Wednesday. Too Much Wednesday

I know it's only an extra hour of Idol tonight, but because it's the performance show and not the easily-skipped-through results show... tonight just seems so much more daunting (what with Lost and South Park and Damages etc).

Anyway. Motown night.

Matt Giraud - "Let's Get It On" - Oh, man, Marvin Gaye. How many Marvin songs are we gonna sit through tonight? The problem with Motown night isn't the quality of the songs, it's, as Simon said (sigh), making them your own instead of doing the karaoke version (or at least doing a respectable carbon copy of the original as opposed to "karaoke"). Anyway, to Matt's performance... I like that he steps away from the piano (NOTE TO SCOTT MACINTYRE... YES, I KNOW, YOU'RE BLIND). The growls and falsetto breaks just make him more of a Justin Timberclone, though. But nothing wrong with that (plus, he's a far better singer and performer than Chris Richardson). The TD has a sense of humor after "beat around the bush" there's a cut to Kara and Paula. Lulz. I'm dirty tonight! Yay! Paula compares Matt to a great pair of worn in jeans.

Kris Allen - "How Sweet It Is" - Marvin Gaye... 2 for 2! Okay. I'm going to say it. Kris is the far-better (and far-hotter) version of Jason Castro from last season. The almost-entirely-stripped-down-to-acoustic guitar thang he's got going on in nice and different from the original. The performance doesn't feature a ton of notes, but interestingly with Motown music, the more acoustic version actually shows Kris' voice off because of not doing it like the original. Dammit, Jason Castro fans, if you flame my comment section again, I'm going to be so angry. Oh, Simon-Ryan banter.

Scott MacIntyre - "You Can't Hurry Love" - Oh, COME ON, SCOTT. I have nothing to say about this. It's all very predictable. I'm over Scott. Blandsville. At least it was more uptempo (er, after the opening). Paula uses the word "rubato." OMG. Paula's crayons and coloring book gift for Simon when he does the weekly "answer the question answer the question answer the question" bit is WIN. EPIC WIN.

Megan Joy Corkrey Joy Megan - "For Once In My Life" - This should've been Megan's week to shine, with her bluesy voice. Though I was totally feeling the brass instruments. Megan makes me sad that Alexis is gone. Because Megan... well, she sucked tonight (maybe she should recontract the flu?) There're only two other girls left in the competition. And Alexis was such a better vocalist (even if she had bad song choices). I guess the judges and producers knew something when the Top 13 was made from 8 men and 5 women. Megan's voice, at this point, is like nails on the chalkboard. I dunno what Megan the judges know, but she's always hitting bad notes and giving weird phrasing and rhythm (and WEIRD dancing). I'm really having trouble getting over how similar she looks to Nelly Furtado tonight. NEXT!

Anoop Desai - "Ooh Baby Baby" - Okay... I must admit that when I hear the title of the song, all I'm thinking is Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It." Anyway. Obviously I don't know the song (sorry!) But I do have a knee-jerk, uninformed reaction! Too slow. Too high for Anoop. Take those two together and you have... hotel lounge (at, like, 4am)? No, they already used that on Scott... wedding? No, they did wedding for Lil Rounds last week. Cruise ship? Do we have our first cruise ship of the Top X of this season's Idol?? Hm. The judges liked it (Simon did give it a "musical"). Maybe it's my unfamiliarity with the song.

Michael Sarver - "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" - Aw, he had the flu. Not gonna save you tonight, Michael. Sorry. Much like Scott, I'm over Michael and have little to say. Maybe the judges will provide some entertainment? I have a feeling "indulgent" will come up in the critique? Looks like Megan will be safe this week. Witness Michael's heart breaking as the camera goes close up on his face as Simon says "you are participating in this competition but have no chance of winning" etc etc.

WOO GLEE PROMO. Hm, they changed the line from Jane Lynch that was in the version I saw ("You think that's hard? Try living with Hepatitis, that's hard." became "Try being waterboarded, that's hard." Weird!)

Lil Rounds - "Heat Wave" - Do it, Lil. Do it! Also, extensions? Weave? Hi! I'm kinda surprised by Lil's song choice. Yes, it's uptempo and it's not the obvious song, so kudos for both of those aspects (perhaps too uptempo, though). Why is shying away from a song (or arrangement) with a string of glory notes? This should've been her week not to shine, but to OWN. And she just kinda borrows? She's still gonna make it to the Top 3. Love the flapper dress.

Adam Lambert - "Tracks of My Tears" - Oh, princess. I'm captivated. Way to change it up. Just me or did the slicked back hair and suit thing = Elvis (the, y'know, hot years)? Or maybe it was more Matt Dallas...? I'm worried that Adam overuses his falsetto... but, y'know, when a performance is like this WHO THE EFF CARES? Dear Kara, "One of the best performances of the night" is eight words, not six. "The best performance of the night" is six. That's what you meant, no? This was like, the super awesome Robin Thicke version of "Tracks of My Tears."

Danny "Why Does Ryan Have a Trumpet While Introducing Me" Gokey - "Get Ready" - Hm, the Black Eyed Peas covered this a couple years ago. Smokey gives great advice in the video package. If Danny didn't sing the "You're alright" and "You're outta sight" this would've been... um, what he sang. Bad Gokey! Bad! Listen to the mentor! Yes, I know you need to breathe at some point, but... well, you figured it out in the rest of the song. WTF was Danny doing marching with the backup singers?

Allison Iraheta (PIMP SPOT) - "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" - Ooh, we like the bluesy, smoky quality in her voice tonight. I kinda want her to take the jacket off. And the lace-tablecloth-leggings. Why was this girl in the Bottom 3 last week (or, in the words of Kara... "what? America are you kidding?") That was the soul we expected from Lil given this week's theme. SIMON DREW A MOUSTACHE ON PAULA'S FACE WITH THE CRAYONS. Yayz. Loves it.

Can I be honest? Much as I've grown to enjoy Matt, Kris, and Anoop... I really want the last four singers tonight to be the Final Four.

Why did the judges rush through Danny's critique? They didn't seem that in danger of spilling over past 10pm. There certainly seemed like there was time to tell him to work with someone on, um, what to do with himself while performing (wink! point! march! fail!)

Bottom 3: Obvs. Sarver (going home). Megan. Scott.