American Idol apparently had so many demands for it, that they brought back the Beatles for last night’s show. So we were all treated to the Top 11 singing yet more Beatles tunes. This time around most of them did not, in my opinion, stand out or do very well. It was largely all mediocre, and my lack of enthusiasm caused me to brush my teeth and go to bed, rather than hurrying to my computer to write my thoughts to this blog. It’s not that the Top 11 all did horrible but they pretty much all put me to sleep. Either that, or all our current preparing-to-move put me to sleep. I’m not really sure which.

A top moment during the show for me was when Ryan pulled a cellphone away from a “ringer” in the audience to do an ad spiel. It was a top moment because it was so hilarious. Ryan, of course, knew it was a blatant ad work-in, and he didn’t look terribly comfortable about it. So he played on that with some sardonic and possibly sarcastic wordplays and expressions. And at the end, he motioned to the judges whilst saying something about “raising their glasses” - a reference to the ever-present red plastic Coca-Cola cups that Paula, Randy & Simon drink from. I giggled.

Amanda Overmyer - Back in the USSR: I have a complaint about the AI band. They’re too loud. They drown out the singers, making their voices fade/merge into the instrumentals to a point where it’s hard to judge the vocals. Maybe this is on purpose, to hide the fact some of the singers really don’t have much of a vocal range. Amanda’s performance tonight was just ok. I found it to be a little bit shrieky in tone, and even her usual entertaining prancing around the stage seemed a bit mellowed out this time around. Still, I think she’s safe enough for another week.

Kristry Lee Cook - You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away: Kristy sat on a stool this week. That’s often not a very good sign. I can sum up her whole time on stage in this way: “zzzzzzzzz.” At least it wasn’t hyper-kinetic country, but the arrangement was in too low of a pitch for her, which made her vocals sound breathy and weak. I don’t know if it was her performance or the actual arrangement, but it seemed like she slowed the pace of the song down, as well. Since the song is already fairly slow, slowing it down even more just gave it more of that “zzzzzzzz” factor. In her video-taped segment, Kristy mentioned the fact that she’s pretty much always been in the bottom 3, and I don’t think she’s going to change that this week. Definitely not safe.

David Archuleta - The Long and Winding Road: The Wonder Kid made up for his goof-up last week with a good performance of this classic Beatle tune. He sang it well, no mistake. He’s still adorable, and he’s once again back on top with no reason to fear. I still can’t quite put my finger on what it is about him that I don’t like, however. One petty thing: the constant lip-licking - someone give that boy some Chapstick. Or perhaps it’s because his voice is, to me, in that middle stage between young-boy-choir sound and mature-adult sound. He still sounds like he belongs in an all-boy harmonizing band … it’s a certain quality or lilt to the voice. Yes, he is still young, and harmonizing boy-bands can be entertaining, so I don’t mean that as a big criticism. But it makes me wonder what he’s going to sound like 10 years from now. At any rate, he’s definitely safe.

Michael Johns - A Day In The Life: Michael, Michael, Michael. Another of my personal favorite Beatle tunes, and for the first couple lines, I thought Michael was going to pull it off. Then he lost the first high note, and it was all downhill from there. When he picked up the speed for the one fast-paced bit, he bounced up and down in time to the music like a demented jack-in-the-box. Again, if I just listen to Michael’s vocals without staring at the TV, it’s not quite as bad as first impressions might give, but it was still a poor performance. For the first time, I think Michael is not safe. He might even be in the bottom three this week. If he is, and he isn’t eliminated, I hope being in that position gives him a kick in his pants. He also should stop picking songs that have “personal meaning” to him - liking a song doesn’t mean you can sing it.

Brooke White - Here Comes The Sun: Not nearly as strong a performance as last week. Brooke came out wearing this funky yellow dress that looked like layered kitchen-window curtains. Ick. The song suits her, but early in her performance she did this little dance-twirl and a corny “whooo!” popped out of her mouth. Double-ick. Still, she has that infectious smile and her vocals were solid if not exactly super-inspiring. She’s safe for this week, but I hope she does better next time or she may start to fade.

David Cook - Daytripper: The band was once again drowning out the vocals. Which is saying something considering how much David C. screams. He pulled out the voice-box - or as my husband likes to call it, the “squawk-box” - for a few brief moments. Not impressive. And once again, he turned a song into the typical alt-rock arrangement. I grant that David C. has alt-rock pipes, but just like with Amanda, he needs to do something besides turn every single song into the same genre/style and arrangement. In other words, I still don’t like him. And I think all the recent attention is going to his head more every week. As Simon said “I don’t think it was as good as you think it was.” But he’s also definitely safe.

Carly Smithson - Blackbird: Great voice potential, ok performance, decent work with lower pitch range. Her “big” notes still cause my eardrums to fold in on themselves. My upper-range hearing ability is higher than average and the way she modulates her voice on those notes just plain hurts, like a loud ringing in the ears might. But I still give her kudos for her abilities as a singer, even if my own ears can’t quite find a comfort zone. Side note: there are two things I’ve noticed about Carly - one, she could use to stop scowling so much. Those lines between her eyes are going to be canyons before long, and her facial expressions border on the almost scary at times. Two, her accent seems to be getting stronger every week. What’s up with that? Was she trying to “hide” it before, because she was afraid voters might be turned off by it? Was she ashamed of her accent before? It’s a little odd.

Jason Castro - Michelle: Arrrrgh. Every time Jason sang the word “MIEH-shell” I cringed. That one word was terrible, the way he accented it. the rest of the performance was ok, but kinda boring. Nothing outstanding and nothing stood out. Vocals seemed a little too “soft”. And this time around he seemed like he might be on some … uh … pharmaceutical aid. I’m not sure he’s got a lot upstairs, if you know what I mean. But he still seems like such a nice guy, and his grin gathers you in and makes you want to hug him, so he’s still safe for now. But he might run into problems in a couple weeks if he doesn’t come out with a strong performance again.

Syesha Mercado - Yesterday: NO NO NO NO. This is the one song I was hoping no one would do. I can’t be impartial for this song, I’m sorry. You can’t mess with this song, you can’t change its arrangement as much as Syesha did here, and you can’t “force” the emoting to a point where we can tell it’s being “forced”. But wait - what about her vocals? They were pleasant, sure, and worked well with her range, and the judges liked it. Syesha also changed her hair again, which I personally liked. I think she was trying hard to reinvent herself after her bottom-3 scare last week. I may have hated her version of Yesterday, but again I seem to be in the minority, so I suppose it might have saved her arse.

Chikezie - I’ve Just Seen a Face: It was Chikezie’s turn do a weird country-jig. The first bit of his performance seemed pleasant and ok, but then he pulled out this harmonica and out came the country hoe down. Ugh. Last week his inventiveness and daring turned out well, this week it … did … not. I’m really not sure if he’s safe or not this time around. He might have built a big enough fan base by now to be safe.

Ramiele Malubay - I Should’ve Known Better: After being accused of being boring and dull last week, Ramiele tried to pick it up with a more upbeat performance. Unfortunately, she was still boring and vanilla. And she still wears too much lip gloss, making her upper lip look swollen and overly pouty, which visually overwhelms me every time they do a close up on her face. Something about her during this performance screamed out “hyper-active 12 year old from the 80’s Valley Girl” period. She’s still cute, she still has a good vocal instrument, but her performances are not exciting anybody. That hat/outfit didn’t help either.

I predict Ramiele, Kristy Lee Cook will be in the bottom three. It’s hard to predict who will be the third. I’d guess either Chikeze or Michael. Regardless, I pray think that Kristy will be the one going home.  Edit: minor re-tweaking of some wording throughout.