Top 9 (ii) - Viva Las Urban

Last week, in a needlessly-overwrought scene cheaply played for emotion, the judges used the only save of the season (which is one too many) on Michael Lynche, a move pretty much everyone saw coming. Apparently someone somewhere was on the edge of their seat, and they're still talking about it here in Idol-land.

This week's theme is the songs of Elvis Presley, AKA The King of Rock 'N Roll. Adam Lambert, "one of our favorite performers," is serving as our mentor. His career's tanking so badly the producers are desperate to give him face time, since they look pretty stupid for overpimping him to the degree they did right now. Ryan chats with Adam a bit, and Adam says if he'd been a contestant this week he probably would've chosen the song Tim's doing: "Can't Help Falling in Love." Wow! An actual song spoiler within the episode!

Leading things off is Crystal Bowersox with "Saved," a gospelly song. Well, she tells us she used to drink and she used to smoke, but I'm not sure if that's Crystal herself or just the song talking. This one's definitely a foot-tapper. With Crystal you almost always know what you're going to get: guitar in hand, great vocals and the stage presence of a pro. She makes it all look effortless. The judges comments basically amount to "yep, Crystal nailed another one!" It's like she doesn't need this competition anymore. She's a cinch to last several more weeks.

Just in case we forgot how absolutely shocking and dramatic last week's results were!, we're treated to a Ryan-chat with Andrew Garcia, who continues the harping. Enough already! In the mentor clip we see that Adam thinks Andrew's performance is a little boring, and he hopes that in the time between the mentor session and the performance Andrew comes up with something good. Does Andrew pull it off? Of course not! His "unique twist" is giving "Hound Dog" a loungy jazz arrangement. Dumb dumb dumb. The lyric is completely incongruous with the style. It's one thing to put your own spin on a song, it's another to make that spin completely ill-fitting. He does include a breakdown in the middle, since that's the only part the judges liked from him last week. Self-plagiarizer! The judges feel like he didn't have enough swagger onstage, and Ellen's the only one who says she liked it at all. I'm hoping this'll be the performance that finally gets him sent home. Come on, America! Stop voting for Andrew!

After Andrew's done Ryan tells us to stay tuned to find out which song Tim Urban picked. Well, considering Adam mentioned it earlier, I think we already know it's "Can't Help Falling in Love." During the mentor session Adam really likes him. Yeah! Come on, Timmy Boy! Make us proud! Taking a page out of the Big Mike Lynche playbook, Tim goes to the platform behind the judges with just his acoustic. He's relying on emotional connection over vocal chops at this point, but that's what we've come to expect from Tim. He seems nervous and disconnected at times, but hey, I'm voting for him no matter what. Overall, there are parts I like and parts where I feel bad for him, since the flaws in his voice are exposed. Is it great? No. Is it really good at certain moments? I'd say so. Hey, it's certainly better than that...thing that preceded it. Whereas I think it's OK, the judges think it's Tim's best performance yet, and Simon even tells him he went from "zero to hero" in two weeks. Well, hey! I hope America loves him as much as the judges do! Go Tim!

Lee DeWyze is pulling out a song with an infamous place on this show, "A Little Less Conversation." It's been done with goofy sincerity by Jon Peter Lewis, with humorless rock posturing by Chris Daughtry and with quirky comedic sense by Jackie Tohn. What'll Lee do with it? Wisely, he chooses to use his acoustic guitar and doesn't steal any pages from Season 5's baldy. He messes up some lyrics in the first verse, but if you don't know the song you probably won't notice, as he covers it pretty well. Lee's one of the better singers in this competition, and this performance is solid as usual, but it's nothing that'll make me sit up and take notice. It's too safe, say I. The judges think he's great and totally current, but Kara wants him to be less serious. Lee gives us some smiles just to show America he really is enjoying himself.

Aaron Kelly's song choice is "Blue Suede Shoes." Finally, it's time for some rockabilly! In his video package he says that the song choice is probably completely wrong for him. Bad move, Aaron! If you don't believe in yourself, who will? Take an improv class and you'll learn that commitment is one of the most important things you can do when performing! Fortunately, Aaron does commit as much as possible. Unfortunately, this performance is strictly amateur hour. He adds some rough growling in there, as Adam suggested. While the suggestion itself wasn't a bad one, I'm not sure if Aaron's that kind of singer. I give the kid credit for making the effort, but he's out of his league here. The judges have mixed reviews. No one loves it, no one thinks it was horrible. Simon says he seemed like he was dressing up for the part, which probably says it best.

Apparently Siobhan Magnus is a true Elvis fan, and it's all because her parents raised her with his music. She's taking on "Suspicious Minds" tonight, the other song Chris Daughtry couldn't do much with. The arrangement here is pure karaoke, and Siobhan's vocals are inconsistent. For the first part they're a little too soft, and for the second part they're a little too over-the-top. The whole thing comes across as a little too desperate. "Suspicious Minds" is a good song, but I don't think I've ever heard a version that compared to the original. It's not a terrible performance, I'm just not a fan of the way it all comes together. It doesn't feel natural. The judges like the second half better than the first, and are disappointed overall. Siobhan tells them she doesn't know how to classify herself, she just likes to sing. It's about time one of these kids admitted to having no artistic identity!

In a move that almost seems to be playing to the stereotype-inclined, Michael Lynche chooses "In the Ghetto." It's just him and his acoustic once again, but this time he's sitting on the edge of the stage, not on the platform behind the judges. Michael does his own thing with it, changing up the melody a bit and singing it very well. So...why does it feel so...lacking? I guess it has too similar a vibe to Tim's earlier performance, and it's also too short. Seriously, this thing's over as soon as it's begun. It's not bad, just a bit boring. The judges love it more than it probably deserves to be loved, since they want to feel vindicated for inflicting that horrific save on us last week. Whatever. After that near elimination, Michael's fans are surely voting a little extra tonight.

Katie Stevens picks a song I'm not familiar with, "Baby What You Want Me to Do." Apparently she chose it due to her frustration with the judges' mixed messages. You go girl. The feckless foursome hasn't been all that helpful to her this season. Surprisingly, this performance is actually pretty good. Katie took Adam's advice to feel the frustration, and now she's projecting some real believability. The vocals are there, the stage presence is there...hey, this girl's improving! The judges think it was great, and Ellen gets to make a pun about the song being "horny" (due to the horn section onstage). Simon says he hates it because he doesn't like the song. Of course, he's not American either, so he probably doesn't "get" Elvis. His loss.

Stealing a page from Canadian Idol's Jaydee Bixby, Casey James is pimp-spotting us out with, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy." This thing's basically in the Lee DeWyze zone: good, but not great. It's an appropriate song choice for the blues guy, but the problem is that it's too forgettable. "HOW FORGETTABLE IS IT?" It's so forgettable that I can't think of anything to say about it. It's just a generic Casey performance. If he were going earlier in the show I'd say he could be in danger, so he ought to be thanking the producers for putting him on last right now. The judges all agree it was merely solid, nothing to get excited over, and Simon even calls it a wasted opportunity.

My Performance Ranking:

Crystal (8/10)
Katie (6.5/10)
Lee (6/10)
Casey (5.5/10)
Tim (5/10)
Michael (4.9/10)
Siobhan (4/10)
Aaron (3.5/10)
Andrew (2.5/10)

So...I'm not sure how they're doing the elimination this week, since two people have to go. I'm guessing they won't do a Bottom 3, so I'll just pick the two people I have leaving. The not-so-great prognosticator says:

Going Home: Andrew and Tim

Yes, unfortunately, I'm picking Tim. Some of Tim's fans may be tempted to take it easy this week after he got such good reviews, but hopefully VFTW's campaign on his behalf will help. I'm probably going to be wrong on Andrew, since the guy seems immune to elimination, but hey, I can hope. At this point his consistently bad performances have to outweigh people's desire to see the young father with a former gang member father succeed.

See you tomorrow night, when we hopefully trim some fat and see Tim make it to the Top 7!