Quickie Recap: American Idol Top 10

Trying to get this in right before the elimination show begins...

At work today, one of the women who I always talk about the show with described last night's show as "full of fantastic performances." I was like, "ehhhhh," and she jumped all over me. "What about the rocker?"

"Wellllll...."

"Oh, he was awesome, and Syesha! She was fantastic!"

"Actually, she bores me."

"What?!?!?"

And on it went. I was underwhelmed by AI's Top Ten, and found absolutely nothing worth writing home about, starting with Ramiele. Heart's "Alone?" Are you kidding me? That is Carrie's song, and she's dead before she even begins. She digs her grave deeper by blowing notes, letting the background singers overpower her, and shouting too much.

She was followed by Jason Castro, back with his guitar, and doing the same thing as the two weeks before. John Mayer does this better. Jack Johnson does this better. The annoying guys in my dorm sophomore year did it better. Next!

Syesha does an UNHOLY baby cry during her clip package. Good Lord, that was terrifying. As noted above, I find her deadly broing, even though I think she sang this very well.

Speaking of deadly boring, Chikezie! Lets me down by singing a ballad and totally toning down everything that I love about him. Paula comes out of her drug-induced haze long enough to make an intelligent comment, which is that Chikezie has so many geat textures to his voice. So true, and I just hope he can make it through this week so we can hear more of them.

Brooke returns to her piano for "Every Breath You Take," and puts on a really cool performance. The judges knocked the second half of the song and its arrangement, but I think Brooke has found a niche that she excels in. It's kind of a Vanessa Carlton/Norah Jones-type thing, but I would buy that CD.

Michael Johns (CUT YOUR HAIR) sings a very strange Queen mash-up, and gets all sorts of crazy lighting to go with his ROCK SONG. I put it in caps because he's clearly trying to prove that he can do all sorts of things, and ROCK is one of them. Overall, it's not terrible.

Carly is terrible. She way over-sings "Total Eclipse of the Heart," and I think her trip into the bottom three last week increased her desperation into palpable levels, and it's definitely showing on screen. Yikes.

David Archuleta sings the cheesiest Up-With-People song this side of "We Are the World," and that was a poor choice. He's already cute enough to be a singing stuffed animal, so singing songs about finding your voice and singing out and bopping around while you do so probably don't detract from that image. He sings it well, of course, but still.

Kristy sings "God Bless the U.S.A." Aaaand keeping with the no-profanity rule we have on this blog, that's all I have to say about that.

David Cook sings a rock version of "Billie Jean." I think he does a good job of sticking with his schtick, but how many more weeks until it gets old? I enjoyed it more than most.

Elimination is beginning now. I think Ramiele finally goes, with Kristy and Chikezie joining the bottom three.