‘American Idol’ finale: Hear Kree Harrison, Angie Miller, Candice Glover’s studio singles

For the first time on “American Idol,” the top 2 contestants were not the only ones that had an opportunity to actually release singles the night of the finale that will have some sort of impact on the rest of their career. Angie Miller got into the action with “You Set Me Free,” and it actually has us wondering: Had she made the final two, would this have been her coronation single? If so, she would have won hands-down given that this song already has millions of plays on YouTube. (In other words, Candice Glover and Kree Harrison got pretty lucky.)

The studio recording of “You Set Me Free” is below for those of you thinking about buying it, and it’s rather good. We wish that there was a little bit more intensity here, almost as if the microphone was turned up a little bit more. With that being said, the second verse (that we hadn’t heard before) is fantastic, and the biggest sabotage that this song has faced is that for the first few hours that it was online, her name was spelled “Angie Miler.” Ouch. Some fans had a little bit of trouble finding it.

Now, let’s turn to the other ladies.

Kree, “All Cried Out” – This is probably out favorite studio recording of any of the three songs, since it feels the most like something that could actually be played on the radio. Country stations are finicky and are, with a small handful of exceptions, pretty male-dominated, but Kree seems to be popular with them as someone who feels genuine and has a great talent.

Candice, “I Am Beautiful” – We wonder if producers feel silly that this is a woman that was cut twice previously on the show, and now she’s come back and basically laughed at them for never really taking her seriously enough. (Granted, the time that it has taken her to make it on the show was motivation for her to improve.)

We’re huge fans of Candice’s voice, but the lyrical content of this song still irks us, mostly due to the fact that so much of it hinges on the word “he.” We’d dig it if it was a little more self-reliant.

Now that we’ve spent all article talking about the contestants, it only feels appropriate that we would at least address the future of the judges for a few seconds. We have for you everything that we know over at the link here.

Photo: Fox