’s business the entire competition. Oh wait, that’s totally wrong. All he has been singing is freaking ballads. So Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” was right in his wheelhouse. I keep wondering if this dude can sing anything upbeat or if we are constantly going to be faced with his weird fake passionate faces for the duration of the competition. Dear God, please vote him off. Grade: D+

Paul McDonald – Well, that was different for sure from Paul. Wouldn’t expect him to sing “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash. Unfortunately, while it was rocking and not some sappy toned down crap like we have seen from him since this whole thing began, it was all over the map. He was shaking and moving and doing all sorts of weird stuff up there and I just don’t see it is what he is good at. Maybe it will connect with people but I still don’t get him. At this point, I don’t think I will. Grade: C

So not disaster but not a lot of good songs at all this week. So who goes home? This one is hard because the ladies are down to the best three in the competition and we know the tweens have been dominating the voting bloc thus far. But I think that Stefano, Paul and going out on a limb here but Lauren Alaina will be in the bottom with Paul going home.