Idol Thoughts - Top 9

So, DiDi went home...that stinks. It's really her own fault in a lot of ways, as she just never really was able to find herself as an artist and REFUSED to do the things she was really good at. Oh, well.

Am I the only one who gets really depressed when the contestants come out at the top of the show? I mean, THIS is the Top 9? It just puts me in a bad mood for the rest of the show. Not helping that bad mood is....

1) Aaron Kelly - "Long and Winding Road": Wow. ANOTHER ballad. Sorry, his voice is not good enough to just stand there and sing. This...this was not good. Even the classic Aaron move of "hold-my-left-arm-up-and-let-it-limply-hang-there" seemed especially half hearted.

Katelyn Epperly. Lilly Scott. DiDi Benami. All gone. Aaron Kelly....still here.

Moving on.

2) Katie Stevens - "Let it Be": You know what ELSE puts me in a bad mood? The fact that maybe the biggest show in the history of television can't hire anybody who knows what they are doing behind the camera. During this week's show, it sounded like the director let his 6 year old grandson work the sound...the backup singers and band were overpowering the contestants all night, the judges mics had feedback issues...it's completely ridiculous and embarrassing. The show has been on the air now for NINE YEARS. How is it that we still don't know how to balance the sound?

Oh, and yes....the performance shows have been coming in much closer to on time than in seasons past. But now they can't get the RESULTS show in on time, which makes absolutely zero sense. It's FIVE MINUTES worth of relevant content in a ONE HOUR show....how can you possibly go over by eight minutes, like they did last week? I didn't get to see DiDi cry for the 987th time!

Anyway...what was I talking about? Oh, yeah...Katie Stevens. This was good, but boring, and why is everybody picking the slowest song possible? I understand that The Beatles have a pretty extensive catalogue of songs...maybe somebody could pick something that didn't put me in danger of falling asleep and missing LOST? (How freaking AWESOME was LOST, by the way?)

And, Simon...this is not country music. Shame on you for putting me in a situation where I am agreeing with Randy Freaking Jackson, of all people.

3) Andrew Garcia - "Can't Buy Me Love": Ugh. Who is going to actually pay money to see these people on tour? I would demand that they just bring Tim, Andrew, Aaron, Katie, Mike, Casey, and Lee out to wave to the crowd and then just let Crystal and Siobhan do a full set apiece.

Anyway...this would have been much better as another acoustic joint, but because contestants on this show stupidly think that they should be doing ANYTHING other than what they are good at, this is instead a corny, lounge singer rendition in which Andrew's voice was completely obliterated by the obnoxiously loud band (again...not his fault, but the idiots behind the camera). His voice is OK, but he is only good at one thing, and this is NOT it.

4) Michael Lynch - "Eleanor Rigby": WAIT. Michael Lynch's family used to travel around and sing using the name "The Lynch Mob"?!?! That is simultaneously the most inappropriate and awesome thing I have heard in a VERY long time.

Yeah, this was pretty much everything I DON'T like about Michael Lynch, wrapped around his typically great vocal. He is in full-on HAM mode tonight, and I hate it. I can't get past it.

His voice is great, and I actually was OK with the arrangement, although a lot of other hardcore Beatles fans may not be...I love that he kept the strings, and it did have a "build" to it, as Kara said. I just hate his performing style.

5) Crystal Bowersox - "Come Together": Wins the night simply by employing a freaking didgeridoo.

Not really...I mean, she probably does win the night, but this was definitely not my favorite Crystal performance. She actually messed up the words (not that anybody can tell, as this was one of John's "word salad" songs that I never liked), and this wasn't her strongest vocal.

And yet...I still just felt like I was watching an established star give a live performance. She is sooooooo much better than anybody else this season it's just not fair. Can we somehow go back in time and add her to last season's lineup? I would LOVE to see her get pushed by Adam, Allison, Kris, etc. and see what she would come up with every week. Because this is like watching the 1992 Dream Team in Barcelona...yeah, it's impressive, but how much more impressive would she be if there was somebody there to push her?

One difference between her and the Dream Team....she's not going to win. Just a hunch, based on years of watching this show.

One more difference between her and the Dream Team...the DIDGERIDOO!!

6) Tim Urban - "All My Lovin'": His best performance by FAR. Which probably means he will go home this week.

Simon is right about his attitude...he gets beat up every week, and I think he handles it well. He has still been around about 8 weeks longer than he should have been, however.

7) Casey James - "Jealous Guy": This performance is getting MUCH love, both by the judges and by some other commentary that I have seen...but I don't get it. I did like the arrangement, though I am not familiar with the song so I don't know if it is "his" arrangement or not.

But, like I have said before about Casey, his voice is not strong enough to carry a song as stripped down as this one was. When he is not straight belting, like he has done the last few weeks, he has a chipmunk voice. Or maybe a goat. Anyway, it's not pleasant to me.

This would have been great, if he had more vocal control...as it is, it's a very pretty song sung by someone with great hair and a weak voice.

8) Siobhan Magnus - "Across the Universe": This was risky, in a lot of ways. I think it was smart to back off the "screaming" songs, although as a side rant...she is not "screaming". This is the same thing people were saying about Adam last season. If she and Adam are "screaming", then at least it's a musical scream, unlike say.....Danny Gokey.

Anyway, it's always risky when you strip everything away except for you and your voice, and she definitely has the voice to pull it off. Except for a slight tendency to get a little nasally in her lowest register, this was a gorgeous vocal performance by the BEST voice in this competition. It's not even close, by the way. There is nobody else here that could even dream of pulling that off, and Siobhan mostly did.

9) Lee Dewyze - "Hey, Jude": Fairly typical Lee performance, with the nice commercial tone and the dropped phrasing and the occasionally wonky pitch problems, with the added component of....bagpipes! Well, that was random. I never once remember thinking, "That song is OK...but how much better would it be with BAGPIPES?" But I guess that's what separates me and Lee. That, and making Danny Gokey babies with Andrew Garcia (how much more did I love Crystal after THAT comment?).

Final Thoughts:
This is a classic example of managed expectations. If these exact same performances had occurred in the last couple of seasons, I would be screaming about it being the worst show of the season. But to get those nine performances out of this group? Hey, there was nothing EGREGIOUSLY awful, so I guess....that was a winner!!

Top 3:
1) Crystal
2) Siobhan
3) Ummmm....Tim? Yeah. Wow...I guess it's Tim! I know! I am also shocked!

Heck, why not just rank them all?

Middle 3:
4) Lee
5) Katie
6) Big Mike

Bottom 3:
7) Casey
8) Andrew
9) Aaron

Who SHOULD go home: The production staff responsible for the mess that is this show. And Aaron Kelly.
Who WILL go home: Tim Urban, once again following the pattern of many on this show who stuck around for WEEKS longer than they should have, only to be sent home after their best performance of the season (Sanjaya, Kristi Lee, etc).