The theme this week was Top Downloads which was basically an excuse for contestants to choose whatever song they wanted. To use a phrase from sports, this was a “trap” week. In sports, a trap game means that you’re facing a weak opponent and looking ahead to the next game. Here, it has to do with song selection. The contestants should’ve, in theory, chosen songs that played to their strengths and showed who they were musically. But all too often, the singers get indulgent and simply choose songs that they like or they’d like to sing. We already saw this in the semifinal rounds, and the key here was to see which of the singers remembered those weeks and adjusted accordingly.
1. Emo Boy – That sound you hear is Taylor Hicks crying in the corner. When Taylor sang Wild Cherry it was clearly an indulgent performance and not very good, but Season 5 was a weird season and Taylor was probably well on his way to winning at that point because people wanted to piss off Simon. Here Adam basically took the song and reinvented it simply by altering the tempo. Really freaking good and you can see why he’s the front runner. At the same time I can in the back of my mind see the Emo Boy backlash building up as Adam is really not for everyone. 8.5/10
2. Allison Iraheta – Allison’s performance, in all honesty, was not all that bad, but clearly the judges found a je ne sais quoi quality about it and resorted to mocking the outfit. Based on the wacky voting patterns, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Allison in the B3 but hopefully the voters don’t put her through that again.7.5/10
3. Danny Gokey – Cascada? Really? I get the feeling that Danny switched to this song due to (another) death in the family, but it worked because it allowed him to switch things up and show off his power in a different way. 8/10
4. Kris Allen – OK, nevermind – I think Kris got over the hump. Out of all the contestants, Kris has consistently been the one to listen to criticism and apply that to future performances. Getting away from the guitar and using the piano was a great move, and if Kris can sustain this we could see another contender for the Top 3. 7/10
5. Matt Giraud – Matt gave us a pretty good performance, but I felt that his singing was a bit off. Part of the problem we’re seeing is that the judges want him to be an R&B singer but he seems to fancy himself as the Gavin DeGraw type. Not a bad thing, but this conflict is not likely to go away. 6.5/10
6. Lil Rounds – Good song choice, bad execution. Lil is breaking down, and it’s affecting her performance. This time around she was missing notes that in earlier rounds she would’ve nailed. I don’t know if she’s got the strength to overcome this – a week like this should’ve been easy for her to pick a song, but it took her forever. If you lack confidence, this will happen. 6/10
7. Scott McIntyre – Here’s the funny thing – this was basically the same type of performance from Scott that we get EVERY TIME OUT, yet this time he showed some fire and that made a huge difference in the song quality. The problem here is that Scott needs to sustain that fire, and there’s only so much heat you can bring in an EZ-Rock format. 7/10
8. Anoop Desai – It’s an interesting contrast between Anoop and Megan. Both singers have apparently stopped listening to the judges, but for seemingly different reasons. Anoop is playing with house money and he knows it. So he’s decided to go out on his terms, with his songs. Which means he’s singing Usher just because he can. All power to him – he may stay another week, but I doubt that. 6/10
9. Hippychick – On the other hand, I don’t know that Megan actually realizes how bad she is doing here. As Simon noted, they give her critiques every week and she ignores it. What makes her different from Anoop is that she goes back to doing the exact same crap that she’s done before, but in different genres. See, this is different from Scott because Scott already knows where he is musically. Megan has been jumping around with different song styles, and none of them has worked because her spin on things is one that only works in her head. I’d like for her to go home but at this point Steve Wozinak is going home before Hippychick is. 2.5/10
Predictions
Bottom 3:
Scott
Hippychick
Anoop
Eliminated:
Anoop
See you next week.
