Bogus Gold

Anoop Desai lead us off with “Caught Up” by Usher. Anoop had this idea that he needed to go back to one of his earlier performance styles, because apparently he doesn't watch the show and doesn't realize it was only the last two weeks that resurrected his chances of staying around a bit longer. Anoop tried to strut around the stage like a hip-hop homeboy, which umm... didn't work. His voice sounded alright, but the song really didn't lend itself to anything too memorable. That was really the overall impression, which is especially dangerous in the lead off spot - forgettable. The judges kind of said so, as far as I care to remember. And then Anoop took a nasty little parting shot at them, stating that he disagreed with the judges while making himself sound like a spoiled ass. Not a great idea for a guy who's been cruising on likability at least as much as singing talent.

Megan "Chikeze" Joy sang Bob Marley/Lauren Hill's "Turn Your Lights Down Low." Megan, Megan, Megan. Where to begin? When I heard "Bob Marley" I was thinking "train wreck." But this must have been closer to the Lauren Hill version which was a relief because I never want to hear Megan doing Reggae - ever. Which is not to say this alternative was great, but it was better than she's sounded the past couple of weeks. I was once again left with the impression that she needs to front a band rather than make a shot as a solo artist. I do like her quirky singing voice, but not shown off like that. So the judges went blah, blah about song choice again, but I think the problem is deeper than that.

Danny Gokey followed that with "What Hurts the Most" by Rascal Flatts. This was not Danny going country or anything, as he explained Rascal Flatts is kind of non-country country music. Which doesn't make any sense except that it's true. Okay here's where that stratification thing showed up first tonight. This performance didn't even sound like it belonged in the same show as the ones preceding it. And not so much because it was so amazing, even though the judges seemed to think it was. It's just... the basic quality of the singing and the arrangement and the song selection and whatever else made this sound like real popular music, while the others were more like a highly produced amateur talent show. So anyway, it was good but not great. It gave Danny plenty of chances to show off his growly soulful riffing chops, which he handled pretty effortlessly. It sounded great mostly because it was the first performance of the "top strata" tonight.

Allison Iraheta next sang "Don't Speak" by No Doubt. She decided to play the guitar for this one, which I don't think any of us knew she could do. And while I don't want to underrate the difficulty, she really only played the first few bars of the song before leaving the guitar aside so I don't think it made much difference. The judges were very, very distracted by Allison's "shades of Cyndi Lauper" outfit. So much so they didn't really even talk about her singing. The singing was really good though. We're kind of getting past the "wow, she's only 16" factor now, and still the vocals are holding their own in this competition. Like I mentioned earlier, some of these you just expect to sound like a real recording artist at this point, and she does. It wasn't my favorite Allison performance, but it was plenty solid.

Scott Macintyre came next with Billy Joel's "Just The Way You Are," dropping us back into that lower tier. This is another one of those performances I'm thinking there's some kind of mass hysteria around because people - judges included - were fawning all over this like it was something incredibly good. I thought it was kind of boring, that it sounded more or less like Scott always sounds, that the arrangement was competent but not much of a break from the original - and for that matter it was noticeably inferior to the original. But then craziness broke out. Maybe they're sorry that America put a likable blind guy... sorry... challenged guy (thanks for cluing me in to the proper term Paula) into the bottom three last week and they're overcompensating? Eh. The reaction to the song more than the performance might keep Scott from the bottom three this week.

Matt Giraud decided on performing The Fray's "You Found Me." And here I get to gloat a little over calling this one early and often. Matt, more than any other singer here, has a very tightly defined box the judges want to keep him in. He's supposed to do barroom piano R&B / soul. That's all. If he tries to do anything else they're going to beat him up over it. But Matt knows he's not going to win this thing if he keeps playing the piano-bar singer role, so tonight he tried valiantly to break out of his box. And the results were predictable. The first problem was that his voice wasn't especially good tonight. The second problem was he decided to perform in some "intimate" kind of setting, surrounded by the girls in the mosh pit - who frankly looked bored. Not really their fault. It wasn't a very exciting or well known song, and wasn't sung especially well. And then Matt's beating from the judges for stepping out of his box commenced. Ouch. Not a good week for Matt.

Lil Rounds, who apparently never watches the show, told us that after a very long and difficult song selection process she decided the best way to please the judges with her song choice lead her to picking... Celine Dion's "Surrender." Celine. Whitney. Mariah. Songs from these artists ought to come with great big flashing warning letters "DO NOT USE ON AMERICAN IDOL!!!" You can count on one hand the number of Idolateers who have performed one of these songs and received a positive reaction from the judges. Almost always it ends in disaster. Did Lil think she's having one of those "magical" kind of seasons where things are falling into place wonderfully for her? And so, in a shockingly unexpected (to Lil alone) development this did not go well. It was slow and boring and pageanty. As good a singer as Lil is, she's not good enough to cover this kind of song without showing off her limitations as much as her talent. As much as the judges like her, I half wondered if she would get away with this one. But no. The Holy Diva Trinity is just too sacred. They beat Lil up only slightly less than they had beaten Matt previously, trying to build her a "Mary J. Blige" box which she hasn't shown much desire to climb into.

Adam Lambert reminded us of that tier distinction again by delivering a glammed-up arrangement of Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music." Last week Adam won a lot of new fans by showing an understated, soft, unplugged arrangement. This week Glambert was back with a passion, and in my book that's a good thing. Adam has already established himself as the contestant from whom you'll get wild creativity and showmanship always verging on excess. After Lil's dreary attempt at Celine this came across like a thunderbolt, showing off energy, crazy vocals, and a lot of fun. Really there is no other contestant like him, and while he's not going to win everyone over with his shrieky Steven Tyler-esque stylings, does anyone want this season to go on without him? No, this wasn't his best. But much like Allison, he's set a really high level of performance quality and never falls very short of it. A "solid" effort from Adam would be far and away the season's best for many of the others this season.

Kris Allen got his first pimp slot with "Ain't No Sunshine When She’s Gone." For some reason the judges keep trying to convince America that Matt Giraud is verging on breaking into the front-runner club when anyone following the show knows that role really belongs to Kris Allen. Once again Kris overperformed expectations, even as the expectation bar for him rises week to week. He broke out the keyboard for this one for the first time, and used it well to show off a stripped down, effective rearrangement of a well known song. Not many Idolateers would show well following one of Adam's over-the-top performances. But Kris is developing a personality and identity which holds its own nicely. I thought Simon was wrong last week to say he lacked confidence, because I think he's getting more and more confident as he goes along. But if that's all the judges found missing last week, they had literally nothing to complain about this week. It was Kris's best of the season, and probably the night's best from anyone. Terrific use of the pimp spot for Kris.

And so we're left with or final impressions. Mine is that these tiers are getting really clear. And here's where they are in my mind...

The top tier of the competition - and of the night - holds Danny Gokey, Allison Iraheta, Adam Lambert, and Kris Allen.

The bottom tier includes Anoop Desai, Megan Joy, Scott MacIntyre, Matt Giraud, and - somewhat surprisingly - Lil Rounds.

That's not to say no one in the bottom tier ever has a great performance or a great night. But as the weeks build it's becoming harder to take anyone in the bottom tier as seriously as a potential winner - and even more as a successful recording artist - compared to anyone in the top tier.

Anyway, tops of the night goes to Kris Allen, who solidified himself as a legitimate contender with an exclamation point. We'll give Gokey, Lambert, and Iraheta a tie for second because they were all solid efforts largely distinguished by which style their respective fans prefer, as they're nothing alike one another.

As for the other group... It should not be a shocker to see Lil Rounds hit the bottom three group for the first time, but I don't expect it. Scott MacIntyre was probably saved by the over the top praise for a performance which should otherwise put him in bottom three consideration. Bottom of the night overall was once again Megan Joy, though she seems to be protected by the "prettiest girl remaining" vote, which shows up every season (even though the last time the prettiest girl truly belonged among the best was Carrie Underwood in Season Four). But surely her poor performances have to put her there at some point. I'm thinking this week is that point. Joining her in the bottom three, I'm expecting to see Anoop Desai and Matt Giraud.

As for who goes home? It's a prediction I think I'm going to keep making until it comes true: Megan Joy. The fact that she didn't even hit the bottom three last week probably hurts her, as it might make those who like her feel undeservedly complacent in their voting. We'll see if that's true tonight.

UPDATE: The Results

Apparently I need to tell some of you to pay VERY close attention to Seacrest's words in these eliminations. The shows are produced to make one think safe contestants might be in the bottom three all the time. Whenever Seacrest DOESN'T explicitly tell you someone IS in the bottom three, you must assume that person is not. SOOO much of the banter in these shows is to play that out.

Anyway, bottom three:

Megan, (right), Anoop (right), and Allison (I hate you, America).

Allison, who should have never been in danger, is safe.

Both of the remaining have reason to go. But it's Megan leaving us tonight.

Thankfully they don't even pretend the judges might be thinking about saving her, because that bit has been lame and obviously wouldn't apply to Megan.

Next week is "songs from the year they were born." Which sounds like 80's week plus Allison to me.