Duds R Us

Personal opinion, 2 can stay while the other 6 are flushed. This year the guys just don't even come close to competing with the girls. I'm actually quite hard pressed to actually put together a review this week for them.

Lee's version of Fireflies by Owl City wasn't too bad. It was actually a bit of an improvement over the original to be honest. Not bad, not great and I'm just waiting on the judges to harp on the guitar shaped crutch he's still using. Then again, ALOT of the kids are using their instrumental crutches this year. Lee had a slide this week going from a 6 last week to an only 2 state win this week. His odds are steadily falling in Vegas. He could be in danger this week, but no more than some of the others. We saw what happened to Haeley last week so we'll put him in the danger list.

Alex performed Ray Montagne's Trouble. My first reaction during the show was...PU!! However, upon listening to it a second time back to back with the original, I realize it was just a really bad copy-cat version much in the stylings of Freddy and the Horribles (a cover band that used to work in the Poconos... they really trashed up everything they attempted to perform). Alex went from a 5 last time around to a 4 state win this week and surprisingly his odds are rising in Vegas. He's still in danger but is in better standing than he had been.

Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah wasn't done justice by Tim, nope not in the slightest. It was meh at best. I liked Jason Castro's version from season 7 much better than this one. At least Tim was in key-ish. He dropped from a 6 win to a 5 win this week and his odds have improved substantially since his last performance. Does this get him completely out of danger? No.

Andrew reached back to the performance style we loved and Straight Upped Christina Aguilera's Genie in a Bottle. I'm kind of torn here. As much as I want to say I really loved this, I'm not sure how I feel about it. Yes, it was wonderful that he went back to a formula that made everyone love him. However, the fact that he did it AFTER the judges pointed out makes it smack of being desperate. Top things all off, it didn't quite even reach the bar he'd already set for himself. the object is to move forward, not step back. He's dropped from last week's showing of 2 to a 1 state win and his odds are still doing the slip sliding away. I think this performance could have been timed better as he should have done it BEFORE it was pointed out to him.

Casey's You'll Think of Me by Keith Urban was nice but nothing special. Rather uninspired. Really a rather too safe choice for a night like tonight. If he gets voted off, it'll be for that reason and only that reason. You need to be memorable, especially going into the Top 12 selection. Dropping from a 4 state to a 1 state win, he's stayed steady in the odds. I don't really think he's in danger but considering the slip in states, we really need to stick him in danger as well.

Aaron's performance was much like Katie's big turd of a performance. Actually, where her's was elephant sized, his was more like the scat left by a Argentinosaurus. This was easily the worst performance of the night. He has no lower range, the verses were like rubbing P12 grit sandpaper on a 3rd degree sunburn and the only thing that was even close to being half-way decent was the chorus part of the song. Once he got into his range, he was aiight. He definitely didn't do any justice to Lonestar's Already There. It was more like Please Go Away Now. Let's not even get into the fact that all 4 judges just had to point out how young he is or that he's 16. It's a good thing that I'm not home because I would have been schnockered. He went from a 1 state win to a big old goose egg and his odds have dropped as fast as Paige's (who's odds plummeted again as of this morning). A snowflake (nevermind the snowball) has a better shot in hell, folks.

Todrick had some good spots and bad spots in his version of Somebody to Love. Thank goodness it wasn't Bo-Rap. Actually, if he'd done that song, that would have assured us that he'd be going this week. He's got VFTW potential if Tim gets the boot this week. This wasn't a great showing and I'm thinking that the song was much too much for him. Omigoodness, he had an increase to a 1 state win this week! Watch him get the boot just when he's showing improvement. Too little too late? His odds stayed steady from yesterday, but they're still the worst of all the guys. He can go home any day now. You know he's splitting votes with Big Mike and after the show Mike put on this week, Todrick's more than likely doomed this week.

The only performance worthy of being listened to more than once was Big Mike's nearly panty-throwing worthy rendition of This Woman's Work by Maxwell. That nice falsetto and that glory note that hung on Adam Lambert-effortlessly forever was precisely what he needed this week. Well, that and the pimp spot helped out alot. If he and Todrick are splitting votes (and you can be damned sure they probably are), then Todrick lost this one because no one is going to remember the other AAM in this competition after Mike sang this week. Not EVEN if the other AAM is in the drafting-pimpspot. Thanks to the pimpspot, or maybe because it was a friggin AWESOME performance, or possibly both, Mike garnered 10 states (up from a 1 state win). His odds have increased substantially and I do believe he actually has a shot at this. Maybe we do have a chance at an AAM win this year.

Who goes home?

If you're not Mike, you're screwed this week.

Best bets to go?
Todrick and Aaron.

Although I'm not leaving anyone out of the mix as they all duds this week.