American Idol, Season 10: Top 7 Performances

Remember the 21st Century and the music from way back then? There were bands like Maroon 5 and The Backstreet Boys, and your house appreciated in value every year? Remember that? Justin Timberlake was in some disco dance band and Jack Black was totally funny. Ah …the 21st Century. I should write a book about it.

Last night, American Idol celebrated the music that made gave birth to a new millenium, and mellenium that we’ll appropriately nickname and lable, oh, a thousand years from now. For now, I’ll call it the “Old Navy Century” because I’m quite sure in a few years the entire country will only wear clothes from Old Navy. Just a theory.

Want to talk about singing? Let’s do this. We’re talking Top-7, we’re talking about a Paul McDonald-free zone …except for the opening number with the Idol cast-offs singing Pink’s “So What.” Oh …Pia …I miss you soooooo much.

Scotty McCreery is going quickly from “darn good” to “a phenomenon.” Scotty chose Leann Rimes’s “Swingin’” and to my surprise J-Lo and Randy didn’t like it. At this point if you don’t like Scott McCreery and every song he does, it’s because you hate Country music. Don’t get me wrong, except for my Garth Brooks Greatest Hits CD and the Dukes of Hazzard theme song (and possibly some stuff by Eddie Rabbit), I hate Country music, too. Country music is sooo cliche. And actually most Country music song titles are just actual cliches set to music. But, I know why people like Country music. I know why they like the old stuff and the new stuff, and I myself have found myself sitting on my deck on a hot summer day with a beer in hand and thought to myself, “you know what would go really good right about now? Country music, that’s what.” And sometimes I think I’ve even flipped on a Country station and quickly realized, nope, I don’t need Country music. But if that ever happens again and I do put on Country music, there’s a good chance Scotty McCreery will be on my radio. He’s a star in the making.

A little less cliche …ok, alot less cliche was James Durbin and his choice of Muse’s “Uprising”. I don’t know how much more polar opposite a performance can be from McCreery’s Leann Rimes cover and it’s folksy high-school musical vibe, but James Durbin’s performance was very near that polar opposite. Muse isn’t going to impress the teen girls and the middle-aged Moms who vote, but for me …Muse is awesome and James Durbin was incredible. “Uprising” (video) is a highly produced, very dark song when Muse does it, so you’d worry on the poppiest of pop shows looking for a pop-star …you’d worry that “Uprising” would lose all its “cool.” Durbin, however, looks like he may have known this song and Muse’s music before he picked the song, and he honored it. Then Randy shared with us that Muse’s lead singer, Matthew Bellamy, was hanging around Idol a few weeks ago and talked to James about this song. Can that be true? If it is, that makes it the coolest thing that’s ever happened on American Idol. It makes it sound like bands, musicians, and touring acts just kinda hang out at the same bars where the Idols hang and they casually talk about performing and then give permission to some of the Idols to do their songs. It’s like someday, years from now, there will be some huge artist …the Kid Rock, Beyonce, or Eminem of his or her generation and they’ll write in their biography about hangin’ at the “Idol bar” (as it came to be known) and remembers seeing Scotty McCreery and Casey Abrams hanging out and drinking rootbeer.

I’ll read that rock biography.

I also hated the three high school marching band drummers James made part of his performance. Muse’s Matthew Bellamy may have approved this cool song being on Idol but he def’ didn’t sign off on the drummers.

Which is more obscure? Durbin’s “Uprising” or Haily Reinhart’s covering Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep?” If you’re keeping score, my wife didn’t know either song. I think some people might think Hailey was putting a cool twist on some old big band classic, but Haily was actually doing a carbon copy version of Adele’s version. So …for most, I think they’ll like it. For me, I wanted to tell her what Simon might’ve said …she brought nothing new to the performance. Stee-Ty loves her unconditionally so she can never say anything bad about her. J-Lo and Randy weren’t so impressed, however. Hailey had better hope this song by Adele is more popular than I think it is, otherwise she’s going to get forgotten in the minds of the voters.

Luther Vandross’s “Dance with my Father” is a song I wish had never been written, because it makes me cry almost every time. It also it makes Jacob Lusk cry. Ah …who doesn’t cry when they hear that song? There’s been quite a few great performances over the years and I think last night’s Jacob Lusk performance is among the best ever. Perfect song sung by one of the few contestants who could dream of pulling it off, and I don’t care that Randy didn’t fee like, “jumping up and down.” Dude! There’s something called “over singing” that way, way, way too many Idols have been guilty of. They run and hold notes too long and they mistake the ability to hold a note and sing it really loudly for quality singing. And we all go “wow” and “ohmigosh” because we LOVE when singers hold a big note. We love home runs and slam dunks and diving touchdown catches in the endzone, but we sometimes miss the well played ground ball, great rebounding, and a 3-yard run for a critical first down. Like my metaphors? Maybe I’m wrong, but I think Jacob Lusk is very safe, or my 24 votes on his behalf were wasted.

Casey Abrams took on Maroon 5’s “Harder to Breathe” and I cry every time I hear that song. OK, no I don’t. Actually whenever I hear Maroon 5 I think how skinny lead singer Adam Levine is. Adam Levine is crazy skinny. Here’s the thing about Casey Abrams …I truly don’t think he cares if he wins or if he doesn’t. I believe he wants to win, but he’s not about to shave his beard and “go Country” or go with more mainstream songs (not that Maroon 5 isn’t extremely Top-40) just to capture votes. Casey is Casey more than any Idol has ever been unique. I think some have tried to be unique, or more unique than they probably were before they came on the show. Taylor Hicks learned quickly that people liked his odd head movements and soulful throwback style, and Adam Lambert learned that people liked his high notes and wild style, and then guys like that milked it for all its worth. Can Gieco save you a lot on car insurance? Did Blake Lewis beat box? Casey, in my mind, might be really, really successful someday with a band called something quirky like “The Casey Abrams Peanut Butter & Chocolate Pop Tart Electric Light Band” …ya know, something ridiculous and it’ll be OK because he’ll sell some records and meet some girls and he’ll very likely become a record producer or write some throwaway song for a soundtrack and land a top-10 hit. If he does …great. If he doesn’t …eh, he won’t care. That’s Casey. But I’m betting from early on in his life the people that knew him were like, “that Casey …he’s got something.” He’s naturally entertaining and his soft ending and kissing J-Lo on the cheek was brilliant.

Stefano Langone, apparently, is the season’s “ladies man” and he sang Ne-Yo’s “Closer”. Was it good? Was it average? I don’t know. Randy said he was a little worried at first but then said Stefano really “worked it out” and maybe he did, but I don’t think there’s anything special about it. Sort of like Ne-Yo. It’s really popular to say, “I love Ne-Yo” or “he’s an artist like Ne-Yo” and Ne-Yo is big on the R&B charts and has had a few Top-10 hits, but Ne-Yo, to me, is a poor man’s Usher. He’s a less controversial (and less criminal) version of Chris Brown. Ne-Yo could be sitting across from you at Burger King and you wouldn’t know he was someone famous. Sorry, Ne-Yo (Ne-Yo reads spunkybean every week …mostly for the Dancing with the Stars recaps), but even Ne-Yo’s Mom only downloaded 3 songs from Ne-Yo’s CD.

I spent a great deal of time recapping Stefano by discussing Ne-Yo, which proves my point about Stefano. If an Idol hopeful only makes me try and remember if Ne-Yo wore suspenders during one of his televised performances and if Stefano was purposely trying to mimic that by having his own suspenders dangle down around his legs …if that’s what I was thinking during the performance, chances are I’m not going to remember to vote for Stefano.

And finally, Lauren Alaina sang “Born to Fly” by Sara Evans. Not only is she my favorite, she’s obviously Jimmy Iovine’s favorite. He probably really likes her voice and he says as much. But I think if he’s thinking “record sales”, he wants this girl to win with every fiber of his being. So now, the theme is, “Lauren Alaina doesn’t know how good she is.” She’s getting prettier every week …yes, that’s possible. She’s yet to miss a note. She’s like our little sister and we’re rooting for her. I vote for her every week because, well, like the judges I don’t want her voted off too soon before we see her Carrie-Underwood-sings-Heart-moment. I would hate – hate – to see last night’s ho-hum performance find her in the bottom-three or, gasp, voted off in a Pia-esque shocker, but I really think her Country music stylings combined with all the other stuff I mentioned above will be enough to keep her around.

What a night??!?!?! Wow. Ryan said and I echoed it …literally, I opened my window and shouted into the night air and heard my voice echo all throughout my sleepy neighborhood, “what a night!!! Wow!!!” And judging by the porch and patio lights that lit up on the houses within earshot of my yelling, I can only assume they were lighting up the night in agreement.

Who’d you like? I’m easy to sway in my voting, so I’m a sucker for good lighting and favorable treatment. Am I missing an obvious winner and loser? It’s the Scotty and Alaina show, right? Can it end any other way? Do the rest of the contestants also realize this? Who could upset this obvious showdown?

And tomorrow, I promise, I’ll be back here to act shocked or self righteous about my bottom-three prediction of Haley Reinhart, Casey Abrams, and Stefano Langone, and my prediction that Stefano will need to pull himself up by the suspender straps when he’s voted off tomorrow and trudge forward.