‘American Idol XIII’ spoilers: The top 9 theme is…

While not every theme for “American Idol XIII” so far has been our favorite, we’ll give them credit for one thing: Actually allowing the contestants to take on a variety of different songs that could all work for them for a change. There has been nothing restricting them to Stevie Wonder or Whitney Houston hits, or a suggestion that a rock singer should be forced into doing country.

Next week’s theme is somewhat enigmatic and open-ended, but here is what we know about it for the time being. According to TVLine, contestants are going to be operating under the headline of “(I’m With the) Band.” The idea here seems to be to make the artists into their inner frontman, and they have to look more like they are performing as a part of an ensemble rather than someone separated heavily from them while they are relegated into the background.

Here is what makes us nervous about the idea of featuring the band more next week: Didn’t anyone realize what happened with the band last week? It doesn’t feel like a particularly great idea to feature them more following the “Sound of Silence” fiasco … and that hasn’t been the only snafu with the band so far this season. There have been a few of them, and we don’t really know if this theme is really something that works well for some of the more low-key performers like Jena Irene or Alex Preston. We’re just going to go ahead and assume that they both make it to next week, given that the voters have been pretty sensible in who they send home so far.

We’ll have some more news for you a little later tonight, at least in the form of who ends up leaving the show in tenth place. For now, click here to read our full review of Wednesday’s performance show, or here to get some more updates courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: Fox