American Idol 8 Top 13 - Toughest Theme Ever?

Welcome back to the finals! At long last, we have a final 12...ahem 13...mediocre contestants to shock and awe us. This week's theme is michael jackson. This is it...no really, this summer...this is it. Let's hope the cursed artist of Idol makes everyone very interesting tonight!

Lil Rounds - "The Way You Make Me Feel"
God awful dress, not even funny in 80's theme. Lil has probably the best voice of the remaining women contestants. This song was a little growly for her, but she tries her best to get the Mary J. Blige jive from a week ago. She really tried to add to much shoutiness to the song and it felt like she missed some notes. This was much poorer than before, but she'll probably stick around given the terribad theme! The judges homered for her again, except for Simon. OMG Paula is wearing the same crappy outfit for the loss!
GRADE: C

Scott MacIntyre - "Keep The Faith"
The blind man missed a note early or at least dropped it too quickly. But after that, he got rolling very well. Good song choice if a little safe. It's obvious he will be at the piano every week unless they rip him away, and that should let him make it to the final couple of shows if nothing else. Falsetto glory note wasn't that bad for Idol standards. Nice 80's style russian army jacket, goes well with the theme.
GRADE: B+

Danny Gokey - "P.Y.T."
This is like a perfect theme week for the Gokester. Actually a classy jacket with button down shirt, so that's nice. His dancing was more than terrible, but his singing was solid as usual. He bordeline shouts sometimes which is annoying, but I really have not much to rip here. Another solid performance from the frontrunner.
GRADE: A-

Michael Sarver - "You're Not Alone"
Another classy outfit, but usually it is the girls who make the worst impressions and we are shot on them. Michael has the cheesiest look and point into the camera, but the performance was good for him. He is stretching his voice as far as it will go, and he will not compete with Danny and Adam. Nevertheless, this cheeseball performance had no real weak spots except for the lead up to the end of the song. This goes out to all the oil riggers who've ever sung MJ...oh wait.
GRADE: B

Jasmine Murray - "I'll Be There"
Jasmine talks about the glam crew, then shows that they used taste on her. Not the cutest dress, but it looks decent on her. Jasmine returns to the frontrunner type of singing I saw before the semifinals. Good god she hangs a long ass glory note, but she hits almost everything. Good song for her voice and a solid performance. Where'd all the bad singers go?
GRADE: B

Kris Allen - "Remember The Time"
Oh good lord, the anti-hotness that is the country-western farmer pattern shirt with short sleeves. Goes with the guitar I guess. This song is iffy because the chorus is a lot of the backup singers. The verses don't have a lot of meat on the bones either, and Kris adds too much to overcompensate. His little vibratos and mouth movements don't help and this is a danger zone in my opinion. Of course the judges gave him more love than he was due.
GRADE: D+

Allison Irahata - "Give It To Me"
Allison is a little better on the video than impropmtu, as she was really clumsy in the semifinals. The glam crew has definitely cultivated the rocker edgy look for her voice, and it doesn't look as bad as I thought. Allison has a good voice for what she wants to do, but really she's just a better talented Amanda Overmyer. The glory note on the end was bad. Good enough.
GRADE: B-

Anoop Desai - "Beat It"
Wow, did not think anyone had the balls for this or Thriller or Billie Jean, but pleasant surprise! Wonder how much Idol paid to develop the ridiculous Matrix-like background. Anoop wears a tie under a windbreaker, which is interesting to say the least. This was a really ballsy song choice, as it really gives you no chance to show off. Anoop tried to look good in the verses where you can sing but song choice trumps all. Good energetic performance, but even Paula ripped him.
GRADE: D

Jorge Nunez - "Never Can Say Goodbye"
The Puerto Rican sensation goes way back to MJ's childhood, when the dysfunction started in the Jackson family. This song make Jorge seem a little whiny at times, but he takes some glory notes and runs with them. Terrible T-shirt under a suit jacket, but I guess that's his style. He did not have a flawless performance and this was too safe. Perhaps he will be in trouble despite his popularity.
GRADE: D-

Megan Corkrey - "Rockin Robin"
Good lord it's the same dress as last week! Same terribad flower just a different color. YIKES! Megan actually moved around and danced way more gracefully than the past two weeks. The performance was pretty good on a cheeseball song. She did get a little caught up in the moment and made a couple execution mistakes late, but this was better than before. Oh and then she drops "caw caw, caw caw" at the end. VFTW victory!
GRADE: C+

Adam Lambert - "Black and White"
The goth white kid goes with Black and White, wow another VFTW victory! Adam has his look, a little rougher David Cook. Pleather sky blue jackets are bad, but he made it reasonable. Nice little rocking bridge section which is what separates him from a lot of the others. This was a better song choice than Satisfaction, but he was good outside the shoutiness. Good enough to go through.
GRADE: B+

Matt Giraud - "Human Nature"
Matt goes from the dirty soulful dude to pianoman, which was totally unexpected. Props on being surprising, but his performance was crummy. It's not that he missed many notes, but he was clearly pitchy jumping and the song only gave him brief glimpses for his falsetto which I think he was trying to show off. He shows his sensitive side, but that's not really his thing I think. Judges need to stop the Justin Timberlake comparison. It's not true.
GRADE: D+

Alexis Grace - "Dirty Diana"
The girl who's "dirty"-ing it up picks such the stereotypical song for her role. Alexis is still dirty, but the LBD and stockings was actually more tame for her. This will be an interesting case study because Alexis got major screwed with the non-normal phone number since Idol only saves 12 phone numbers in a row. But she is in the money slot, and the performance was solid even if the song choice was not the best in the world.
GRADE: B

So Michael Jackson week will go down in legend, but they did not have too many bad moments. It's sad that the mediocre group of season 8 did better with MJ than the talented season 7 did twice with Beatles, but whatever. Two go home this week, so here's my picks...

TOM PERFORMER: Danny Gokey
SAFE: Lil Rounds, Scott MacIntyre, Danny Gokey, Michael Sarver, Jasmine Murray, Alison Irahata, Adam Lambert, Alexis Grace, Matt Giraud
BOTTOM 4: Kris Allen, Anoop Desai, Jorge Nunez, Megan Corkrey
GOING HOME: Anoop Desai, Jorge Nunez (adios beautiful brown men)