Mike will do a wretched falsetto rendition of “Someone to Watch Over Me.” Just you wait. I don’t understand why anyone wants to see a bear-sized guy sing in a mouse-sized voice, but some people seem to like it.
I don’t know what Lee will do.
I was wrong about Mike, but I forgot that this song was one of the five that always makes it to pop standard night. It’s an OK song but it doesn’t need to be featured every year.
Big Mike is the best of the night so far. Crystal was good, but this is Mike’s wheelhouse, and it shows. From the sound to the outfit, this was his night to grab, and he did.
I didn’t think Mike was good. It was total cruise ship/karaoke. He might have been the best tonight just because he sang the song straight but it wasn’t anything I’d listen to voluntarily.
I thought Crystal did better than they gave her credit for, that was very sweet and listenable.
Mike did very well, although not quite as well as Randy gave him credit for.
Did… did… did HC say the f-word when he was talking to Mike??
The biggest problem for Crystal was she was drowned out by the band.
Lee is the best of the night. Not great, but the best of the night.
I liked Lee a lot, but he reminded me of that episode of Family Guy where Brian started singing with Frank Sinatra, Jr. Lee really got into the feeling of the slightly drunken crooner.
I meant to ask that too. If he said “freakin’,” it really didn’t sound like it.
Pliny the Younger - So true, everything you wrote about David Cook. He only redid someone else’s rearrangements a few times. He did his own arrangements of many songs, and sang some ‘straight’ . and wonderfully, most of the time.
Wow, when they were all onstage together at the end, holy monochromatic week. Everyone but Aaron was in black and white, Ryan and HC jr included.
My ranking this week:
Lee
Crystal
Mike
Aaron
Casey
My ears must be shot because I liked Casey tonight. I was actually shocked when the judges ripped him, but it seems to be the consensus. He did look a bit uncomfortable but I honestly thought it was his best vocals of the season. Go figure.
I didn’t care for Crystal or Mike. Mike bores me to tears.
Aaron was ok, as I expected, but just too young for this music.
Lee was very good.
IMO:
Lee
Casey
Aaron
Crystal
Mike
The judges are officially insane. Or high.
Crystal’s performance was the only one worth listening to, and they gave it some of the worst comments.
I liked that this show was kind of a big slap in the face to AI:
First, Harry replaces the band. Then he does the arrangements.
Then Crystal basically tells Simon he’s full of crap, and that just because you’re on American Idol doesn’t mean you should just blast out notes and forget what the song is about. That was awesome.
Then Harry tells big Mike to stop screwing around with the melody, and just sing the damned song with meaning.
This could have been a clinic on what’s wrong with AI, and what’s wrong with almost all these contestants. Unfortunately, it wasn’t executed all that well, so it just came across as another snoozefest.
I don’t get the love for Lee’s performance. I thought his timing was atrocious, and he didn’t interpret the song worth crap. That song’s all about defiance, and I never got that from Lee at all. Listen to how Sinatra sang it.
I don’t know what happened with Casey. I know what he was going for - he was trying to turn it into a blues song, and “Blue Skies” can work that way. But for whatever reason, it just never came across that way except in a few spots, so it just wound up looking and sounding awkward.
Aaron was awful, I thought. Yes, he hit most of the notes, but that’s about all I can say for him. He can’t deliver a song and make you believe it. And you can’t just blame his age - Bianca Ryan was blowing the roof off with songs like this when she was twelve. He’s just way too whitebread.
Big Mike… Not a bad performance, because he largely stayed away from his warbling shtick. But I noticed he just couldn’t help himself a few times, and every time he uttered a Mike-ism it made the song cringe a little. Probably made Harry cringe, too.
All in all, a dreadful night. Crystal’s performance was the only one I actually enjoyed.
Here’s how I think the performances stacked up:
Crystal
Big Mike
Lee
Casey
Aaron
Sadly, I think Casey’s going home. He just doesn’t seem to have a following. He’s been in the bottom three when he was much better than this, so I’ve got to think he’s toast. That leaves only Crystal as a reason to watch this show at all.
It was about what I expected: boring.
Comments:
Aaron: I think he has a great singing tone, and it was enjoyable enough, but it was nothing amazing. He does’t have any charisma (for once I agree with Kara). Still, I like the kid. I hope he gets another week.
Casey: Oh God. This was a complete and utter trainwreck. Off-key, poor tone, no emotion, and all-around awkward. It couldn’t have gotten much worse. Also, I am shocked it took the judges this many weeks to mention that he has this terrible billy-goat vibrato. It’s so grating! He is attractive, plays guitar well enough, and can sing certain songs without any problems. He’d be a good front-man for a band, but he’s never going to be a popular soloist.
Crystal: Meh. She is definitely the most talented singer, hands-down, but she failed to make me feel anything emotionally. Maybe I expect too much from her, but this was just blah all around. While I enjoyed her backtalk to Simon, I think it made her look unprofessional. Also, that prominent tattoo can’t be good for her votes. Is it good or bad that all my comments are not about her music?
Mike: This surpassed my expectations. Smooth and mellow, and he seemed to be the most comfortable one up there. Where everyone else felt a little awkward, this felt natural and believable. I can’t say I loved it, but it was the best performance of the night.
Lee: Ugh. I knew everyone would eat this performance up, because his singing style is en vogue currently. With that said, he had poor phrasing, no real dynamic changes, and little believability. I do think his tone is good, but it’s completely over-rated. I will say one thing, that his stage presence has improved a hundred-fold, and that with a good song-writer/arranger, he could produce a few top 100 hits. OK that was two things. Eat me 
So my list:
Mike
Aaron
Crystal
Lee
…
…
(3 other imaginary contestsants)
…
Simon’s chest-hair
Casey
Sigh. I miss Siobhan so much.
The judges finally noticed Casey’s vibrato? They really can’t hear what goes on on that stage.
Aaron was aawful. Casey was not good. That was a terrible song for him and his voice - it was like barbecue sauce on ice cream - it just didn’t work.
Crystal was okay, like Randy said. I didn’t love it, but she sang well. Kara agrees with you, Sam - Sinatra’s phrasing.
Can we vote off Kara? Because no matter how shitty any of the singers are, she sucks twice as much.
And like I said last week, Gregorian chants next week will be lively compared to this week. Hell, monotone humming on a kazoo to snow on TV (remember that, kids? no? really?) would be more interesting that this week. Fuck, watching paint dry would be better television. In black and white.
Dial Idol has the bottom two as:
Casey and Crystal, with Casey going home.
Was HC offended when Ellen made that “looking at his organ” comment? Or was he just playing around?
It also says that everyone has an equal chance of going home with the margin for error.
Last year at top five it said the same thing and the bottom person did go home. But also it seems that they had a lot more votes last year (or at least more votes by phone, thus the ability to measure busy signals). This year it seems that the number of busy signals has gone WAY down, which means that either there are fewer voters or more voters are texting rather than calling (or both) so DialIdol’s accuracy is questionable.
Ryan said a couple of weeks ago that there were something like 33 million votes I think - which is the first and only time he’s reported a vote total all season IIRC. I’m wondering if vote totals are actually going down rather than up.