After playing up the Pia exit on the intro, Idol wasted no time in getting down to the night's theme of songs from the movies.
Paul McDonald got the night rocking with an energetic "Old Time Rock 'n' Roll" by Detroit's own Bob Seger. While the judges praised McDonald (as they seem to do for every contestant this season), McDonald has worn out his welcome with me and most likely America, as well. Watching the saxophonist blow was much stronger (and made for much better dirty thoughts) than watching McDonald's performance. True, McDonald has a very unique and cool voice, however his range is limited and wears thin quickly.W ith Kenny Loggins performing the vast majority of great movie songs in the 80's ("Footloose", "I'm Alright", "Meet Me Halfway", "Highway to the Danger Zone", and many more), I would have much preferred to see McDonald's raspy voice take on a Loggins favorite.
Lauren Alaina channeled everyone's favorite former jailbait Miley Cyrus with a song from...the Hannah Montana movie?! It is times like these that I remember she is just 16 years old. While I originally found Alaina to be the front runner, she is another contestant that I have grown tired of. In addition to paling in comparison to Miley's version and including a few pitchy moments, the performance was pretty darn boring. Alaina shows her age with the lack of stage presence she brings week in and week out.
America's next castoff (I hope) Stefano Langone performed a fitting song for him with Boyz II Men's "End of the Road". It is nights like tonight when I truly miss Simon because regardless of how mediocre this performance was (or above average as the judges thought), Simon would have found a good dig on this kid. While I cannot deny Langone's passion tonight, Langone is simply lame. He looks lame, he acts lame, he sings lame. The only cool thing about this kid is that his dad is a dead ringer for Howie Mandel and I don't even know how cool that is in the year 2011 (although I do love Howie).
Country boy Scotty McCreery took on "Across My Heart" from the little seen movie "Pure Country" and once again nailed it. McCreery will once again coast through to next week, but one has to wonder when his love of country will doom him since the majority of viewers are most likely not country fans. True Carrie Underwood won Idol, but she performed a number of crossover hits while McCreery stays true to his true country roots. As said in many blogs in the past, it really doesn't matter at this point as McCreery is guaranteed a record deal and most likely great success in the world of country. McCreery is one of the youngest contestants, but probably the first contestant in the history of Idol to choose the right song week after week.
Casey Abrams battled the ego of Jimmy Iovine by defying Iovine's song choice when he performed Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy". While the song was a little too loungey (yes, a made up word) for my taste, it was a solid performance for sure, reminiscent of a mixture of Harry Connick's cover and Celine Dion's cover versions. Props to Abrams for not only taking on the way-too-cocky (and bordering on the point of just being a d-ck, Jimmy Iovine), but also for dropping the name of recent Grammy winner Esperanza Spaulding.
Haley Reinhart performed Blondie's "Call Me" and outside of looking hot in her sparkling dress, her performance once again didn't do much for me. Interestingly enough, while not a fan of Reinhart all season, this is the first time that I didn't despise her.
Jacob Lusk performed "Bridge Over Troubled Water" which apparently wasn't made famous by Simon & Garfunkel, but instead was from the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness". Lusk shined on this gospel rendition of the S&G classic, but once again, failed to bring excitement to the table.
Which brings us to James Durbin. Thank goodness for Durbin who finally brought a smile to my face for the first time this evening when he performed Sammy Hagar's "Heavy Metal". For the second time in the evening, a contestant went against Iovine's song choice and once again, the contestant slayed it. Tonight, Durbin separated himself from Adam Lambert and showed that he is his own man and has the making of a real artist. While I wasn't familiar with the song, I couldn't help but rock out with Durbin.
Before Durbin performed tonight I was going to write that Idol was going to crown another contestant who was going to sell 50,000 albums tops (not counting McCreery because I truly do not feel he will win). A number of the contestants are extremely talented and will sell records in their own genre of music (McCreery in country, Lusk in gospel, Abrams in blues/jazz), but after Durbin's performance, it seems that Idol may finally have the guy who will prove that Idol can actually move albums. Yes, Durbin at times can show signs of a prima donna in the making and he is still compared often to Adam Lambert, however Durbin appears to be less polarizing than Lambert and that alone could spell better success for Durbin.
Overall, an interesting night, mostly because Idol's experiment of having a producer help contestants choose songs backfired greatly when he got the smackdown and proved wrong... twice. It makes one wonder whether he or anyone else will be back next year in that role. Idol needs to continue to stay relevant with "X Factor" hot on its heels (starting next fall) and it now appears that along with changes to the voting, it may need to make another change, as well. Should Idol not make one or both of these changes, expect Idol to see its days numbered beginning in the fall.
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