Underwhelmed

I want an hour fiddy of my time from last night back again,  please. In all fairness, the Idol machine really needs to freshen their themes up. Inflicting the kids with music that, although it holds up to the hand of time, is actually decades old and in some cases much older than the contestant. Having a rapper mentor during a rock week didn't help matters either. Although, I will admit that he did have some decent pointers for the kids.

Not to say that it was a bad week, but the Chart was no help at all this time around. Every single one of them is in the 1-10 B3 YELLOW group. Yep. Every. Single. One. I didn't see too many wows at all this time around. Not even from my favorites.

Styx Pick for the week:

Phillip: The only reason he's here is because he's my favorite to watch. Was it his best? No. Did he take anyone's advice in regards to styling or performance? No. His basic sentiment is, if it aint broke... don't fix it. Like he pointed out, it doesn't much matter how he's packaged. If the people like the music, they'll like it anyway, no matter how he dresses.

Acknowledgement of decent performance(s):

Jessica:  She actually made me like her this week. I still don't enjoy the super SUTA blast we get when the judges blather all over her, but they either weren't as vocal of their approval OR someone laced a crapperload of morphine in my SUTA Protection Enema this week. Her odds slipped a tad this week, however she's still listed as a favorite on the betting site. With 7 wins and no losses, I don't foresee losing her this round.

Colton: Parts of his performance this week were really good and others not so much. I do, however, hold an appreciation for the kids when they play an instrument during their performance because it takes ALOT of practice to be able to get all the words right, but be able to play the right notes for your instrument as well. Yes, playing an instrument can hide some of the imperfections, but it takes that much more concentration to get it right. He, too, had 7 wins and no losses for the week and a minor slip in the odds. I don't see him leaving us this week either.

So who's in danger this week? Just about all of them.

Hollie: She had a nice performance this week. Enough to make me smile, but not enough to make me say wow. Her odds are still creeping up and I won't be surprised if she'd this year's dark horse. Not exactly a favorite yet, but there's enough there to show alot of promise. She's going to be one of the biggest threats to Jessica. However, she didn't have anything on the Maps this week. If she reaches B3 this week, it'll be because she was followed by Jessica, Colton and this next man...

Heejun: This poster child of the VFTW saw his odds crash this week. All I can say about him is that he was memorable and alot of fun this week. I actually liked this week's performance over the others he's given us. He did win one state this week and had no losses, so maybe that nefarious site did its job. I won't be heart broken to see him go, but in all fairness, he wasn't the worst of the week.

Phillip: Yeah, I'm gonna stick him down here too. Although his odds are still inching up, the fact stands that he only grabbed 1 state this week. The winners over the last several years have been WGWGs and this might eventually work against him as some will see that guitar as a crutch. Unfortunately, dude doesn't seem to know quite what to do with himself when he's not behind it. And with as much as it shouldn't matter how the music is packaged, image does matter ever so slightly. He's going to want to at least introduce some color eventually (blue would look AWESOME with those peepers, jus' sayin').  Does he deserve to go, nope. I do have to consider the info given, though.

Elise: Her odds are still near the bottom of the barrel and she shares the next to last position with one other , while still another has even worse odds. I didn't know this song at all. With any luck, not many others did either and it'll work in her favor. She got a 2 state win this week. Does she deserve to go home, not really because that was a decent performance.

Skylar: Yep. Another one of my faves is getting mentioned down here. I personally wasn't fond of this particular performance of hers. Maybe it was just really early in the show, maybe I was still cranky from Jacob 2.0's performance. Who knows. We did get to see how very out of touch Randy is with the music scene, though. That song was covered by Garth Brooks, not Brad Paisley. Dog, lose the tacky pins you seem to like this year, shut your mouth and stop name dropping because you certainly don't know squat.  With slipping odds and only a 1 state win, it won't surprise me if she's in the B3... although I really don't wanna see that. Not yet.

Joshua: Even though his odds have been creeping up, he had a few things against him this week. An early sing position on a two hour night, the constant histrionics, and the over seasoning of a perfectly lovely song look like they may have worked against him this week. Can we get rid of him now? Oh wait, he's the year's only AAD, so we we may still have him for awhile because we don't wanna look racist. Oh hush! You know that card would be played if the only AA of the show gets voted off so soon! It's happened every damned year for almost half a decade now. If he goes, it'll be because he over seasoned the crawdads/crawfish/crayfish/mudbugs yet again. When will these kids learn? Just because you CAN put all the runs in, doesn't mean you SHOULD.  No states for you this week, Emeril.

Erika: I loved the look, very polished. Hopefully, the voters weren't too confused with that chameleon-like change she had this week. Didn't help she performed so very early. If anyone needed a pimp spot this week, it was Erika. I'm hoping that she sticks around for at least one more week. You remember that one contestant I mentioned up in Elise's review? Yeah. Her and Erika as tied with the next to worst odds on the betting site. I'm hoping that it's because the names are so close (5 letters beginning with E) and that they were both blondes that had everyone confused before. She had 1 win and 1 loss this week. There is a very distinct possibility that she could be in the B3 simply because of the 2nd sing spot and the over-haul on her looks (she did look like a different gal, after all). She doesn't deserve to go this week, though.

DeAndre: Ew. P-U, dude. This song simply wasn't believable from him. His only hope this time around will be if Rickey is still doing the VFTF program (Vote For The First), because with a really pitiful showing first thing on a 2 hour show and others much more memorable singing after him he really doesn't have much of a shot otherwise. There were so many other songs, like a ballad, that would have worked well with his voice. His odds have crashed and since Jermaine's ouster last week, he's at the bottom of the barrel. Not to say they're bad, but if I was to put a Benjamin down on him right now and he somehow managed to win (like if every single one of the others got disqualified tonight), I'd be able to afford a nice vacation ... hmmm maybe a cruise. His pooch is screwed this week as he's the weakest link and the one most likely to go home.

If you go by odds: DeAndre is gone (possible Erika or Elise)
If you go by the Chart: DeAndre's gone
If you go by the Maps: it could be anyone EXCEPT Jessica and Colton