[IMG:L]Below are my assessments of Tuesday night’s Quentin Tarantino-mentored performances on American Idol, followed by a sure-to-be-dead-wrong prediction of Wednesday night’s bottom three and elimination.
Allison Iraheta: “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” by Aerosmith
An uncharacteristically ballad-y choice for the teenage rocker, but once the drums kicked in midway through, Allison turned, well, everything up a notch and was clearly in her comfort zone. In fact, even the borderline a cappella opening was quite nice.
Grade: B+
Anoop Desai: “Everything I Do,” by Bryan Adams
It’s a damn good thing Anoop didn’t follow Tarantino’s advice to make the song “harder.” The result was one of his best, most heartfelt performances to date. Anoop has always had and showed off his great voice, but he injected a little something extra this time that really made the song his own. Just what the bottom-three veteran needed!
Grade: B+
Adam Lambert: “Born to Be Wild,” by Steppenwolf
Tarantino said it best regarding the Idol front runner: “I look forward to seeing what your version of the song’s gonna be.” Adam’s version wasn’t on the same level as his “Mad World” last week, but in all fairness, few performances in Idol’s history have been. As usual, it was vocally on-point and more exciting than all the other performances combined, and once again, he pretty much rendered the rest of the show boring.
Grade: A-
Matt Giraud: “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?” by Bryan Adams
Matt was helped greatly by the musical accompaniment, but nothing could’ve saved those rough vocals. During the cohesive moments, everything came together and sounded great, but those moments were few and far between in what might’ve possibly been his swan song.
Grade: C-
Danny Gokey: “Endless Love,” by Lionel Richie
Pre-performance impression: corny song choice. Post-performance impression: eh. (And that harp? Come on!) Danny has made it abundantly clear that he has one hell of a voice, but this song, despite its emotional meaning for him, didn’t work. As always, Danny picked it up towards the end, but even then he was shouting instead trying to hit high, soft notes. He’s obviously safe, but this was far from his best.
Grade: C
Kris Allen: “Falling Slowly,” by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
Great song choice — and great movie! (And smart move to go sans guitar.) Kris did an amazing job with a deceptively tough song, and I thought this was one of his few true shining moments; I certainly didn’t think he had it in him to hit such high notes. He previously annoyed me for his overly affected performances, but there was nothing extraneous from him on Tuesday night — just pitch-perfect singing.
Grade: A
Lil Rounds: “The Rose,” by Bette Midler
At this point in the competition, Lil’s voice is second to none, but it’s no substitute for choosing the wrong song week after week — a trend that continued Tuesday night. Despite a decent performance, it was once again a casualty of Lil choosing an unbefitting and unbecoming song, with an absolutely unmoving result. Lil has now strayed so far from the singer we all envisioned her as when season 8 kicked off. And speaking of “kicked off” …
Grade: C-
PREDICTIONS
Bottom Three: Matt Giraud, Lil Rounds, Anoop Desai
Eliminated: Lil Rounds
LAST WEEK’S RECAP: Birth-Year Theme!
