Mike
My awesome powers of deduction tell me Mike went home. 
That’s how it used to be, but beginning last season they pared the Top 3 week down to two songs each – judge’s choice and contestant’s choice.
Thank you.
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Fantasia sucked. Maybe her helmet was too tight.
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Yipes! Helmet is right. How could she see with her hair like that?
Nope, I still think this is the worst. Season 3 had the John Stevens “controversy” and the Hawaii “controversy”. I liked George Huff and loved LaToya London. Some people loved Jennifer Hudson and Fantasia. Season 5 had Daughtry, Elliott, and Pickler. My dad could stare at Kat McPhee all day long, and Taylor was fun to watch. Season 6 had Blake Lewis doing his thing, Melinda Doolittle, and the incredibly, awesomely bad Sanjaya to watch and make fun of.
Who is going to be remembered from this season? The good isn’t great, and even the bad doesn’t stand out like a Sanjaya. There is no real hanger-on to get bent out of shape over. I mean, look at someone like Tim Urban. What can you say besides “Well yeah, he stayed too long.” Then look at John Stevens or Jasmine Trias or Haley “Legs” Scarnato or some of the ones we could discuss all week!
This year is definitely the worst year ever.
It’s a futile and pointless fight, but I’ll keep it up anyway: there is absolutely no reason to use spoiler tags discussing TV shows that have already aired. If people are reading those threads after the shows have aired, they want to know what happened.
Has Fantasia always had that squeaky little-girl voice? I don’t remember it, but maybe it’s just been too long.
Those of us in western time zones appreciate the spoilers for a couple of hours after an eastern time zone airing.
So I just got around to listening to the studio versions of some of these songs. Usually the studio versions suck compared to the live songs - typically over-produced with mushy arrangements.
But check out Casey James in studio:
Lawdy Miss Clawdy - An awesome blues take on this song. It’s really good, and his voice sounds great.
Jealous Guy - great guitar work, great arrangement. His voice as a little of that goat warble in it, but if you can deal with that, it’s a pretty cool song.
I think the high quality of these is the result of the fact that Casey is an honest-to-God musician who can really play, so he maintains control over the overall sound. Notice that his instrument is front and center in these.
Now listen to how much worse Lee is: Hey Jude. He’s not even in the same ballpark as Casey. Whereas Casey is probably being hurt by the limitations of the live performance on the show, Lee benefits from it. When you’re forced to just listen to his voice, it’s just not all that. And notice how boring the arrangement is.
Crystal sounds awesome in studio as well:
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
I think there might be a pattern here - if you can really write and play music, you’ve got a better chance of becoming a real artist. If you’re just a vocalist, you’re at the mercy of the American Idol schlock machine.
So, what should they sing? I have a few suggestions…and I’m trying to keep it realistic, because I know Idol has a limited song list.
Crystal: “I Want To Come Over” by Melissa Etheridge
Lee: “Letting the Cables Sleep” by Bush
Casey: I’m drawing a blank on this one. It probably needs to be a guitar-driven ballad with a bluesy feel, but I can’t come up with a damned thing.
“You’ll Think Of Me” by Keith Urban.
The iTunes versions are recorded on Fridays (source), which seems to me like a short amount of time to choose/arrange/learn a song. I think this is the primary reason why the iTunes versions are usually worse than the live ones.
With that in mind, I imagine that Casey and Crystal are probably faster in this process than Lee is, which is understandable since he appears to be someone who obsesses over every detail. I’ve listened to a little bit of Lee’s indie label albums, and his songs seem fairly artistic. Here’s one example: Predicament
How about “Texas Flood”, by Stevie Ray Vaughan? If he can play that well, he’ll be my hero.
But of course, “Contestant’s Choice” actually means, “Contestant’s choice from the sucky list of songs we provide.”
So don’t get your hopes up for anything particularly original.
How about “Riviera Paradise?” 
After listening to your links, I have to agree, except I’m still not thrilled by Crystal. I think she has a tone to her voice that I just don’t love. Lee’s recording just leaves me cold - it’s not bad, but it’s not particularly good. I’m not coughing up $0.99 for any of them.
I hate to state the obvious, but you don’t really have to read a discussion of a show you haven’t seen yet until after you’ve seen it.
Well, here’s the songs the judges picked for each contestant.
* Ellen Degeneres chose “Maybe I’m Amazed” by Paul McCartney for Crystal Bowersox
* Simon Cowell chose “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen for Lee DeWyze
* Kara Dioguardi and Randy Jackson chose “Daughters” by John Mayer for Casey James
Kara and Randy should fess up that they just kept the one they would have given to Big Mike.
Fitting enough choices, but I’d have rather they swapped Crystal and Lee’s songs.
Hallelujah’s already been sung once this season, hasn’t it?
Sort of.*
Agree with Hal that Crystal should sing Hallelujah. Maybe I’m Amazed should just die.
*okay, technically, yes it was. By the Brady Bunch hair kid.