Review: Top 8 Girls and Top 8 Guys

Thank god they're not doing the stair thing anymore!

Top performances for each side...Guys: Lee Dewyze...Girls: 5 were good this week, so it's easier to say the 3 that were bad (Katelyn, Katie and Paige).

Biggest Surprise = Lacey Brown. Biggest Disappointments (meaning that I had wanted or expected them to be good) = for the 2nd straight week, Andrew Garcia.

The 4 who will get chopped by way of America's axe are noted in RED below. The 4 who should get chopped, based on performances, are noted in PURPLE.

TOP 12 GIRLS
Katie Stevens Hopefully Kelly Clarkson is young enough for the judges. I guess it was, but she only receives more crap..poor girl. Side note: what kind of pants is she wearing? They look ridiculous. Performance: that wasn't good. She hit one bad note about one verse in and couldn't recover. At least if she gets eliminated now, I think she still technically has a shot of competing again next year.

Siobhan Magnus No way! House of Rising Sun! That was great - her control is amazing (I feel like her voice is going to crack at several points in the song, but she doesn't). What she's wearing is interesting, but I like it. Siobhan for the win.

[sidenote: sketch man's performance of House of Rising Sun wasn't bad either. Too bad his attitude was terrible]

Lacey Brown First person this year to sit through a performance. Aside from sounding like a young girl, she had a good performance. Her style is also like a template - same thing every time. And who is this Pat Benatar everyone's comparing her to?

Katelyn Epperly Her second straight piano performance. She had a worse performance this week than the last, while playing with an inferior instrument. Also, she let her hair out..she obviously has not seen my analysis in past weeks regarding the correlation between the poofiness of her hair and the lacklusterness of her performances (yes..two made up words in one sentence).

Didi Benami Same thing every week: let's hope she shows up. Performance: I think she did. Good to see her with the same guitar that made her a favorite with Terrified. When she hit the chorus, I actually got chills in my body...which probably has something to do with the cold temperatures in my apartment as well.

Paige Miles America, there's nothing interesting or spectacular here.

Crystal Bowersox That was really good. Another solid performance.

Lilly Scott The peacock earrings are gone! It actually looks like her classic peacock earrings met Crystal Bowersox's hair [see below].











TOP 12 GUYS
[side note: Idol producers switched the order on us. For once, the contestants did not perform in the order they were introduced]
Lee DeWyze That was a great performance. He took a very popular song and switched it up just enough.

Alex Lambert Carol Brady can sing (props to the real navin for pointing out the aesthetic similarities weeks ago...see right). The voice has always been there.

Tim Urban Hallelujah is an awesome song to do with a guitar. That performance was average-leaning-on-good, and I'm not sure the Idol faithful can eliminate him after that. He is also the VFTWer, so he'll still be here next week.

Andrew Garcia Xtina? This could be disasterous...although Straight Up was also a girl's song. Genie in a Bottle? This takes it to a new level. Seconds into the performance: Uh oh. In the closing seconds of the performance: Uh oh. This could be the end of the road [if he didn't have the YouTube nation behind him].

Casey James Wack.

Aaron Kelly He started off slow, but the ending was dope.

Todrick Hall Can't wait to see how he'll rework and destroy another song. The beginning was bad; the ending was good..but get rid of him.

Michael Lynche Did anyone else think Big Mike was Ruben Studdard when he barely appeared in the balcony during others' performances? Style-wise: He has to either wear dress pants or drop the vest and the red hanky. The last few seconds of his performance were the best I've heard from him to date. The f - is Kara really crying?


/rl