‘American Idol’ top 5 review: Candice Glover, Kree Harrison take on divas and more

Welcome to “American Idol’s” all-ladies top 5! The good news about Lazaro Arbos leaving the show last week is that all of the performances were at least “pretty good,” and if we could actually get hyped up to talk about the judges, we’d say that this was one of the best episodes overall of the year. (It’s just that these masters-of-critique are by and large awful in a live TV environment and have no chemistry at all.)

We don’t know if anyone is going to go home this week since there has to be a non-elimination round left, but if someone does end up leaving, good luck to the voters on trying to pick the best based on this crop: after all, the weakest singer of the week probably has a huge sympathy bump.

Round 1 – Songs from the Year of Your Birth

Candice Glover, “Straight Up” – Fierce and fabulous are the two words we’d use to describe Candice’s version of the song. Why did they make the best go first? The simple answer is that they have to mix it up occasionally, and there’s no way at all that she is going home after this. We just can’t see it.

Janelle Arthur, “When I Call Your Name” – If these first two songs were any indication, we were in for quite a treat tonight. Janelle brought some soul and a great deal of spirit to a Vince Gill hit, and we were so happy to see a quick recovery following what was a subpar round of performances last time.

Kree Harrison, “She Talks to Angels” – Here’s the rub on Kree right now: she doesn’t really ever go over-the-top with anything, which is both a good and bad thing. She of course runs the risk of lulling her fans into a state of not-voting, but there is also something soothing and even refreshing about her performances, because they are never a test to see how many big notes she can hit. It’s all about projecting the story first and foremost.

Angie Miller, “I’ll Stand by You” – With Angie being a Massachusetts native, there’s almost no way we see her going home this week after the tragedy in Boston. We hate to say it, but this actually was not a particularly great performance. The theatrical side was showing strong this week, and there was a little bit of strain as the song went on.

Amber Holcomb, “Without You” – Someone is really trying to push Amber, no? She is probably the closest thing to a pop star left in the competition, and her voice is out of the world. Our problem is that we really feel that some of the other contestants (especially Janelle and Candice) are more likable than she is, and that matters.

Round Two – Divas

Candice Glover, “When You Believe” – Ugh. We find the whole “singing Mariah songs in front of Mariah” thing to be rather irritating, since you know she’s going to heap on the praise for them. It’s also that after hearing three straight songs from Candice that were complete magic the last two weeks, this one was just a little dull.

Janelle Arthur, “Dumb Blonde” – Great song choice by Janelle. It’s a song that has not been beaten to death on the show, and the only thing wrong with it is that she needs to learn some stage presence lessons from Skylar Laine … at least at first. By the time this was over, we were completely into it and having fun. Please, Randy Jackson: don’t discourage people from going uptempo.

Kree Harrison, “Have You Ever Been in Love” – We’re not sure that Celine Dion was right for Kree. She finished a number of the notes the same way, and it became a little bit distracting over the lyrics, which have always been her biggest strength. This complaint aside, though, she still got herself a standing ovation from the judges.

Angie Miller, “Halo” – This performance we’re torn over. Angie did a great job hitting the notes, but it almost felt as though she was forcing the song at us like we were a kid being forced to sit down and each spinach. It was too aggressive for an emotional ballad, and she may have tried a little too hard to “prove something” here.

Amber Holcomb, “What Are You Doing for the Rest of Your Life” – Awesome. Clearly, this Barbra Streisand cover was the best thing that Amber has done all season, and it may be the very thing that gets her out of the voters’ cellar that she has been in for much of the live shows when compared to the other ladies. It was very old-school, but somehow she modernized it. We do still want more personality, but we’ll definitely take the vocals.

Who did you like the most on “American Idol” this week, and did you even enjoy this enough to ignore some of the annoying quirks like the judges and Jimmy Iovine randomly popping in with quick “critiques”? If you want to see what Nigel Lytghoe had to surprisingly say recently about the judging panel, be sure to head on over to the link here.

Photo: Fox