I Am Noah James

And then there were 12.

I’ve been putting off writing the American Idol recap this morning, partly because I know that when I write it, it becomes real.  I don’t want it to be real.  Because the reality sucks.  Arguably the best male vocalist went home, and way too many of the weak ones outlived the strong ones.  If ever there was an edition of Idol that had a jump the shark moment, it was last night.

Here’s the recap:

Ok, Didi Benami was announced safe first, thank God.  When that happened, I thought it was a sign that this results show was going to be good; I didn’t realize that it would be one of the lone, bright spots of the evening.  Next is Siobhan Magnus, who of course went through.  So far, it’s what would be expected.

Then Paige Miles & Katelyn Epperly, one safe and one going home.  If you read my recap for the Tuesday show, I had both of them as likely to go home.  Honestly, based on the performances since America could vote, Katelyn has been the strongest.  It didn’t help that Paige was nonstop awful Tuesday, and can’t form a statement to save her life in interviews. 

Well, Paige is safe, and Katelyn is heading home.  Between the two, that wasn’t expected.  Even Crystal Bowersox was shocked, where you could tell (though not hear, luckily for Idol) she said, “This is f**ked up.”  Katelyn had a nice little exit interview, then sang her song one more time.  She actually sounded better than Tuesday night.  I never cared for her, highly doubted that she’d go far if she was in the Top 12, but she without a doubt deserved to stay over Paige.

Next up are the fellas.  Casey James was safe.  Duh.  His voice isn’t great, but he’s eye candy.  Then Tim Urban is safe (the only reason I can think of is Ellen giving him that hug).  So it is between Todrick Hall & Lee Dewyze.  We could argue all day about who has the better voice, but it’s a moot point since the judges think Lee does.  To me, Lee sounds like a guy who just woke up and was forced to sing.  Nice guy, though.  Also doesn’t help that Todrick has been kinda sucking these past few weeks.  After watching Wednesday’s performance on youtube, however, I thought he may have saved himself.

Well, he didn’t.  Todrick was sent his walking papers.  Seemed like a really nice dude, but Glee fans must have forgotten to vote Wednesday night.  His farewell performance was alright, with Ryan seemingly blown away by it.

We interrupt this ax job to bring you a dueling pianos performance between last year’s contestants Scott MacIntyre & Matt Giraud.  This was a great performance, despite Scott.  Look, the guy seems like a super nice dude, but I don’t like him performing.  First off, he talks and sings with his teeth.  Not a fan of that.  Also, I just don’t think he ever feels what he sings.  I will probably be looked down on for that comment since I’m picking on a blind guy, but back off – I’m commenting on a performer, NOT a disabled person.

Anyways, Matt was awesome as always.  I really hope he has a chance to come back and do a song himself.  I can’t wait to buy his album whenever it comes out.

Now back to the cuts.  Crystal is safe, then Michael Lynche is safe.  Of course.  He made Kara cry with his amazing performance, and has been pretty consistent with every song. 

Lacey Brown (aka Thundercat Ho, as I like to call her) is safe, but not before answering the question of if she knows what kind of artist she wants to be with the most vague, all-encompassing generalization to ever try and justify saying “yes”.  I know that she was trying to say yes, but if you read between the lines, what she meant was “I have no effin clue“.

Aaron Kelly gets called down, and Ryan tries to talk to him.  Aaron makes about as much sense as Paige after she performs, so Ryan cuts it short and tells him he’s safe.  I thought this meant that Katie could possibly go home, since the tween and grandmama votes got him through.

Then Alex Lambert & Andrew Garcia are called up with one going home.  As of the Top 24 weeks and forward, this should be an easy call.  While Andrew was the “one to beat” from before Hollywood Week(s) started, he has consistently crapped out in the past few weeks.  Meanwhile, Alex has pulled out one surprisingly amazing performance after another.  He could be this year’s Kris Allen, where you don’t notice the brilliance until the weeks go by.

Wow, that elimination of Alex Lambert is both shocking and depressing!  I’m STILL bummed out about it 16 hours later.  He tries his best to keep it together, but this fragile little guy was holding back the tears.  His voice struggles to keep it together as he talks, and his final performance just doesn’t show how amazing he really was on Wednesday (not to mention the best male voice of the season).  As they head to commercial you see everybody rush the stage, where they embrace and he just loses it.

When they get back from the commercial, they are all STILL hugging him, with Ellen up there as well.  Ryan does a great job respectfully getting the show back on track (it is live by the way), without just throwing Alex away.  Man, I love that little guy.  I really hope he gets moving forward.  Actually, I hope Ellen & Kara does for him what they did for Angela Martin (who didn’t even make the Top 24) by giving him a record deal.  Or Simon could take him under his wing.  Either way, once fine-tuned, that kid could be amazing in the music industry.

So now to the last two ladies:  Katie Stevens & Lilly Scott.  This should be easy.  For one, Katie has been floundering these past few weeks (and Tuesday was HORRIBLE), and Lilly has been praised up and down by the judges.  Also, Lilly knows exactly what kind of artist she is; even though I’m not a fan of that style or her, I 100% respect that.  Meanwhile, Katie has no idea what she wants to be.  But hey, she loves to sing to her grandma!!  And the last reason Lilly would be the easy choice is she got the last spot of the night on Tuesday – which is reserved for producers favorites – while Katie started off the show (on a bad note, none the less).

However, Katie is safe and Lilly is going home.  As shocked as I was, no one was more shocked that Lilly.  I haven’t seen as much anger and shock in an elimination since when Chris Daughtry got the lowest votes.  Her response was honest, but verging on getting really bitchy.  Luckily, I think halfway through she realized it, so she made it about her outrage that “so many really talented people are leaving tonight” – though she was really pointing that finger at herself.  She also said she has no idea what America wants.  I think the main reason (in her case) that she was sent packing was because her audience is the same audience for Siobhan, Crystal, & Katelyn.  She sang her swan song, and seemed to not know what to do with her hands, since she had to sing without her instrument.

At the end of the show, the Top 12 were center stage as the show wrapped up.  Big Mike was grinning ear-to-ear, while Crystal looked like she was beat down.  This elimination was really tough for her too.

This will be the first time I do this, but I would like to have some additional comments in a sidebar:

-Excuse me, Big Mike:  I really have liked your performances the last two weeks, and you do seem quite nice.  You also seem really into everyone’s song when they perform, which comes off as being very supportive of your peers.  That’s awesome.  However, on such a sad night, you rebounded super quick.  So while you sing with deep meaning, you come off as emotionally shallow other times.  Seeing you grin without a care in the world at the end of the program reminds me of Big Gay Al from the South Park movie, where I can actually see you saying: “I’m so sorry, Mister Cripple.  But I just can’t feel too bad for you right now.  Because I’m feeling so insanely super, that even the fact that you can’t walk can’t bring me down.”

-On the other end of the spectrum was Crystal.  EVERY elimination beat her down more and more.  By the end of the night, she seemed totally rundown.  It must be hard to realize that some of the real artists in the group were cast aside as voters tend to vote for a what a contestant stands for, more than what they sound like.  You are right, Crystal – The results show wasn’t fair.

- Was there a love connection between Siobhan and Alex?  They kept only panning to her crying when he would sing.  No one else, like they had with Katelyn & Todrick – just to Siobhan.

-The most tragic part of Alex leaving was his massive potential.  And I’m not even talking about him just being a good singer, but more about his potential with the many different theme shows.  I think a lot of people forget that early favorites tend to get destroyed with theme weeks.  For example, Lil Rounds failed week after week with the different themes – even at the ones you’d think she’d excel at.  Alex had that quality that really could have shown his strength with different themes.  I wish there was a judges’ save option to do a Top 13 just for Alex.

-American Idol gets ripped on all the time as more of a popularity contest.  It’s not the producers’ fault, since America votes.  However, last night was one of those shows that really helped that criticism seem valid.  While I didn’t care for them much, Katelyn & Lilly seemed to know exactly their style – meanwhile Katie & Paige haven’t a clue.  And in a related note…

-I hope some of the Top 12 feel guilty for being there when they didn’t deserve it as much as some of the people voted off.  All four kicked off last night were miles above some others.  So to (weak) Tim, (show choir) Aaron, (clueless) Paige, (clueless, jr.) Katie: I hope you realize that last night should have been you guys.

What did you think?  Shocked?  Glad?