American Idol - Tuesday Night Fever

Top 4 - Bee Gees Night

Okay. It's the Bee Gees. I say I don't love them but let's be honest. When I look at their catalog, it's pretty fantastic. It's pretty classic stuff. Then why did I think that this was going to be a disaster? It's probably because the songs are so classic, so synonymous with the Gibbs falsetto sounds that they really aren't made for individual interpretation, and can really only be sung in a straight forward karaoke manner to sound "right". Our final four put a valiant effort, but while Melinda, Blake and LaKisha try their best to make the songs their own, it doesn't seem quite right. Jordin does her first song straight up, and that's the only way to make it sound... comfortable.


Melinda - "Love You Inside Out", "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart"
Like the judges said, she's technically great, but oh Melinda. I'm sure we judge you harder than most, because really, "Love You Inside Out" was still a better performance than most other Idol wannabe's, but it was probably the first Melinda performance I didn't love. It probably doesn't help that Feist has an amazing version "Inside & Out" that she released last year. Melinda's second effort was better but not enough at this late in the game. We need WOW'S everytime now. There was a bit of the WOW in the second half of "... Broken Heart" so hopefully that's what people will remember. Hmm... seems like Simon agrees.

Blake - "You Should Be Dancing", "This Is Where I Came In"
Hmm... okay. The beatboxing might get old and sometimes I fear it during the warm up scenes, but at the same time, I actually found it the most interesting part of "... Dancing", while "This Is Where I Came In" was just a boring song which Blake made slightly more interesting and palpable. Blake's lucky he had his performance from last week, so I hope it's enough to keep him through to next week. He doesn't have the best vocals (and at this point, is basically the worst of the bunch) but I love his energy and willingness to mix it up the way he personally likes it. It might fall flat (like tonight) but I appreciate the effort. Like what I say about Architects, I appreciate those who experiment and do the out-of-ordinary and attempt the extraordinary, even if it fails, than those who continue with the mundane and ordinary. Pushing the envelope buys you a lot of points with me.

LaKisha - "Staying Alive", "Run To Me"
Better than her mid weeks of the competition, she finally seems to be trying to fight back into the competition, and she may have just done slightly enough to pull through if she can convince enough Blake haters to save her. I think if she was like this before and had a nicer on-stage demeanor, she would have had an easier week, but having a Bee Gees night right now for her kinda killed it for her comeback.

Jordin - "To Love Somebody", "Woman In Love"
Jordin plays it straight and while there are moments of pitchiness in the second song, she basically belts it out enough to be the best of the night. And by best of the night, I mean, she basically followed the Bee Gees rule book the best and stuck to the script. We're not talking original or starmaking but at least it pulled decent performances out of her while everyone else sort of slightly floundered. Plus she sort of pulled the most audience friendly, happy feeling songs out of the songbook, while I'm kinda shocked no one went for "How Deep Is Your Love".

Best of the night - Jordin
Best of the season as a whole so far - Melinda
Who I still want to win - Blake (Yes you baby)
Who is leaving tomrorow - LaKisha