American Idol-April 8, 2008

If you missed last week’s episodes, it was Dolly Parton week. Thankfully, that is behind us. While none of the performances were that bad, none were great either. The bottom three was Ramiele, Kristi Lee Cook and the surprise of the year, Brooke. Don’t worry, though, Brooke was probably just a plant by the producers and it didn’t matter anyway as Ramiele finally went home.

This week, it’s down to the Final Eight singing “Inspirational Songs.” The show schedule is running a bit different this week, though: Tuesday was the performance show, but the results show will not be until Thursday because Wednesday is the Idol Gives Back episode. I will most likely not be blogging about that.

And now the good:

David A was pretty solid last week, but was near-great this week. It was a very smart move playing the piano and picking a good Robbie Williams ballad, “Angels.” While he’s the best singer and it’s very obvious the producers want him to win, I still can’t figure out how they’re going to market him. Country and rock are definitely out, and R&B doesn’t seem like his path, which may leave an opening for him as a Christian artist, a genre they haven’t really gone after yet. As usual, Syesha was once again really good, although for some reason the judges slagged her off tonight for covering a Fantasia song. She just can’t seem to win with the judges, which usually means the producers are trying to push the singer out. Lastly, as much as I hate to say it, Jason Castro was pretty good.

The pretty decent:

Somehow, Kristi escaped elimination last week and there’s a chance she’ll do it again this week as her performance was decent and she looked great for once. She must have used a different stylist this week. Michael once again channeled the ghost of Jim Morrison, but this week it was through Aerosmith’s “Dream On.” But, you know what, it wasn’t half bad. Too bad he also has a bad stylist as another week of him wearing a vest and a ladies scarf did not serve him well. Brooke was very smart in choosing a Carole King song since she’s stolen her persona anyway. She did well and is in no danger.

And the bad:

Carly Smithson sang Queen’s “The Show Must Go On,” and it was not good at all. In the auditions there was so much hype about her, but Carly is the biggest disappointment of the year. It just didn’t work this week. The biggest surprise of the week, though, was David Cook. He sang some song crappy song by his favorite band, Our Lady Peace, and it was terrible. I’m not sure if he was sick or what, but his lower register was terrible and his upper register was not much better. If he wasn’t so loved he’d be in trouble.

Who goes home is once again tough. Kristi Lee Cook will once again visit the bottom group, as will Carly. The third is harder to pick. Jason could be there again, but did well this week. That means it could be an all girls bottom group again, with Syesha rounding it out or even Michael Johns at the bottom, but Kristi’s time has to be up now.