Bride of Top 7: Disco Week

Lil Rounds, “I’m Every Woman.”  Oh, Lil.  Lil, I am so disappointed in your song choice.  The arrangement was out of control and completely unoriginal.  Her voice sounded good, but not really that good enough.  And yet again, she interrupts the judges and cuts Simon off.  Last stop for Lil.

Kris Allen, “She Works Hard for the Money.”  I’m going to quote Simon here—“it was like coming out of karaeoke hell into a breath of fresh air.”  He said that about David Cook last year and the comparison is apt.  Kris Allen did exactly what he needed to do this week.  The man could not sing any disco song as it was written, so he mixed it up and made it his own.  An excellent performance.

Danny Gokey, “September.”  His voice sounds off—is he sick?  It’s rough around the edges.  The arrangement is good, making an otherwise “ehh” song choice into a good way for him to show off his vocals, and I think he MUST be sick because he would be killing this otherwise but today he sounds strained.  Someone has also given him dancing lessons, because this is much better than the last time he tried to bust a move.  I’m going to forgive him for the roughness of his voice this week because it is an aberration for him.  It was not his best performance and I think he will end up in the middle of the pack this week, but he will stay in.  Simon does not think that he demonstrated "star power" tonight, and he's right--tonight Danny was just a kid having fun.  He seems to be getting complacent.

Allison Iraheta, “Hot Stuff.”  Oh my gosh—sitting up there on the steps, that is no 16-year-old girl, that’s a bombshell.  Allison stands up to sing and she’s killer on stage too, rocking up a disco song.  Randy and Kara didn't like the arrangement, but I liked the slightly slowed-down, guitared-up sound.  Simon practically grins as he calls her "brilliant."  Allison Iraheta is HOT STUFF BABY TONIGHT!

Adam Lambert, “If I Can’t Have You.”  Yet again Adam is taking a song and turning it on its head.  This song’s lyrics become much more poignant when slowed down like this.  Adam is again hitting notes unknown to men (and to me, too) although the big “you” in the middle got screamy.  Still, he shows off excellent control by coming down off of the scream and smoothing straight up to a soft high note.  Not his best performance (will anything ever top “Mad World”?) but very, very good.

Matt Giraud, “Stayin’ Alive.”  Matt, no.  No no no.  WHOA WHOA WHOA.  I did not expect this kind of amazing to come out of Matt this week, but he has learned something from last week, dialed up the awesome, and come out on pitch and just generally being GOOD.  There wasn’t much in the way of an altered arrangement, so it wasn't terribly original (as Simon points out,) but he sung it very well and took some risks with the high notes.  Paula made a great analogy: “You sing like I bowl.  Sometimes you throw gutterballs and sometimes you throw strikes.”  Tonight it was a strike.

Anoop Desai, “Dim All The Lights“.  DaNoop is getting the pimp spot.  Will it be enough to save him?  (One thing is for certain, that moustache is doing him no favors.)  What is this, Noop?  Vocally weak in places, going nowhere, and completely lacks the OOMPH that preceding performances (Kris, Allison, Adam… even Lil!) had.  And he went flat on the last note.  Sorry Noop.  Peace Dawg.

 

Bottom 3:

Danny

Lil

Anoop