American Idol-April 15, 2008

After last weeks semi-disaster of “Inspirational Songs,” and Michael Johns’ not-that-surprising exit, this week just had to be so much better. It just had to be. Unfortunately, it was that much better. I guess it’s not so surprising that this week was Mariah Carey-themed, as she had a new album dropping today and her regained popularity as a singer, but this was looking to be up their with the crappiness of Dolly week. It was actually better than that, though, with not a single bad performance.

The Best:

David A was the first performer and started the show with a bang. David Cook is really doing well, and Syesha is the best female, but David A is still the guy to beat. The stylists were once again trying to make him a little edgy with the punk shirt, but he still looked like a big nerd. Probably the best performance of the night and he’ll sail through.

David Cook chose one of the few recognizable songs of the night, “Always Be My Baby,” and once again performed without a guitar. It was much better than last week’s terrible performance and one of his better of the season. This was maybe the first time where he looked comfortable being a frontman, although he seems to still be taking wardrobe tips from Avril Lavigne. Sorry, man, vests and ties are so five years ago. Second best performance of the night and he’ll make the finale three of this season.

Syesha just kills it each week and this was week was no different. None of the girls can touch her vocally, at this point, but for some reason people don’t seem to connect with her and she’s always in the bottom. She had the third best performance of the night but could very well be in the bottom three again.

And the rest:

Carly was smart by doing a cover of a cover. Yes, Without You is not a Mariah original. It was originally written and recorded by Badfinger and then later made famous by the late, great Harry Nilsson. The reason its smart is because it was one of the only songs recognizable to people not familiar with all of Mariah’s work. While it didn’t lack the sadness of the original, it wasn’t that bad and much better than last week. I don’t think it’s enough to save her from the bottom three, though.

Brooke broke out the piano again for a nice version of “Hero. This was maybe her best Carole King-like performance yet and while it wasn’t her best performance, it wasn’t her worst and she’ll stick around for another week.

Jason really needs a haircut if he wants to be taken seriously as an artist. The weird thing, though, is if he did, he’d go home in a hurry. After a good performance last week, he was just so-so this week. It was nice to see that the bald guy, with the big moustache, was out doing percussion again. Overall, it was pretty boring but enough to get him through.

Kristi has some sort of voodoo going as she’s the worst singer, yet makes it through each week.  She sang “Forever” and it wasn’t that bad. Turning every song into a country song is getting really old, I know that much. Its down to the nitty gritty, though, and as much as she’s improved, she’ll still most likely visit the bottom three again.

The Results:

The bottom three this week should start with Kristi and Carly. Who the third is isn’t as clear, but a good guess would be Syesha. It’s really quite possible that the next three weeks will see all girls going home until just Brooke is left. Jason will probably sneak in there at some point, though. I was wrong about Kristi going home last week, but I have to pick her again since she’s the weakest and at some point her luck has to run out.