There are only seven potential idols left.  Did their performances take me to seventh heaven, or to the seven circles of hell?  Let’s find out!

Opening Performance – They brought back the departed six to perform a Pink song.  Poor, poor Paul.  Paul and five girls performing Pink, and it really sounded like he couldn’t care less.  He didn’t even bother to learn the lyrics, probably because he was singing a Pink song.  For the most part you could hear why they were all sent home.  Pia and Thia were the only two who even sounded like they knew how to sing.  If this is a sign of how they are going to fill this hour and a half, then this blog post won’t get any more positive.

Scotty Mcreery – The theme for tonight was songs from the 21st century.  Scotty country rocked a Leann Rhymes song called “Swingin’.”  I can’t even remember a Leann Rimes song since that Coyote Ugly movie, and this wasn’t one of them.  Either way, Scotty did what he always does – sing country and hold the microphone like a recorder.  He even caught criticism from J-Lo and Randy for being a little stale.  The song choice may slow Scotty’s momentum, however I think the biggest concern should be that Scotty can’t hold a long note without going off pitch.  He has a dynamite country voice, but he needs to work on tuning for those big notes if he wants to be a superstar.  Ah, who am I kidding, they’ll tune those notes for him in the studio!  I love the 21st Century.

James Durbin – James chose the Muse hit “Uprising.”  Confession – Muse was one of my favorite bands ever before their latest album.  I consider it a commercially driven catastrophe.  This song is from that album, and sounds way too much like the Blondie song “Call Me” that Haley performed last week.  All that said, I really enjoyed James’ performance!  It had a great military swagger with a marching drumline and a pretty sleek outfit.  I didn’t think it was the best vocal from James though, especially the screamo section he injected at the end.  The song needed dynamics for sure, but it didn’t need that.   Overall, good show though!

Haley Reinhardt – Adele is everywhere right now, and Haley picked her hit “Rolling in the Deep.”  It’s pretty daring to sing a song that is huge right now, but Haley sang the song really well.  However, I’m not sure if the performance was memorable enough and since Haley has been in trouble before it will be interesting to see what happens on the results show.  I think it would have been a break through performance if she had put her own rock spin on it.

Jacob Lusk – Jacob attempted to pay tribute to the great Luther Vandross, and my boy got up in the emotion of the moment at the beginning of the song.  That, or something went awry with his ear piece.  Seems like Idol always has some kind of ear monitor drama, how does that happen on a show this big?  Missing the lyrics can down any performer, and it took Jacob until the bridge to hit his stride again.  Even then, it wasn’t one of his best performances.  I think Jacob might have been better off picking a song that wasn’t so close to him, because in the end the emotion made the performance feel too safe.

Casey Abrams - Maroon 5 is so overrated, but “Harder to Breathe” is such a hot song.  Casey even rocked a guitar on it, solo included.  Though, he had to play the solo like he was playing a bass, which was hilarious.  I’m going to do the rest of this review like Randy: “Listen man, look, listen.  This is why we saved you man!  Look, dawg, you can bring jazz one minute, then do Nirvana the next, and then do Maroon 5 and ROCK IT.  MAN IT WAS HOT!  THAT WAS HOT!!!!!”

Stefano Langone – Stefano sang Neo, I mean Ne-Yo.  I was pretty disappointed when I found out this wasn’t a Matrix inspired performance.  This was the worst performance of the night.  Bad song, bad singing, bad neon lights.  I’m sure he will be around to torture me next week.

Lauren Alaina – At first I thought “Born to Fly” by Sarah Evans was a pretty great song choice for Lauren.  It’s upbeat, not too difficult to sing, and recognizable enough for voters to latch onto.  In light of some of the more interesting performances of the night, unfortunately it fell incredibly flat.  On a normal Idol night it could have been a strong performance, but on a night with big performances from Casey and James it was overshadowed.  Probably good enough to get her to the next round.

Tonight was an interesting night.  There were some great heights and mediocre lows.  I think Stefano, Haley, and Jacob could be in some trouble, while James and Casey came off as the contestants who are really out to take the prize.  Given America’s track record for voting, one of them is probably headed home.  I hope not!

What did you think?

Related – The First Guy to Leave Idol Is…

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