‘American Idol’ top 10 review: Can anyone stop Kree Harrison, Candice Glover?
“American Idol” paid tribute to its past with a top ten performance show on Wednesday night, but we’re overall not entirely sure that they did the past altogether proud. There were some song choices in here that were definitely questionable, ballads all over the place, and only one or two performances that were really good enough to talk about with your friends later.
Right now, this season desperately needs a lifeline, and it may be as much related to personality as it is vocal ability. There are song good singers mixed in here, but too many of them carry around this “aw, shucks” demeanor and act afraid to have a little bit of fun and loosen up. Kree Harrison’s really the only one we see trying to do a little something more, which is why she is at the moment our favorite to win it all.
The performances
Curtis Finch, Jr., “I Believe” – Really, this is what you sing? It’s not a good song choice for Curtis, and his vocals were really just all over the place. Curtis really should be lucky he made it this far, and the truth is that him going first on the night is even more evidence that his days are numbered. We niff a bottom three placement very soon!
Janelle Arthur, “Gone” – Scotty McCreery was great at this song because he brought so much energy to this song, and we can honestly give Janelle a solid “A” for effort based on how hard she tried here. Performance-wise, however, this was more of a C+. She just never really got there, and our familiar criticism of her still stands as someone who tries a little too hard, and there are times in which it feels like she is performing for a talent show rather than for the sheer fun of it.
Devin Velez, “Temporary Home” – A great song choice from Devin, and it made for a lovely performance. The rub on Devin is that he is really stuffed full of “lovely” performances, and we are sure that he would prefer to be doing something that was actually blowing people away versus something that is in the “very good” but not “great” range.
Angie Miller, “I Surrender” – We wanted Angie to do something exciting if she was going to do something that Kelly Clarkson covered; instead, we had this snoozer. She is a good singer and we’ve loved some of what she has done, but we’re starting to feel like she is getting a little one-note and boring. That’s not good when we still have so many weeks to go.
Paul Jolley, “Amazed” – Let’s start this off by saying that “Lonestar” has always been from this perspective that terrible and annoying song that was at every school dance growing up. Now, its’s that annoying song that male country singers cover. This just didn’t do anything for us at all.
Candice Glover, “I Who Have Nothing” – There have now been three brilliant renditions of this song over the years: Jordin Sparks, Haley Reinhart, and now Candice. She basically came out, looked at everyone who came before her, and then more or less “this is Sparta” kicked them into the audience. There’s no contest here that she was the queen.
Lazaro Arbos, “Breakaway” – To an extent, we agree with Nicki Minaj that this was the weakest thing Lazaro has ever done. It was not tremendous by any means, but nor was it terribly. Instead, this was just a middle-of-the-road performance that was well song, even though there were noticeable issues with diction and timing throughout.
Kree Harrison, “Crying” – The only thing we don’t like about this performance is Kree labeling her twist by speaking about herself in the third-person. Never a good move. The song was just a tick slower than it needed to be, but the vocal was absolutely flawless. Pure vocal magic, and the best country singer in the competition by far. The only thing almost as good here? Nicki’s bizarre rant comparing it to waffles.
Burnell Taylor, “Flying Without Wings” – Burnell heard about the problems associated with doing a ballad every week, but he still did it anyway! This wasn’t so much a terrible performance, but it was not one of Burnell’s best. It was just boring, and without his glasses, he also looked a little bit like the love child of Kanye West and Joshua Ledet.
Amber Holcomb, “A Moment Like This” – Really? ANOTHER ballad? Out of all of the wonderful songs that Kelly Clarkson has done, Amber chose what was the drippy season 1 coronation song. She actually did a great job with the vocal, but from a critical standpoint someone needs to tell these singers that doing ballads time and time again just aren’t interesting.
Who do you think actually rose to the occasion on “American Idol” tonight? In addition to voting in the poll below, be sure to head over here to see who we said was in danger before the show.
Photo: Fox