American Idol 9 - Top 24 (the guys)

How about another big night of Idol? One can only hope that the sound bytes improve from last night. Although the judges kept saying that the girls were much better than usual this year, I think yet again some of the biggest favorites to win are in this group. And we're off...

Todrick Hall - Since You Been Gone - Todrick comes out looking good with the black jeans and leather jacket. Todrick lays down a very interesting choice of re-arrangement for the Kelly Clarkson hit. He turned it from pop rock into a soulful version with a little rap beat to it. I do not think it showed off his voice but it was interesting enough to keep him around I would think. In fact, the singing was pretty mediocre at best. Judges ripped him for obliterating the song, but that's the idea when being creative.
GRADE: C+

Aaron Kelly - Here Comes Goodbye - Aaron did not strike me as someone who sounds like Rascal Flatts, but he tries to fit his voice to the previous singer by the sounds of it during the first verse. This kid will get a lot of votes for being the Archuleta or Kris Allen of the season. He does a little weird stuff with the hands and the microphone that distracts from the song. However, he gives a good performance and hits a decent glory note at the end. He just should not try to be someone he is not.
GRADE: B

Jermaine Sellers - Get Here - Other than the cheesy black rose in the lapel, Jermaine wears the classiest looking outfit of the night with a jacket and his signature hat. I did not realize until tonight that he also has a neck tattoo, but it's not as painfully obvious as Neck Tattoo himself coming up later. Jermaine does a quiet soulful song and he misses the strongest note in the song badly as well as the soft high note at the end. This performance was very iffy and will put him in jeopardy.
GRADE: D-

Tim Urban - Apologize - Definitely a contemporary theme tonight, and Tim does not change the arrangement much which I disagree with. Every time he hit one of those falsettos in the verses he just went into soft whisper singing because he probably could not hit the notes. The chorus was a disaster of pitchy proportions, and wow this guy just does not have it. The reject will go back on the pile of rejects before the Top 12, and maybe even this week.
GRADE: F

Joe Munoz - You and I Both Hear It - Joe wears this atrocious scarf, but we won't be too distracted by that. Joe picked a very safe song that doesn't have much glory notes at all and just sort of meanders along at a safe pace. When the chorus picked up he missed a bit of notes, but this performance was safe and solid enough to move on. Simon was dead on in that this was forgettable and safe performance. We'll split the grade difference on this one.
GRADE: C

Tyler Grady - American Woman - No surprise, the 70's rocker rebirth of Jim Morrison picks a 70's hit. He starts the song with a little solo without the band which was a ncie contrast from the funky rock tune portion. Tyler will be delivering this every week and while it may not win the competition, he should stick around for a while. No real terrible notes in this one, but the performance was not completely polished. Put Tyler in the needs to improve pile.
GRADE: C+

Lee Dewyze - Chasing Cars - I'm totally into the Hot Topic t-shirts, so this guy looks pretty much how I would look and I like it. Lee has one of the strongest voices of the guys but he was all over the place in the chorus which made it sound very off. Good guitar player but I hope it does not become his crutch as he did not need it on this song. Good enough to move on.
GRADE: C-

John Park - God Bless The Child - John has looked very good every time he's been on camera but the hairstyle they sent him out with was stupid tonight covering his eyes and all. John picks a soulful song that gives him a chance to put his voice through its paces and while it may not be the most memorable performance ever, it was good enough to keep on going. Simon ripped him but I think he was decent. Not good enough to win but the runs were good.
GRADE: B-

Michael Lynche - This Love - This song choice floored the everloving crap out of me. Really Michael? The guitar was completely useless and distracting, but I'm not going to make fun of his outfit because he's big enough to pummel us. This kind of reminded me of the gay guy from Modern Family if he was doing karaoke at the beginning of the song. Towards the end of the song it got better but this was just another OK performance on a night full of nothing special. I'll grade it well because it ended well.
GRADE: B-

Alex Lambert - Wonderful World - Alex has a serious mullet, and everyone should rejoice in redneck country for this dude. Definitely won't be confused with Adam Lambert. Alex is a very nasal singer on this song and I don't know that he hit any falsetto or strong note all that well. This was completely forgettable in my mind and may put him at jeopardy. Like Simon said, good voice but no stage presence.
GRADE: D

Casey James - Heaven - Casey has a very distinctive look ever since he let his hair down as Kara and victoria ordered. I don't know how he could keep a straight performance going with the silliness Randy and Kara were doing at the beginning. Casey took this song down a notch and made it a sweet little diddy. I could see that being a hit with some more polish, as you could tell he was nervous. But this was clearly the best performance of the first 23 singers this week.
GRADE: A-

Andrew Garcia - Sugar We're Going Down - Call him frontrunner (although Casey might steal that) or Neck Tattoo, but this guy has the right vibe coming into the Top 24. Andrew slowed this contemporary song down a bit and made it sound almost better than the original, which is hard to do. Other than throwing in an unnecessary glory note (which he was OK on), this was a very solid performance. As expected he put down a good performance.
GRADE: B+

So on the whole, the night ended well after a whole hell of a lot of mediocrity. Some very bad song choices again and way too much contemporary stuff, but then again they rip the poor Jim Morrison wannabe for doing a classic. Hard to tell what the judges want but we'll see what America wants tomorrow night. Better than the girls this week, surprise surprise.

Top Performer: Casey
Bottom 3: Tim, Alex, Todrick (first slot curse)
Going Home: Tim and Todrick