American Idol 9 - The Top 10

The theme week of the Top 10 is R&B and Soul with Usher. Hey it's actually a legitimate top of the game musical genius for a mentor, so maybe they will get some better advice than last week. So let's see who bends the soul into their own genre in an interesting way and who kills a Mary J. Blige song.

Siobhan - Street of Fire - It's funny that Usher of all people tells Siobhan to cut out the crazy clothes, but maybe it will sink in. The scream in this song was totally unnecessary and forced, which brought the performance down. Siobhan has a good voice and she is distinctive, but this was one of her weaker performances and she was off key for much of the song.
GRADE: D

Casey - Hold On I'm Coming - Someone must have told Casey a joke right before going on because he had the biggest grin on his face. Casey does what will probably be my favorite song choice of the night and jazzes it up with his guitar skills intro and a blues quartet. I think he will have a future in a rock band, maybe even more than David Cook. This performance not his best but very good.
GRADE: B

Mike - Ready For Love - Mike picks a soft quiet love song, what a shock. This is his wheelhouse, so he should knock it out of the park. This song choice bored me to tears even with the heavy strong note at the end. He needs to do more, although the performance was technically sound. Frontrunners are sticking around this week.
GRADE: B-

Didi - What Becomes of the Brokenhearted - Didi wears the most formal dress of the night and then lays a Siobhan scream (as much as she can) near the end of the song. I thought this was her strongest non-nervous performance but the song did not quite fit her. I think this will keep her around knowing who is coming up later, but minor improvements are not enough for a fringe contestant.
GRADE: C-

Tim - Sweet Love - Teflon Tim indeed, he is the proud worster contestant. When Tim tries to look through the camera and sings this chorus, he seems like a creepy head-lolled-to-the-side stalker. One of the lyrics to this song is I feel ashamed, and Simon should rip on that. Although I'm about to bust the Idol producers for not being able to keep a solid tape going. Tim gets past the FAIL on effort alone because this song was full of fail. He might go home this week.
GRADE: D

Andrew - Forever - Andrew takes a cheesy slow love song and makes it somewhat better, so kudos to that. Andrew does have a pretty good voice for the theme although I did not think so in the abstract. The performance was better than his last few, but it will not move him back into the frontrunners quite yet. This puts him back on the radar.
GRADE: B-

Katie - Chain of Fools - Katie is the girl who inevitably steps up and does Aretha, which shows how much she wants to stay in the competition or how delusional she is after being in the Bottom 3. As this performance went on, I saw the brilliance in the song choice. yes it was ballsy and yes she's not Aretha (who is?), but she was able to show off her strong voice the whole way through. This was a drastic improvement in my mind.
GRADE: B

Lee - Treat Her Like A Lady - Lee does the stereotypical take a soul song and put it right in his wheelhouse genre instead. This was not the most sparkling performance but it was good enough to be in the upper range tonight because he gave a good show by his standards. Judges loved it though so he's more than safe.
GRADE: B-

Crystal - Midnight Train to Georgia - So Crystal moves over to the piano, something we've only seen once this season and by Didi. Wow hard to remember that. The piano was kind of mediocre, but when Crystal stood up to do the second chorus she knocked it out. She has the most distinctive good voice in the competition, and this was another solid performance.
GRADE: B+

Aaron - Ain't No Sunshine - Aaron was supposed to add feeling and distinctiveness to the I Know I Know I Know I Know I Know I Know....line. And yet he found a way not to. This may have not been his strong suit, and he did not do much with it. He will barely avoid the bottom three in grades this week. He will not be in jeopardy but this is an overdone song and he did not knock it out.
GRADE: C-

TOP PERFORMER - Crystal
BOTTOM 3 - Didi, Tim, Siobhan
GOING HOME - Tim