American Idol Week 3: A Horseplayer's Perspective

[brianwspencer]

An outwardly mediocre night on Idol, as far as I was concerned. Only one standout performance among the bunch. The bottom dwellers evened the score a bit, and some of the favorites really came up on the short end of the night. If the scores I gave were any indication of my discontent with the night, it should be clear. All were fairly equal, making elimination guesses a crapshoot at best, but none were memorable, save the finale. All of my scoring, outside of my favorite of the night, fell within a single point between 7-5-6.5.

Very uninspiring. I really just don’t feel like our Idol, or even our Idol top 3 should be in this bunch.

Blake
I like him a little bit less after the stupid “dress-up” intro to his song. Singing 311’s All Mixed Up -- the vocal was not as great as what we’ve seen from this one in the last two weeks. Not challenging in any way at all for him. It was a fun performance, but nothing special as far as originality went here.

Final Score: 7.5 phone-in votes

Sanjaya
Call me bi-polar but after hating him for his “hula dancing” intro, I found that his performance this week was good. Not good in the sense of it actually being any good, but after setting the bar SO low the last two weeks, there was nowhere to go but up. He’s not a mind-blower in any sense. With that said, while it gives me acid reflux to even contemplate, his vocal landed him in the top half of performers tonight (wouldn’t it be ironic if THIS week, the one decent one, sent him home?!)

Final Score: 7.0 phone-in votes

Sundance
The vocal was extremely on and off throughout the entire song. I once again, was more focused on the backup singer on the right than I was on Sundance. The vocal pleased me more than the past two weeks when I ragged this one to pieces, but still not inspiring. Will he make it to the top 12? Of course. Will he deserve it? Nope.

Final Score: 7.0 phone-in votes

Chris R.
I liked the chance to see him sing something different, the sort of song where he couldn’t bounce while singing. His voice certainly failed him a few times throughout, but like Sundance I like him better this week. He's my big question mark. He's capable of being one of the ones, but he hasn't shown it with any consistency, like the rest of the guys. I think he’s moving on as well, for better or worse.

Final Score: 7.0 phone-in votes

Jared
“Eyebrows” came back again without “the move.” I like the move, because it covers his ugly face, if for a fleeting moment. The song choice confused the heck out of me, but the vocal was above average, if not spectacular.

Final Score: 7.0 phone-in votes

Brandon
Lots of fun. Not much substance. Right on par for a very average night

Final Score: 7.0 phone-in votes

Phil
Reaction written in real-time: Awful. Still awful. Stiiiiiiiill awful. Ok, slightly better. Back to awful. On to slightly better. Thank God. Phil’s problem is that he has no lower register (and I hate that Randy used that word because I mentioned it to my friends watching with me, then felt dejected when Randy said it….because then it just looks like I’m copying. When I move to Chicago, I’ll host an Idol Night and AJ can at least vouch for my prowess! ). He starts every song the same way: terribly because they start in his lower range….which he doesn’t even have. He’ll get through because he’s a nice, decent-looking (according to everyone but me) guy, but he’s going to have to start delivering entire songs, instead of “second-halfs” in order to have a shot at taking this thing.

Final Score: 6.5 phone-in votes

Chris S.
Personality-wise, he is your Idol. Luckily for him he delivered a slightly below-average performance on a night of very average performances. He was the only vocal standout of the night among the eight male finalists. His performance tonight is the only one who could hold a candle to any of the top five females last week. Still needs more, but the best of the bunch on a very disappointing night.

Final Score: 8.5 phone-in votes