AMERICAN IDOL “Top 6 Perform” Review

AMERICAN IDOL “Top 6 Perform” Season 10 Episode 30 – I don’t want to just say “Hand the trophy to Durbin,” (I’m not Mike Rosenzweig after all), because you could have said the same thing about Adam Lambert two years ago, and he was only able to come in second. (Not that it hurt Glambert’s career in any way. In fact, recently, winning seems to be a career death knell.) James could even be beaten by Scotty McCreery, who had an excellent week after I’d given him up for dead and boring last go-round. And everybody loves a comeback. But if I’m picking early, and the voters don’t do their weird “let’s vote to save someone rather than our favorite” thing that always gets someone unjustly booted, we should see a final three of James, Scotty, and Casey.

After that it’s anyone’s to take. I just don’t see it happening any other way than those three, however.

This week they all did songs by “Music Royalty,” Carole King. And if her name isn’t immediately familiar to you, well, you were probably A. not alone and B. born after the 1960′s. With in-studio help from Baby Face, some of ‘em soared and others warbled a little. They also did duets; I’d have to say the Casey and Haley duet won the day. (Even though they claim not to have practiced it much. Were they too busy making out?) The Scotty and Lauren duet wasn’t bad either, and James and Jacob were a mess. (And someone really needs to tell James that look is not flattering for him. Eeee-yikes.)

Here’s how our six remaining Idols stacked up:

James Durbin: 28
Song: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
Performance: 5 Originality: 5 Stage Presence: 4 Appearance: 4 Marketability: 5 Intangibles: 5
Notes: An unbelievably unique and virtually perfect rendition of the old Shirelles song. If he had reined in that final scream, which felt just a smidge indulgent, I would have somehow figured out a way to give him a 6 on my 5-point scale. He could release that song now and have a hit. It was that good. Blew me away.

Casey Abrams: 24
Song: Hi-De-Ho
Performance: 4 Originality: 5 Stage Presence: 5 Appearance: 4 Marketability: 3 Intangibles: 3
Notes: Don Was (Was Not Was) payed a visit to the studio session, it seemed, just to jam with Casey. He’s infectious like that, and though some people don’t think he has much stage presence, I disagree; he works it hard, especially when there are other musicians present. Sure he looks and walks like a muppet, but damn, that kid can perform. I was waiting for the Blues Brothers to pop out at any time during that scat-happy song. Very cool. I marked his intangibles at a 3 only because he may at times come across as crazy. And America doesn’t always vote for crazy.

Scotty McCreery: 24
Song: You’ve Got A Friend
Performance: 4 Originality: 5 Stage Presence: 3 Appearance: 4 Marketability: 4 Intangibles: 5
Notes: LIke I said—a real strong comeback from last week. I think I once said McCreery would always get middling Originality scores because all he sang was country, but in this case he turned a non-country song into a country croon, so I have to give props. His best performance to date, I think.

Haley Reinhart: 20
Song: Beautiful
Performance: 3 Originality: 3 Stage Presence: 4 Appearance: 4 Marketability: 3 Intangibles: 3
Notes: Haley chose thing song because it reminded her of a Beatles song; interesting that I’d never thought of that before, but it sort of does have a Paul McCartney vibe. This wasn’t as good a performance as in past weeks, in my view, and it may not keep her out of the bottom three—but that’s nothing against her. There are only six left. She’s still damned good.

Lauren Alaina: 18
Song: Where You Lead
Performance: 3 Originality: 3 Stage Presence: 3 Appearance: 3 Marketability: 3 Intangibles: 3
Notes: When I mark you with 3′s across the board, you’re basically unremarkable. And that’s dangerous when we’re down to 6. If she’s not in the bottom 3, her fan base is bigger than I thought. Her confidence is still bad. Baby Face even remarked, “She’ll get some confidence… some day.” Dragging the boy onstage didn’t seem to help either. She might get some Miley votes now though.

Jacob Lusk: 17
Song: Oh No, Not My Baby
Performance: 3 Originality: 3 Stage Presence: 3 Appearance: 1 Marketability: 3 Intangibles: 4
Notes: Oh No, Not My Baby should have been Oh No, Not That Outfit. I was going to try to score him lower than a 1 on Appearance, but my OCD took over and saved him from a fate worse than Björk. I was so distracted by the jacket and the tie and the… neon yellow vest and the… even now it’s hard to describe. But maybe he was trying for a distraction of some sort, because the song was pretty weak for a Lusk performance. I marked him high on Intangibles because he seems to have finally gotten past his infamous “Message to America” thing.

Tomorrow: American Idol results and Crystal Bowersox! I love me some ‘sox.

If you love you some Mamasox, follow me on Twitter! That’s @Axechucker, you geeks!