The theme for the night was entries from the Lennon/McCartney songbook. That certainly left no shortage of songs to choose from.
Aaron Kelly
Long and Winding Road
Pitchy, sleepy performance. The Wife thought it was dull. “His voice doesn’t sound right,” she observed.
Is he hoarse? There has supposedly been a bug going around the AI House.
Overall, it was ok, but a bit boring.
Katie Stevens
Let It Be
Great song, but any time the theme has anything to do with The Beatles, someone has to do this song.
Katie’s performance was a really nice vocal, but I don’t like the ultra-short arrangements they use for these live versions. Maybe they could cut back on the useless bickering and stupid jokes, and let each performer sing for a minute longer?
This is her best in several weeks, however. I expect the studio version will be quite good.
Andrew Garcia
Can’t Buy Me Love
Very much a cruise ship performance. And a weird cruise ship at that. The Wife thought he sounded like a wedding singer, without the Adam Sandler entertainment value.
It was really not good.
Michael Lynche
Elenor Rigby
It had a bit of Big Mike’s usual R&B flavor, but something seemed off. “It’s just not flowing right,” said the Wife.
The vocal and the instrumentation didn’t match. It really didn’t work for me.
The judges, of course, loved it, but I think they’d pump up anything from Michael at this point.
Crystal Bowersox
Come Together
Would have been much better with less going on. There were many distractions during the song, but it was still pretty good.
I think she may have lost the words for a moment on the second verse, but she got it back so quickly that I’m not sure.
A solid performance, but not her best.
Tim Urban
All My Lovin’
I hate to admit it, but I really liked Tim’s performance. A good vocal and cool arrangement. What is going on in the world?
The Wife thought the guitar kept him occupied so he didn’t act like an idiot.
I think it was his best performance, but the Wife like Hallelujah better.
Casey James
Jealous Guy
“I like it,” said the Wife. But she always says that about Casey’s songs.
However, I really liked the simple arrangement. The acoustic guitar with a standup bass (or was it a cello) really matched well with his voice.
“I think this is one of his best performances,” said the Wife. “I could hear it being on the radio.”
Siobhan Magnus
Across the Universe
After her disaster last week, Siobhan could only move up. I didn’t like the performance at first, but it was really nice after she settled in.
“She sounded good, but it was very broadway”, observed the Wife. “I’m torn.”
Lee Dewyze
Hey Jude
Wow. Very pitchy. Just all over the place. He sounded like the homeless guy in the subway station playing for spare change.
“It wasn’t that bad,” said the Wife, “but it wasn’t his best.”
And WTF on the bagpipe player entering halfway through? It was distracting and added nothing positive to the performance.
Overall, a mediocre night. Not too many great performances, but not many horrible ones either.
I think Casey’s was the best of the night, followed by Crystal. Surprisingly, Tim was the third best.
Andrew was easily the worst of the night, although Lee wasn’t too far behind. Third worst was probably Aaron.
The Bottom 3 will probably be Andrew, Lee, and either Aaron or Tim. I would think Tim would be safe based upon his performance, although VoteForTheWorst.com’s protection hasn’t always been that good when they’re candidate doesn’t suck. I suspect they get a bit lazy.
I expect that Andrew is going home, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see Lee at the bottom. The judges won’t save either one.