Once again, I agreed with Simon on just about everything except when he’s being cruel.
**David Hernandez ** (“Midnight hour”) - He did okay. Certainly a lot better than some of the others. And I like how he took Simon’s criticism as a challenge to do better.
Chikezie - (“I Love You More Today Than Yesterday”) First of all, dude, find a last name. First names only are pretentious. I kinda liked him until he started getting beligerent with the judges. You sit there and suck it up, dude. If you listen between Simon’s lines, he actually offers good advice.
**David Cook ** (“So Happy Together”) - Egads, I was all :eek: when the song started, but he salvaged it. In the end, I liked it. However, as others have said, the comb over has got to go.
**Jason Yeager ** (“Moon River”) - Moon Freaking River??? - all delivered with that horrific, cheesy smile the whole time. Nice voice but cut the Tom Cruise grin.
Robbie Carrico (“One is the Loneliest Number”) Has a major advantage over the other guys because he’s formerly of a boy/girl band so he’s comfortable on stage. Great voice control.
David Archuleta (“Shop Around”) - Seems like a really cute kid, but he doesn’t touch me, um, there. If you know what I mean. I think the judges were kinder to him because he’s so young, which was fine, but I didn’t see that he brought anything fresh to the song. He grinned a lot, but it was appropriate for the song, so it worked.
Danny Noriega - (“Jailhouse Rock”) - DOA by his song choice - This song worked with Elvis because HE made it cool. If you’re not cool, the song is too fast and too cheesy. The kid is a heap of emotional wreckage and needs to contain his emotions. As a mother, I can see that he’s trying to mask his fear and insecurity with beligerence and fake cockiness, but others might not. “I’m going to bring the house down wherever I go.” Oh dear.
**Luke Menard ** (“I Won’t Let You Need (?)”) Oh, he’s hot, like a slightly more handsome, non-drug addicted Andy Gibb. What an unfortunate, lackluster song choice. He said he didn’t come there to make the Top 24, he came to win. If that’s true, dude, then you need to BRING it. I did appreciate that he stood there and took the judges’ criticism like a man.
Colton Berry (“Suspicious Minds”) - I love this song so maybe that’s why I didn’t think he did so badly. Didn’t like the cheesy grin. He took the criticism well, which was a plus. Of course, the horrible Ryan Seacrest didn’t help his cause by having the judges expand on what they meant by “irrelevant in today’s music.”
**Garrett Haley ** (“Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”) - Leif Frampton. Nice vocals but utterly forgettable. I’m sure the other dudes were saying, “Yes!” when they heard his performance. I thought Simon was ungracious in his comments that it looked like he he’d been pent up in his bedroom for 2 weeks. He redeemed himself a bit by taking the comments well, even if he was slayed. Maybe he’ll get the pity vote aka Sanjaya.
Jason Castro (“What a Day for a Daydream”) - What a nice surprise. I just loved him. Loved his Randy Neumanish take on the song. I definitely caught the John Travlota resemblance. I didn’t know contestants could take their guitar on stage. Didn’t Simon tell one contestant that once he dropped his guitar he’d be lost…?
He was very cute accepting their compliments. Except Randy, who must have been under a rock.
Michael Johns - He pushes my G spot. I hope he doesn’t fall into whatshisname’s trap (the dude that lost to Carrie Underwood whose name escapes me) by thinking he’s got it locked.
I agree that he should have gotten slammed for impersonating Jim Morrison’s song, down to the enunciation of “Fire” by drawing out the “r.” He’s good looking, he’s got an accent, he’s got good voice control if not a brilliant range, and he FEELS the music, something you can’t imitate. And, like Simon said, he has the charisma of a lead singer. All positives. But I wonder how he’ll handle, I don’t know, rap week.
