‘American Idol XIII’ review: Spencer Lloyd, CJ Harris, Alex Preston rule top ten guys

How great are the guys on “American Idol” this year? It’s been years (since season 8, really) that we have felt this good about some of the men in the competition. You’ve got something for everyone, and the fact that there was only one dud performance, you know that you are in for something great.

Once again, though, there were some people who were screwed out of the opportunity to perform, and that included Maurice Townsend who we were sure the producers were really pushing on us to be something fantastic the rest of the season. We’re not going to focus too much on the contestants that didn’t make it; instead, this article is all about ranking the ones who did! We’re going to be doing the same thing as always here, as we rank the contestants from worst to first on this Top 10 performance night.

10. Emmanuel Zidor, “The Best of My Love” – The problem that Emmanuel has as a performer is just that he is complete camp, and we don’t feel like the judges are really doing the best job possible making sure that he knows this. He’s a great personality, but not a good singer; this was an out-of-control mess from start to finish.

9. Malcolm Allen, “Comin’ From Where I’m From” – We like Malcolm’s little title as the singing deli worker. That’s kind of cute. The problem that he has when it comes to “American Idol” is that we didn’t get anything new out of this.

8. Caleb Johnson, “Stay With Me” – He’s probably the only real rocker in the competition, and we have to say that when it comes to pitch, this was one of the best things that we’ve seen almost all season long. The biggest problem? That Caleb didn’t have that foot-stomping quality in his performance that Skylar Laine did … but still, a heck of a start to the competition, and proof that we may have underestimated him.

7. George Lovett, “Grenade” – This is more of a vote of confidence for the potential that we heard in here than the actual overall performance, which was off in terms of pitch and really didn’t do that much for us. Part of the problem with that is that “Grenade” really isn’t a song that works for many people. We would’ve went for a different Bruno Mars track.

6. Spencer Lloyd, “Love Don’t Lie” – Spencer gave a pretty good performance here that makes us believe that he will do well a little later in the competition … but he also needs to make sure that he doesn’t come across as too much of a bro / ladies’ man. He seems like a guy who could fall into that very easily.

5. Dexter Roberts, “This Old Boy” – Like we’ve said before, Dexter is pretty much cornbread country. He’s from the south, loves the genre, knows the genre, and probably could go off on a porch somewhere and entertain a few people, and enjoy it just as much as if he was playing for an arena.

4. Ben Briley, “Soulshine” – The biggest improvement tonight was the guy who really came out and tried to show that he improved a ton from when America had to vote to get him in. Ben seemed very comfortable, and his sound was very Casey James-esque with that electric guitar thrown in there. But one issue we have: Don’t be the Tennessee Volunteers spokesperson all season. It’s a little much.

3. Sam Woolf, “Babylon” – There’s a tradition tonight of guys performing songs that we really like. This is a stellar song that hasn’t been done a lot on this show. Sam is a really talented guy, and it feels like he is only going to grow and get better from here. For a bonus, Google “Matt Henry Babylon” for our favorite performance of this song ever from a singing show.

2. Alex Preston, “Volcano” – This was the second time tonight that we listened to a performance on this show, and immediately thought of another person who did the song. Alex was at least close to matching what Phillip Phillips did to the song, and he is one of our personal favorites overall of the guys in the competition.

1. CJ Harris, “Shelter” – The thing about CJ is that he is not the best singer of the guys; but, he is a completely natural entertainer who connects with you from the moment he starts singing. There’s never been a guy like him in the competition, so if there is one thing that we are really hoping for, it’s that he finds a way to stick around a little long. Episode Grade: B+.

Who was your favorite on “American Idol” tonight? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below, and also be sure to head over to the link here to find out what we thought about the ladies last night.

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Photo: Fox