American Idol – It’s ’80s night

80’s tunes on American Idol turned out to be a rather good theme for the Idol hopefuls. The duets, on the other hand, were a mixed bag.

DeAndre Brackensick “I Like It”
Well … I certainly didn’t like it. If DeAndre flipped his hair back one more time, I was going to storm the auditorium and chop every last curl of it off. For the life of me I don’t know what the judges see in DeAndre week after week. And especially Randy Jackson whow was crowing about him gushingly. “You can be the 2012 version of DeBarge,” Randy told him after his performance. I don’t know why.

Elise Testone “I Want To Know What Love Is”
The roughness and abrasiveness of Elise’s voice worked against her with this tune. And, in the end, she committed an absolutely horrendous run which was completely worthy of the judges laying into her. Her “Whole Lotta Love” from last week was a distant memory after this week’s performance.

Phillip Phillips “That’s All”
Phillip² was rough and tumble and gravely. A bit too much in my opinion. As usual his individuality came through loud and clear but man … was it rough-shod.

Joshua Ledet “If You Don’t Know Me By Now”
He blazed this performance. Even had a few nice runs within it. Of all the contestants left, none have really set my wheels aflame. But a few are really starting to grow on me — not like year’s past, but a few. Joshua is one of those.

Jessica Sanchez “How Will I Know”
I will admit:That was just about the perfect song for her. But I continue to be standoffish when it comes to Jessica. She’s definitely got the chops, but something tells me the vote will come down to a few, with her in the running, and someone else could eke out a win. Side Note: Nice combination CalTrans reflective belt utility belt and back support, Jessica.

Hollie Cavanagh “What A Feeling”
At the end, Hollie didn’t look too confident with the song she sang. And the judges were right: There were little hits and misses all over the place in the performance. She over-thought the song quite a bit. Strutting around the auditorium didn’t help. I think Hollie might be the one to get the boot come elimination.

Colton Dixon “Time After Time”
We saw Colton channel some shades of Cyndi Lauper as he rocked this classic tune. It was a fun take on the song. “It was a complete rip-off of Quietdrive’s version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lN7u_uwVqo) of the song,” Colton confessed. And that was to his advantage.

Skylar Laine “Wind Beneath My Wings”
“9 To 5″ was the original tune she was going to perform and I thought that was the wiser choice. The first third of her take on it didn’t look like she was going to be able to pull anything out of her hat, but, sure enough, she certainly had a few tricks up her sleeve. And one of those tricks was letting her range fly for a change. She put out some vocals we’re not used to, something that worked exceptionally well for her and caused her to finish the sone with flare. She definitely brought the song home and the vocals just blasted in the end. Good for her.

Bottom 3: Elise, Hollie and (please, please, please) DeAndre.

Hey! Waitaminnit! What about those duets … ?!?

Colton and Skylar “Islands In The Stream”
Good song for Skylar … until she began singing solo, then her inconsistencies showed through. Good thing she had the stand up performance she did at the bottom of the evening. Cute duet with the two of them, however.

Hollie and DeAndre “I’m So Excited”
Holy crap. DeAndre was actually singing well for a change of pace at the beginning. Awkward duet.

Phillip² and Elise “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”
Another good duet. If only Phillip² knew what to do with his hands when he sings …

Jessica and Joshua “I Knew You Were Waiting For Me”
Apparently the duet was good … but I wasn’t feeling it. As a matter of fact, I was bored with it. My little buddy Seacrest was gushing all over it, however.

Last word: Looking over all the contestants during the wrap up, just before Ryan told us to start voting for our favorites? I would kick myself if I didn’t state that watching DeAndre’s clip I thought his initial performance of the night made him look like a sap compared to everyone else.

Notes:

• When they flashed Tommy Hilfiger’s mug across the screen at the beginning of the show, I thought for a moment it was Jack Wagner, this week’s ousted contestant from Dancing With The Stars. “What’s he doing there?” I wondered for a brief moment.
• Bassist Tony Kanal of No Doubt (who was “helping” Gwen Stefani mentor this episode) has always appeared to me as someone who is ready to shank someone in a dark alley.

Quote:

“I hope none of you win.” — Heejun Han to the still-competing contestants as he said his good-byes from last week

Clacked by Michael Noble
on Apr 05, 2012 @ 01:15 EST5EDT