American Idol Top 3 - Judge's Pick

So this week we get the judge's pick. I sure hope Dream On and Ring of Fire are on the list, haha. We'll see what lame sappy songs the judges pick for our sausage fest 09. Off we go!

Danny Gokey - "Dance Little Sister" by Terrence Darby - Paula's Pick - Paula picks a song that feels straight out of her catalogue, but it's nice to see Danny do something upbeat that fits his voice and style. The bridge with the "doo doo doo" call and response with the saxophone was a pretty nifty little add-in. He was a little over the top as usual, but I cannot cmoplain about missing the pitch or anything like that. Good memorable song for the opener.
GRADE: B

Kris Allen - "Apologize" by One Republic - Kara and Randy's pick - Kris reminds us he can play piano too despite Matt and Scott having that most of the time this season. Worked out well for them too. Kris slows the song down which is a bad decision because it drags on like a funeral dirge a bit. Kris tries to show his vocal talent with spiking notes, but he cannot hit the glory notes in the chorus well enough. Mediocre as usual. The only thing memorable about this performance was the absolute boob show that broke out at the judge's table. WTF?
GRADE: C-

Adam Lambert -"One" by U2 - Simon's pick - Lambert has some interesting outfits in his closet amongst other things (har har), but this cloudy skies shirt is awful. Fits the song I guess. Simon picks a bad croony Bono song and of course the judges will love it but I don't think this presses any boundaries, which is what Adam is good for. He got a bit shouty in the center which was unenjoyable. This was mediocre, but what can you do with the song choice.
GRADE: C+

So the judge's picks were kind of lame, no surprise there. Carrie Underwood had the highlight of the night, asking an Afircan lady if her child has had malaria. She says no, and that "proves" the malaria bed nets are working. WTF?

Danny Gokey - "You Are You Beautiful" by Joe Cocker - No surprise, Danny had to go slow pace since Paula forced him to go upbeat. You know what made this song great for Joe? The voice. Danny has a nice voice but this song does not seem to fit him for that reason. As usual, the Gokester shouts through the only strong part of the song. This cheapens the glory note at the end since he's been oversinging for 15 seconds. This was merely OK. Judges loved it of course.
GRADE: C-

Kris Allen - "Heartless" by Kanye West - So we go from one mediocre overpopular R&B artist to another. Wonderful Kris. And we're back to the guitar. Going without the band is a pander to the judges. The problem is that Kris cannot carry a song with a distinctive of superb voice. He's merely OK, and this song choice just lets him meander around musically. The guitar playing is kind of meh. Better than Gokey which should make this interesting.
GRADE: C+

Adam "in the finals already" Lambert - "Cryin" by Aerosmith - Adam is just rubbing it in Gokey's face for last week, and I love it. I don't know how I feel about the loud backup singer, kind of detracts from the performance though I know it's used in the original. Glambert finds a way to glory note even more than Stephen Tyler which is hard to do! Nevertheless, this is the best performance of the night by a wide margin.
GRADE: A-

So there's your final three. I was expecting repeats, but this year no repeat performances and thank God. I don't watch to see repeats on this show. This will be very intriguing, as I really have no clue who is going home. VFTW doesn't have much pull at this stage, but maybe just maybe they can help Danny past Kris. I hope so, though the tweentards are coming out in force behind the worst contestant. I think the judges are throwing Adam in the final without thinking about it and that backfired last year with the Archulator in the final.

TOP PERFORMER: Adam Lambert
SAFE: Kris Allen
GOING HOME: Danny Gokey