The Idol Guy

We have to admit that we approached this week with trepidation. Country weeks on Idol have not always turned out well, and news that the song choices would be limited to Dolly Parton songs did little to improve our expectations. Of course, all we knew about Dolly was she had big hair and an even bigger chest.

We also knew that there would be one thing certain about the show itself: all of us at home would be treated to the spectacle of an even crabbier than usual Simon Cowell. Despite his protestations to the contrary, Simon understands country music about as well as we understand hormone-driven teenagers. Which, if it’s not obvious, we don’t.

It was something of a strange night for us. On average, the top 9 did quite well. There weren’t any Alone or Eight Days a Week-level disasters, but at the same time there weren’t any real standouts either. That’s not to say there weren’t good, high-quality performances. However, if the average performance level is fairly high - as it was this week - you have to be that much better to really stand out, but no one did so for us. To add to the strangeness factor, we saw very little new stuff from the contestants - style-wise, it seemed to be mostly rehashes.

Let’s take down everyone in performance order. For once, Randy was right - Brooke’s Jolene was an “a’ight” performance. It didn’t deserve the flak it got from Simon, but we can attribute that to his overall crankiness on country-themed nights. Still, it was an average performance from Brooke, but we have higher expectations from her. Given her bad performance on Beatles week redux and a mixed verdict last week, a bottom three stint was not all that unexpected.

Next up, David Cook served up one of the better performances of the night. He adapted well to theme, picking a song and arrangement that stayed true to both the theme and his own background. If anything, the criticism should be aimed at… Simon. What he’s forgotten is that you don’t always take lyrics literally. Sparrows were a metaphor.

Ramiele sung better than she has in previous weeks, but that’s not saying much. The theme just didn’t suit her at all, and even if it was well sung it didn’t feel natural at all. Compared to what we’ve seen from her it was good, but in the big picture it wasn’t exceptional.

Jason’s version of Travelin’ Thru was better than what we’ve seen from him lately, but there was also nothing terribly novel in it either. He connected reasonably well with the song, but again in some spots the vocals were off. In one performance, Jason summarized himself. That’s not a compliment.

Carly went somewhat against type and didn’t try to overpower a song. We actually like this subtler side of Carly; with a voice as powerful as hers she can overdo things, as she did last week. The song showed off her power, without overdoing it and sounding like she was always shouting. This was one of the best performances of the night, and one of Carly’s better ones in the past few weeks as well.

David Archuleta went right back to the ballads this week, with the usual good results. When he’s on top form - as he was this week - David is as good as anyone else. David’s vocals this week were impeccable. However, there was a “we’ve seen this before” element to this. This was the very definition of “safe”. Like Jason, David summarized himself with one song. And it’s not a complement here, either.

Like David, Kristy was right in the middle of her comfort zone. Good song choice, if, once again, safe. That said, it wasn’t really all that good, either. Because it was her “wheelhouse”, as Randy said, she stepped up her game. Unfortunately, so did everyone else. It was better than what we’ve heard from her before, but it would be a stretch to call it good. Fair would be the word we’d use.

In a night of predictable and safe performances, it couldn’t get any worse than I Will Always Love You for Syesha. It would have been interesting if she had stayed with the slower, subtler arrangement, but keeping Syesha from her gratuitous glory notes is about as hard as making a drunk sailor spend his money wisely. (That might be a little unfair - for the sailor.) Reality check: Syesha, you are not Whitney Houston, American Idol is not won by holding a note longer than anyone else, and that song choice was indulgent with a capital I. We’d use even stronger language, but FORT is not Showtime and we’re not Penn Jillette.

As for Michael Johns, a lot of comments have said this was the showstopper of the night. We give him credit: unlike most of the other contestants, this wasn’t a rehash. That said, this was good, but not great. There may really be a gender gap at work here: the Idol audience is known to skew female, and if Kristy’s song choice was pandering to patriotism, Michael’s song choice was pandering to, well, more primal emotions. If you know what I’m talking about. For those of us not in the target audience, we could look at it more objectively. Good vocals, excellent presence, but not quite the exceptional song it’s been made out elsewhere.

Means, not an end: One poster, brierpatch made what we thought was an interesting point about Brooke after this week’s show. Here it is, in full:

The main problem I had with Brooke last night was the guitar - she’s adequate on the guitar, but not great. She doesn’t look comfortable when she’s playing the guitar like she does when she plays the piano, and seems to be thinking so hard about the chords that her vocals suffer a bit.

Simon used the busking word for Jason last week, and Brooke this week when they strummed the guitar while singing, and I’d agree with him. For Brooke the guitar seems like something to do with her hands rather than an integral part of the song backup. Brooke IS good at the piano, and she should play that on occasion, but pack up the guitar for the rest of the competition.

This actually brings up a good point. The biggest rule change has been allowing contestants to use instruments. However, only three people have made significant use of it: Brooke, Jason, and David Cook.

Let’s step back for a moment to look at the bigger picture. Why don’t more singers use instruments in their performances? The answer: by itself, singing on stage is not easy; adding an instrument makes things even harder. Even among professional musicians, the vast majority of solo acts or band frontmen don’t play instruments for most of their songs, if they play at all.

So if instrument use while singing is that rare outside of Idol, why is it more common within it? It boils down to one of the traditional commands of Idol: diversity, diversity, diversity.

Traditionally, contestants have been told that to go far into the competition they needed to be able to “show diversity”, i.e. be capable of singing different genres. That’s something we’ll talk about in detail next week. For now, though, what’s important to know is that that rule has changed. You don’t necessarily need to sing in multiple genres to succeed anymore.

If you’re not singing in different genres, then it becomes more important - and difficult - not to give the same performance every week. This is where the instruments come in.

More than ever, it’s the overall performance that is being judged. The actual singing is a key part, of course, but it’s not the only part. It has to be a “convincing” performance. Song choice, vocal, visuals, emotional impact - they all have to be working in tandem.

That’s where the instruments come in. Let’s not kid ourselves: the instruments aren’t being brought in because the band doesn’t have a good guitarist, piano player, etcetera. What they do, however, is help set the mood for the performance.

The one person who does this the most is Brooke: when she wants a more “folk” sound, the guitar comes out. Jolene and You’re So Vain both fit this mold. When she wants a more “serious” feel, the piano makes it’s appearance: look at Let It Be and Every Breath You Take.

For David, it’s less important, because he relies on his arrangements to do that, but the instruments seal the deal, presentation-wise. That’s not to say he doesn’t do it - Little Sparrow showed that perfectly. The arrangement had to suit the theme, and David could have done that without the guitar. However, the guitar helped set the mood of his song, and turned what could have been just a slightly above average song into a more complete, well-rounded performance.

As for Jason, he does it for a slightly different reason. His key to success is connecting emotionally with the audience at home. Wittingly or unwittingly, that’s what he does with both his guitar and the arrangements: usually, his performances have the feel of someone singing to a small audience, not a concert hall seating thousands or millions watching at home.

So what advice can we give to the three people using instruments? David doesn’t need any advice; he’s using the guitar perfectly for his own strategy. Jason’s problems go far beyond just his guitar usage, but that’s for another day and column.

As for Brooke… well, her bottom three place this week really should be a wake-up call. We happened to like her last week, but most people didn’t, and she has not really been at her best form for the past few weeks. As far as her instruments use are concerned, she needs to mix it up a little. You want some predictability on Idol, but Brooke is going a little too far. She might want to try faster, less serious songs with the piano and going the other way with the guitar. There’s a reason we recommended something from the Vonda Shepard songbook for Brooke last week - she’s proof you can go uptempo, and be less “serious”, with a piano.

How much is too much?: All Idol fans have sat through the torture we call audition weeks, when we get treated to four hours of the judges, Ryan, and terrible singing. Idol Gives Back week, though, is shaping up to be another endurance test: thanks to IGB and the bloated results show, we’re up for four and a half hours of viewing next week. Ouch. To make matters worse, we’re getting the “inspirational songs” theme again; by himself David Archuleta will produce enough cheese to make the combined population of the United States, Canada, and Mexico all lactose intolerant. Double ouch.

However, in the finest tradition of optimists everywhere, let’s make lemonade out of lemons. Because he result show has been pushed to Thursday, we have one more week to put this column together. Add to that the fact that we are now gainfully unemployed, and we find ourselves with plenty of free time. So, here’s an offer: ask us anything Idol-related, and we will do our best to answer them. How do you get your questions in? Three ways. You can post a reply in this thread, drop us a PM, or you can send us an e-mail at: theidolguy@gmail.com.

So, if you or any of your friends have any questions that are Idol-related, and you want to see our take on it, send us a question. Please. If you do, we’ll send you some Idol Guy swag. Uh, wait, we don’t have any. We’ll figure something out. Anyway: Send. Those. Questions!

The Idol Power Rankings: Brooke’s bottom three stint is enough to drop her one spot, but there isn’t much change in the rankings. David Cook is still far ahead of the rest of the field, but the rest of the field is now very close together.

1. David Cook (Last week: 1)
The oddsmakers have the wrong David as the frontrunner. So long as David Cook keeps up his steady stream of quality performances, he’ll keep the top spot.

2. Carly Smithson (Last week: 3)
Carly seems to have shook off her bottom three stint a while back and is back to top form. Now she can turn her attention to building a fanbase and establishing herself artistically.

3. Brooke White (Last week: 2)
Brooke’s been coasting lately, but the bottom three stint should wake both her and her fanbase up - and keep her safe for a while. A top four spot is still possible, but Brooke needs to up her game.

4. Michael Johns (Last week: 4)
The good: Queen wasn’t a fluke. The bad: Everyone else has had a few weeks to start building large fanbases. Michael has some catching up to do, but it’s not impossible.

5. David Archuleta (Last week: 5)
Like clockwork, David followed up his non-ballad song with a ballad this week. With only one exception, David’s always alternated ballads and non-ballads. David has yet to convince us he’s good enough to move up on the chart.

6. Jason Castro (Last week: 6)
Jason bounced back from Fragile, but he’s still looks vulnerable. Vote-splitting with Brooke may come into play; Jason’s margin of error is getting narrower by the week.

7. Syesha Mercado (Last week: 9)
Syesha reminded us this week that she is not Whitney, but managed not to turn it into a complete disaster. However, she is still on life support.

8. Kristy Lee Cook (Last week: 8 )
Kristy was okay this week, but not really good enough to overtake the real talent left. Still, if someone higher up makes a serious mistake, she’s close enough that she might be able to survive. Maybe.

About damn time: The wonder about Ramiele isn’t how she got booted; it’s how she made it this far. Her best performance was back in the top 24. That might as well be ancient history.

Ramiele’s secret was her ability to build a fanatical fanbase. She wasn’t splitting votes with anyone else, she was likable, she (usually) wasn’t the worst of the night - all these factors gave her a sizable fanbase her overall performance may not have fully deserved. On Idol, however, even a determined group of fanatics can only do so much in the face of so many successive bad performances.

The real question is where it all went horribly wrong for Ramiele. It wasn’t the vocals; hers were actually pretty good, if untrained. So what did she do wrong? Simple: song choice, song choice, song choice. Hers ranged from the overambitious (Alone, Against All Odds) to the strange (I Should Have Known Better, Do I Ever Cross Your Mind).

Could Ramiele have done better? Maybe, but without knowing more behind-the-scenes information we can’t be sure. Terrible as her choices were, with the limited selection available there may not have been any other alternatives. Better arrangements might have helped, but those would only have gone so far and required the musical intelligence and experience Ramiele didn’t have.

And now, a new feature for our weekly articles. We introduce: the American Idol Bye-ku! (We claim no originality; the bye-ku was first invented by James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal for failed presidential candidates.) Each week, we say goodbye to the eliminated contestants in 17 syllables of poetry. Here is Ramiele’s.

Shorter than Seacrest
Song choice? Terrible. Dreadful.
Malubay, bye bye.

Songs from the year you were born is something of a staple as far as Idol themes go. It’s been done twice before, in Season 4 and in Season 5 (as part of a two-theme week). The results have generally, been, by Idol standards, above average - so how did Tuesday night go?

Let’s just say it went as a pleasant surprise. Only one major disaster (and the producers, bless them, got that out of the way first), plenty of above-average performances, and an outstanding, season-defining effort from David Cook.

Disaster first: Ramiele. Ugh. Alone is a song best left, well, alone. As Gina Glocksen (and anyone else watching last year) learned, anyone doing Alone is inevitably compared to Carrie Underwood. Crashing into a brick wall, repeatedly, at high speed, would have done Ramiele more good than that comparison. Even on its own, though, it wasn’t good. In parts, it almost seemed like Ramiele wanted to displace Syesha as the season’s Designated Shouter.

After that, we have a couple of performances that ranged from fair to almost good, but lacked the flair to put them over into “good” territory. First to fall into this category was Jason Castro. The trouble with this was simple: the performance felt like old hat, like we’ve seen it all before. The Spanish bit in the middle did Jason no favors either. It wasn’t really bad by any means, it just wasn’t terribly interesting.

High-energy Chikezie took a seat this week, to be replaced by R&B Chikezie. Even then, though, the singing was as good as we’ve seen from Chikezie all season long. The problem is Chikezie, when he goes the R&B route, can’t grab people’s attention the way he does with his high-energy numbers. On vocals alone, he was in the top half of the night; on the overall impact, however, he was less impressive.

Last week we slammed David Archuleta fairly hard, and as if on cue he decided not to do a ballad. Is David or his dad reading this? Anyway, David only succeeded in proving our point: David is very ordinary when he’s not doing ballads. He still tends to rely on glory notes and runs even when they’re not fully called for. Simon was pretty accurate (if somewhat exaggerating things) with his critique; the word we’d use was… awkward. It didn’t feel natural in any way.

We’re not American, so Kristy’s song choice didn’t affect us on that level. This was probably her best finals performance… which isn’t saying much, but it is something. She’s right back to her form in the semifinals: she’s never the worst of the night, but she is pretty close. The song choice probably helped her get some votes the singing didn’t really deserve. Call it what you want - cynical, brilliant, etcetera - but the one thing that can’t be doubted is it worked.

Carly is really in the Twilight Zone - better than fair, but not quite good enough to be good, either. First of all, her vocals were nowhere as sharp as we’ve seen from her before. She didn’t sound quite in control of her power, to the point that she sounded like she was shouting in some parts. Carly usually has better control than that; it’s possible that her bottom three stint last week shook her confidence a bit. Still, we disagree with Randy - this was a good song choice for her; she has exactly the kind of big, powerful voice the song needs. Chalk it up to nerves and worry over her bottom three appearance last week.

Then we have three good-quality performances. Not quite showstoppers, but fairly close. Syesha is shaping up to be the best of the non-frontrunners, even if she doesn’t have much chance of cracking the top six. Randy was right; this was the best performance we’ve seen from her. She still has a tendency to overdo the power notes, but she doesn’t sound anywhere as screechy as she did in the past. Well done.

We’ll dissent from the rest of the Idol punditocracy when it comes to Brooke. A lot of people are saying she should not have brought the band in for the second half of the song. We disagree - for strategic reasons. If she had stayed with just the piano for the entire song, it would have been very similar to Let It Be style-wise. You don’t want to be boxed in like that. As we said last week, Brooke needed to figure out how to do uptempo songs well - and that second half was the best we’ve seen her go uptempo. She’s in the process of rounding out her musical arsenal. Brooke lost a little this week to try and win the whole war. Even then, though, we liked this one a lot. An impressive way of bouncing back from last week.

The last single-person medley we remember was Katharine McPhee butchering Elvis back in Season Five, so we were a little skeptical of how Michael Johns would do. We’ll give him credit: his Queen medley was very good. For the first time since this season, he gave a performance that made us actually pay attention and say “Wow”, instead of just nodding and saying “that was alright.” Good vocals, excellent stage presence - that was as good as any Queen performance on the Idol stage.

Last, but definitely not the least, was David Cook. His version of Billie Jean was not only the moment of the night, it was the performance of the season to date. It had everything you could ask for in a performance: song choice, arrangement, vocals, emotional connection, stage presence - everything was excellent. It will take some top-notch singing, and luck, for anyone to match what David did this week. It’s a bit early to say so, but we’ll say it: David made his case this week for being at least in the final four, if not the finale.

The exception, not the rule: With the rest of the punditocracy waking up to what we’ve been saying for a while - that David Cook is a legitimate frontrunner - an old argument has suddenly surfaced, with David’s name attached to it. The argument, in effect, is this: that he doesn’t need to win; all he does is place well. A sub-argument is that, in fact, winning would be bad for David, because rock music would never welcome an Idol winner.

Let’s take this down in two parts. First: “David doesn’t need to win: look at Chris Daughtry.” The trouble is Chris Daughtry was the beneficiary of unique circumstances that make him an exception to the rule. Two words: Taylor Hicks. In no other season have the Idol PTB been less pleased with their winner. Chris (and, to a lesser extent, Kat and Elliott) both benefited from that fact. Besides Chris, one is hard-pressed to find a non-winner who did better than their season’s eventual winner. Chris was the product of such unique circumstances that you can’t use him as an example and extrapolate out to other cases.

Second: “Rock will never accept an Idol winner.” That may be true of some parts of the rock genre, but as a genre “rock” is now so wide that doesn’t matter much. David Cook, if he wins, will have an audience. Some will reject him for his Idol heritage, but enough won’t. To hammer home the point, let’s do this thought exercise: rewind back about three years and replace “rock” with “country”. Carrie may now be the toast of Nashville, but keep this in mind: her Idol single, Inside Your Heaven, was not a success on the country charts. On the pop charts, it was, but not in country. It took a good album that was legitimately country to win Nashville over.

If David Cook wins, and produces a quality rock album, he’ll find his success. Unfortunately, given the Idol track record when it comes to debut albums, that’s easier said than done.

Stop the arm-waving: We don’t always agree with Simon, but on this one topic we can agree. Can someone please stop with the silly arm-waving? In this EW interview, Simon’s already spoken out against the arm-wavers. We agree. It makes for bad TV - personally, we find it distracting from the singers when someone’s arms are moving through the whole width of the screen.

If they’re not going to stop the arm-waving, can they at least wave in the same direction? More than once we’ve seen half of the audience moving one way, the other half another. Check out Brooke’s performance for the evidence. If that isn’t distracting - both to us and the singers themselves - we don’t know what is.

Just for the heck of it: Everyone agrees that song choice is vital on Idol. Still, though, aren’t there times when you think “I wonder how they’d do with (insert name of song)?” If you don’t, well, it’s just proof that we think too much about Idol. But, anyway, here are our picks for “Songs That Would Be Interesting To Hear” from some of the Top 10. Note, of course, that we offer no assurances these would be good song choices. Nor are we actually saying the remaining contestants should actually use these song choices. But they’d be interesting, at the very least. (Thanks should go to bbnbama, who pointed us in the right direction for some of these picks when we ran out of ideas.)

1. Brooke White: Searchin’ My Soul. If the title isn’t familiar to you, here’s a hint: the song became famous on Ally McBeal. Brooke hasn’t fully figured out how to do uptempo material yet, but something from Vonda Shepard might do the trick - and, at the very least, it would be interesting to hear.

2. Carly Smithson: Tell Him. Idol pundits love to make fun of Celine Dion, but the one sure thing is she has a powerful voice. Carly, at top form, might be able to pull Celine off. Certainly, she’s got the power to do so. Her best shot might be this relatively unknown duet with Barbra Streisand.

3. Chikezie: Play That Funky Music. Longtime viewers may remember that Taylor Hicks did this song back in Season 5. Say what you will, but Taylor and Chikezie are two of the most high-energy performers to ever make it on the Idol stage. A duet would occur at roughly the same time that Paula achieves full sobriety, but wouldn’t that be an interesting two minutes of television?

4. Jason Castro: Hey There Delilah. Something like this Plain White T’s song would be right in Jason’s zone. The challenge for Jason would be to take a relatively recent song (it was #1 on the iTunes music store for most of July 2007) and make it his own. It would be an interesting test of not just his vocals and emotional connection, but his all-around performing ability.

5. Ramiele Malubay - Put Your Records On. Ramiele needs to learn that trying to go for power notes as her bread and butter is a mistake, not with Carly and Syesha in the mix. She needs to change gears and do something less vocally ambitious like this Corinne Bailey Rae song. Still, there is one caveat: Corinne Bailey Rae has only been done once on Idol - by Antonella Barba. It was also Antonella’s last song.

6. David Cook - Big Yellow Taxi. The original is by Joni Mitchell, but the more interesting version would be the Counting Crows one. It’s not nearly as “edgy” as most rockers on Idol like, but it would be interesting to hear David’s take on this. Bonus question: who does the Vanessa Carlton backing vocals?

7. Michael Johns - Accidentally in Love. Once again, we reach into the Counting Crows songbook for this song, which also appears on the Shrek 2 soundtrack. Why this song? So far, all of Michael’s song choices have tended towards the serious. We’d like to see how Michael can do with a less serious one.

8. Kristy Lee Cook - Can’t Fight The Moonlight. Like our pick for Michael Johns, this one also comes from a movie soundtrack - 2000’s Coyote Ugly. Why? First, it should suit Kristy reasonably well - the original was by LeAnn Rimes, so it’s not far off her comfort zone. Secondly, we’ve noticed that since her Eight Days a Week fiasco Kristy’s facial expressions make her look either sleepy or bored. That won’t work here. Would it be a trainwreck? Probably, but it would be an interesting one.

9. Syesha Mercado - When You Believe. The Unholy Trinity of singing divas, as far as Idol pundits are concerned, are Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, and Whitney Houston. Having already hit Celine with Carly’s pick, let’s give Syesha this two-divas-for-the-price-of-one-special. Yep, it’s the 1998 duet between Whitney and Mariah (also, coincidentally, off a movie soundtrack.) If she can do this song well without resorting to screaming, then the “Screamesha” tag might have a chance of stopping.

10. David Archuleta - Come Fly With Me. Depending on your age, you might be more familiar with the 1958 Frank Sinatra original or the 2003 Michael Bublé cover. Genre-wise, while it isn’t exactly in David’s favored area, it’s not as far off as We Can Work It Out or You’re The Voice. The challenge is very similar to Jason’s: can he take a song strongly identified with not one, but two good singers and make it his own?

The Idol Power Rankings: Not an awful lot changed in the order of the Power Rankings, but here’s something that the order doesn’t reveal. The gaps between the contestants are both shrinking and increasing. What do we mean? Our top two picks are starting to pull away from the rest of the field, while the midfield is getting bunched up. The laggards, meanwhile, stay right in the cellar and show no clear signs of life. Remember: this chart is not about artistic merit; it’s all about whether they’re likely to go far or not.

1. David Cook (Last week: 1)
The only bad part of being so good so early in the competition is he’ll be under even more pressure than normal to do well in the later stages than usual, to show he “hasn’t peaked early”. That’s the only possible fly in the ointment for David.

2. Brooke White (Last week: 2)
As we said earlier, Brooke now appears to be at least on the way to solving her uptempo song problem. If she does, and with all the attention and hype focused on the rest of the field, Brooke could fly under the radar and make it all the way into the finale.

3. Carly Smithson (Last week: 3)
She’s still in third, but don’t let the placing fool you. David and Brooke are pulling away, and Carly did not look on form this week. She needs to take it up another notch - but can she?

4. Michael Johns (Last week: 6)
Finally, Michael lived up to all the hype around him and turned in an excellent performance. However, his climb up the chart was also helped by the stumbles of those on top. How will Michael handle country week? He has to prove his Queen medley was not a flash in the pan.

5. David Archuleta (Last week: 5)
We know ballads and a fanbase of hormone-driven teens will get David far. Can it make him an Idol winner? We have our doubts. All this week told us is: he hasn’t showed the kind of improvement that others have.

6. Jason Castro (Last week: 4)
Jason’s chances of getting very far are looking, well, fragile. He has been boxed in, style-wise - each Jason Castro performance is sounding eerily similar to the last one. This is not a recipe for winning over new voters - as his bottom three placing indicates.

7. Ramiele Malubay (Last week: 9)
Her promotion has nothing to do with her singing. It’s all about her fanbase - if they could keep her out of the bottom three even with the disaster that was Alone, one has to respect their combined voting power.

8. Kristy Lee Cook (Last week: 10)
Once Kristy managed to return to her country roots, she managed to escape the bottom three. Even better for her: she can stay right in her comfort zone for another week. She’s probably safe next week, but beyond that her prospects are still bleak.

9. Syesha Mercado (Last week: 7)
If it were just performances we grade on, Syesha would be far higher. However, her two stints in the bottom three are not reassuring. If that was what a “breakout moment” gets, what will an average (or worse) song get?

The Many Faces of Chikezie: From a pure technical perspective, this was Chikezie’s best week, but also his last. That’s not supposed to happen, but it did. So why did it happen?

Chikezie’s exit comes down to two things: inconsistency, and, again, an unclear musical identity. Chikezie could never decide whether he was High-Energy Chikezie or R&B Chikezie. High-Energy Chikezie was just an average singer, but an excellent performer. R&B Chikezie turned out to be an above-average singer, but bored people at home. That’s not to say he couldn’t do both. Taylor Hicks proved you can go both fast and slow, and still go far. However, Chikezie he had to be damn sure he was equally at home with either style. He just wasn’t.

The ultimate result was Chikezie could never build the fanbase you need to get far on Idol. He couldn’t get a genre-based fanbase, nor was he good enough to win over uncommitted voters. With a weak fanbase, he was in trouble with just an okay performance. Weaker singers had stronger fanbases; Ramiele’s might be as fanatical as the Sanjaya fans ever were, and Kristy strengthened hers by going back to her country roots and a shrewd song choice.

The ultimate takeaway from Chikezie’s exit? It’s not enough to be a good singer, which Chikezie was (at least, at the very end). Intangibles - charisma, likability, the “X factor”, they all count too. Chikezie didn’t have the whole package, which is why he left despite a good performance.

The NFL likes to promote the idea of parity, where one team can beat any other on any given Sunday. Well, parity hit the Idol stage hard this week. Last week, we were pleasantly surprised that the top 12 pulled off the Lennon-McCartney songbook fairly well; it turned out that Beatles on Idol 2 was, like most sequels, not as good as the original.

Normally, we like to rank all the performances from the good to the bad, but with the relatively even field this week we’ll skip that. Let’s just go over it in chronological order.

Amanda was handicapped by a band that was a bit too loud, but maybe we folks at home should be thankful for that. She doesn’t have the vocals to just “rock out” any song; and Back in the USSR was not all that suited for her voice. She’s a good performer - her stage presence is pretty good - which is really the only thing that kept this number watchable.

As for Kristy, anything would have been an improvement from last week. Still, you have to wonder if the experience affected her mentally. You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away was the most lifeless, please-send-me-home performance we’ve seen in a while.

David Archuleta bounced back from his performance last week with yet another highly stylized song along the lines of his earlier Imagine. Was The Long And Winding Road that good? No. We didn’t feel David connected as well with this song as with Imagine. On its own, however, it was a good performance. The song choice was good, and the vocals were the usual top-notch quality. This was enough to give him the performance crown for the guys tonight. It’s hard to feel excited, though, because this wasn’t exactly something we haven’t seen before.

Michael Johns’s favorite moment was his Bohemian Rhapsody performance - which was just as well, because that was better than his version of A Day In The Life. With Michael, it’s never about the quality of the singing. That’s pretty good, even if his range is a little limited. However, as before, the performance did nothing to make Michael stand out in the crowd. Michael is something like a German sports car: he gets you musically from point A to point B in style and in speed, but there’s no feeling of risk, or excitement, or… anything, really.

We can sort of see where Brooke was going with Here Comes The Sun. She doesn’t want to be boxed in style-wise, so she decided to mix it up a little with an uptempo song. As strategy, it wasn’t bad - but the execution was flawed, to say the least. Given the limited list they could probably pick from, this was not the right week to mix it up. It’s a close call whether this was her worst performance or Happy Together.

If Brooke was at the more experimental end of the spectrum, David Cook was at the ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it end. This didn’t really break the mold in any way - yes, he brought out the voice box, but that was about it. The whole package just gave off the feel of trying too hard and being unnatural.

Carly easily had the best performance of the night. It wasn’t as impressive an overall performance as Come Together, but vocally it was actually better. Carly can hit the power with the best of them - we’ve known that since Day 1 - but she showed us a different side vocally. When she wants to be controlled and subtle she’s not bad at it either. The song choice was not ideal, but all in all it was the best of the night.

Jason’s bread and butter on Idol is connecting emotionally with his songs. If he can’t do that, he can’t rely on his vocals alone to carry him. So what happened? Just as last week we learned what happens to David Archuleta when things go wrong, this week it was Jason’s turn. What he does is to do this strange sort of pained smile. It’s Jason’s equivalent of the Manning Face. It’s like he’s thinking, “what am I doing singing this song?”, but he can’t exactly show that annoyance and disgust live on the Idol stage.

Syesha was a pleasant surprise in a night of disappointments. Gratuitous glory notes aside, this was actually a good performance. She won’t be mistaken for a “control” singer like Brooke any time soon, but it was okay. By the standards of the night, that was more than what we expected.

In a night of strange performances, Chikezie’s version of I’ve Just Seen A Face took the cake. Or should that be versions? It was almost like having two performances in one - which is not all that good a thing. It wasn’t really poorly done, but the reaction this left was “huh?”

Finally, we have Ramiele. This, too, was strange in its own way. Ramiele was probably trying to break the “I can only sing slow ballads” stereotype. Like Brooke, however, it didn’t work all that well. It’s hard to pinpoint where exactly this didn’t work; maybe it was the hat or the arrangement (which, to us, sounded like a half-baked uptempo arrangement), but either way… not good. On the flip side, Ramiele’s vocals were reasonably good. Not outstanding, but more confidence-inspiring than last week’s show. Time may be running out for her, however.

Theme song of the night: Sometimes, the Idol gods work in strange and mysterious ways. Really, Ramiele’s choice of I Should Have Known Better was the theme song of the night. The Idol Powers-That-Be should have known better than to, in effect, do the same theme twice in a row. Yes, they weren’t technically the same, but they might as well have been.

There’s actually a pretty good reason why the same theme two weeks in a row is a bad idea. The pressure to improve every week is significant. With a well-received first week, the temptation with a “familiar” theme is to either switch up styles (hello, Ms. White!) or do what is essentially a rehash (hiya, Mr. Cook.) On the other hand, with an unfamiliar theme, smart contestants will change things up enough to make things interesting but still follow the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

The Left Hand Not Knowing What The Right Is Doing Department: Maybe somebody can check back how many times our judges have said how vast the Lennon-McCartney and/or Beatles songbook is, but we know Randy said so at least once this week. Uh, reality check, Mr. Jackson. They don’t have the whole songbook at their disposal; what they do have is a far more limited selection. Either Randy is clueless, or thinks we’re all naive sheeple who don’t know the truth. Neither is all that comfortable a thought.

Frontrunner? What frontrunner?: We’ll get to the details of the weekly Power Rankings later on, but first let’s tackle one thing. Why have we not granted David Archuleta the top spot in our rankings? Mention this season to Idol pundits and they will all generally agree that David is a frontrunner this season. As a rough indicator, look at the number of pages Google brings up:

1. “David Archuleta” frontrunner - 37,100 pages
2. “David Cook” frontrunner - 18,100 pages
3. “Carly Smithson” frontrunner - 4,250 pages
4. “Brooke White” frontrunner - 3,860 pages

Based on the numbers, and what we’re reading from the rest of the Idol pundit community, we are practically alone in not giving David this status. It’s a big, big tide of Conventional Wisdom we’re swimming against.

Our basic trouble with David is this. You might be tired of us harping on “musical identity” practically every week, but we have to. We think is that important. Out of all the singers to make it into the finale, there are only two good cases of not having a musical identity (Justin Guarini and Diana DeGarmo), but given the circumstances of their respective seasons, they can be considered as exceptions to the rule.

We’ve seen some steps of David moving towards establishing his musical identity, but what we do see is not completely encouraging. Imagine, Another Day In Paradise, now The Long and Winding Road - see the similarities? As done by David, all powerful ballads with something of a throwback feel. He’s had exactly one good performance that didn’t fit this description, and that was back in the top 24 - which might as well be ancient history.

Now, let’s step back a moment. Teenage singer, best at power ballads, talented as heck but no clear musical identity. Where have we seen this before? Oh right, last year! This was from last year’s Top 4 Idol Guy column:

Another problem we have with her is this curious disconnect between her singing and non-singing personas. Like most teenagers, she has this bubbly, energetic personality. Yet when she goes out to sing, she’s at her best with the slower, older songs. … What happens to her when it’s time to start recording the album? With most Idol contestants, we know what they’re going to sound like when they cut an album. … It’ll be interesting to see what the end result will be.

What does this almost year-old description of Jordin Sparks have to do with David? The same contradictions that existed with her are in the making for David - if anything, it’s worse, because youth is a much bigger part of David’s package than Jordin’s. It might not be a problem within Idol - his fanbase might put him in the finale, might even make him win - but post-Idol it will be.

You can bet TPTB do not want a repetition of Season Six, particularly on the commercial side. A David Archuleta win would practically be asking for it. His ability to sell records post-Idol is, to us, questionable. It’s quite likely that TPTB know this perfectly well, too.

One could ask, then, why is David getting “pimped” fairly heavily? David is undoubtedly talented and is a reasonably interesting personality to boot. He’s also got a well-established fanbase that will be catered to - they’ll buy the singles on iTunes, go out and see the Idol tour, etcetera. As a business, it makes perfect sense.

Down the road, however, the pimpage is going to stop. TPTB do not want a repetition of the Jordin Sparks fiasco. Yes, he’s talented, but the overall package just isn’t enough. Something… strange is bound to happen. It could be a lousy theme, or songs that mysteriously don’t clear, harsh words from Simon… you get the idea.

One more thing. People assume that he has a tween fanbase just because of his age and appearance. We’re not convinced of that. Is this really the sort of image that fangirls will swoon over? We admit the behavior of hormone-driven fangirls is not really something we claim expertise in, but we have a hard time imagining people swooning over David.

Will David go far? Yes; no one is doubting that. But is he the far-and-away frontrunner, the way Mainstream Media and the punditocracy love to say he is? No. Not by any means. Besides, somebody should ask Melinda Doolittle how much good the “frontrunner” tag did for her.

Here, have some salt: We were a little surprised to see Carly in the bottom three. However, we should take her supposed “placing” with a huge grain of salt. Why?

Last year, if you may recall, we had sources that claimed the “bottom 3″ wasn’t always the actual bottom 3 in the votes, going so far as to provide the actual vote order. If that was the case last season, it’s quite possible that the same thing is going on this time.

Assuming for the moment that manipulation of the bottom three is going on, the question becomes: why? Here’s our theory. Let us know if we need to start wearing tinfoil.

Maybe Carly is not doing as well in the groupings as TPTB want - she could be, say, right in the middle, when they’d prefer her to be in the upper third. A contestant in the bottom three who isn’t eliminated is actually at something of an advantage: their fans, knowing that their favorite is in danger, goes off to vote with increased vigor. So, wanting to boost Carly, they decide to put her in the “bottom three”.

On the other hand, Carly might well be in the bottom three legitimately. Drawing conclusions from the punditocracy and expanding that to the Idol voting class generally is something that may or may not work, so all disclaimers apply. Within the punditocracy, however, there are lots of commenters who recognize Carly’s talent, but just haven’t warmed up to her so far.

For Carly it’s a no-lose scenario in the short term, but more worrying over the long run. Her fanbase will be energized now, but the fact that it had to be boosted is something that might hurt her chances. She should keep this in mind. The last Idol winner to end up in a bottom three or two scenario along the way: Fantasia Barrino. The last three winners from Carrie Underwood onwards have never been in danger of going home.

The Idol Power Rankings: We’re fond of saying American Idol is not won or lost in a week, and this week is a perfect example of that. A couple of shakeups here and there, but the overall picture remains the same. Syesha is the big gainer, with an above-average performance and low expectations promoting her a few spots. Carly’s bottom three stint drags her down a bit, but she’s still firmly in the top half of the group.

1. David Cook (Last week: 1)
His performance this week may not have won him any new fans, but it probably didn’t cost him any either. In the absence of any strong challenges from anyone else, we still like his chances.

2. Brooke White (Last week: 3)
Yes, despite an off week Brooke moves up a place. However, that has more to do with Carly’s stumbles than anything she did. She needs to figure out how to do uptempo songs properly eventually, however.

3. Carly Smithson (Last week: 2)
As we said above, the “bottom 3″ stint is worrying for Carly. We asked last week if Carly could build a “deep and committed fanbase”. The answer, so far, is she hasn’t. Vocally, she’s talented enough that she should make it pretty far but Carly is all of a sudden looking vulnerable.

4. Jason Castro (Last week: 4)
The only people who loved his song this week were probably people named Michelle. Still, he did enough to keep his place. A Hallelujah-level performance would have moved him up, however.

5. David Archuleta (Last week: 6)
He recovered well from his flub last week. Longer term, though…

6. Michael Johns (Last week: 5)
Yet another well-sung cover… with zero personal input from Michael. If he really wants to prove he didn’t peak in Hollywood, then he should show us. So far, in his five chances… he hasn’t.

7. Syesha Mercado (Last week: 9)
With a top half of the finalists being pretty much entrenched in their spots, Syesha is the best of the rest - for now. We’re not sure there’s really any more room for improvement, however.

8. Chikezie (Last week: 8 )
Even though he had a strange number this week, Chikezie is an okay singer - which is better than you can say for some of the rest of the field.

9. Ramiele Malubay (Last week: 11)
The good: she has a strong fanbase that bailed her out again this week. The bad: she still can’t pick a song to save her life.

10. Kristy Lee Cook (Last week: 10)
There’s one consolation for Kristy. There’s only one way to go: up.

Just like the USSR: Maybe singing about a country that’s been dead for the better part of two decades wasn’t such the best idea, because just like the Soviet Union Amanda ended up in the trash bin.

For Amanda, her success was always reliant on song choice. When she found a song that used her gravelly, growling voice she could shine. Otherwise, though, she was bad. Ultimately, though, her appeal was limited to a small niche that could only take her so far - she had limited crossover appeal, at best. To be honest, we’re a little surprised that she was on the verge of making the tour. Then again, with the likes of Kristy still in it, maybe she should have.