We start off with a goofy selfie montage about which the less said the better. Like, I've literally already said more about it than I wanted to. After the credits, the show starts off a little slow and loosey-goosey, with some comments from the judges about all the signs in the audience. Then we learn that tonight's "theme" is that the finalists can any song that's been in the Top 10 from way back in 2011 aallllll the way up to today. They joke around with Ryan about what they were doing when the earthquake hit on Monday morning, and then the 10 emerge from upstage and advance on the audience in that intimidating way they have this season.
There's also a clip of the Top 10 being dragged into Ryan's radio studio to, I guess, practice for early morning radio appearances, which will be tonight's intro-reel theme, apparently. It also serves as a framing device for each finalist's performance, as we start with Ryan interviewing M.K. about her song this week, which is "Fuckin' Perfect" by P!nk. Randy coaches M.K. on how to say the title on air, and M.K. explains the song's message to DJ Ryan and then starts off the performance singing to herself in the mirror. It's nice to hear her singing something with a little more energy, but the unfortunate thing is that it turns out that she usually sings those intimate ballads for a reason, which is that her voice isn't all that up to the other stuff. Like, she's kind of drowned out by the back-up singers. And at one point she misses her cue coming back in. Her hair looks cool, though, with some new red streaks.
Keith starts with that positive aspect of it, then moves on to how she recovered well from the mistake, but needs to work on her performance and dominating the space more. Jennifer liked the part at the beginning where she was singing to the mirror, if you can imagine Jennifer Lopez liking such a thing, but is actually harder on her about how she dealt with her slip. Harry doesn't think this is her best performance, and is in fact wondering what kind of show she could put together. Afterwards, M.K. disagrees, saying that it was one of her strongest performances, until she messed up. Well, if you don't count that, she's probably right.
Dexter talks about the importance of song selection, which just happens to be the one thing he's been acing every week. He's doing "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line, and Randy apparently spent some time working on his diction and accent with him. His hair continues to improve every week, and for once he's forgoing the guitar so he's able to work the stage more than he has before. Alas, the song isn't all that demanding, consisting of about three or four notes in a medium tempo. Middle of the road in every way, in fact. Jennifer remarks that the nice thing about Top 10 songs is that everyone knows them, so Dexter could have done more to take advantage of the opportunity to get the crowd involved. "Good job," she concludes anyway. Harry didn't think it was as good, because anybody could have done what he did with it. This time Jennifer leads the boos against him. Keith maintains that it was a great song choice, and liked that he did something different with it at the beginning. I have to take his word for it on that. Keith lays it out: "Your talent shows me what you can do, but your artistry tells me who you are." He just needs a little more artistry then, I guess.
Jena's song this week is "Clarity" by Zedd featuring Foxes, because as she explains to Ryan on his radio show, she wants to be the one to debut electronic music on American Idol. I'm starting to see the problem with the Top 10 theme, which is that there are so many different charts that it's almost meaningless. We also see her getting some mentoring from Randy in the form of him saying, "Come on. Come on, Jena." Valuable. Important. She starts slow in the audience, climbing to the stage as the music build and showing as much range as this particular song will allow. The production has apparently embraced the whole electronica theme by issuing glow sticks to everyone in the audience, which Jena at one point pauses in her singing to yell at everyone to get them up. Harry figures that melodies like this are kind of her wheelhouse and is liking who she's kind of turning out to be. He says there's not a whole lot to the tune, which Keith disagrees with, calling it the best performance of the night so far. Keith also likes how she sounds like Jena no matter what she sings. Jennifer thought it was perfect for her and only wished it was longer, but tells Jena to own the middle of the stage more. Ryan's big takeaway from that performance was that Jena was coming in with confidence and that everyone had glow sticks. And it was apparently Jena's favorite part too, judging by her comments afterward.
Alex is doing a One Direction song, "Story of My Life," and is a little worried about pissing off their fans. He also compares the season's worth of song selections to a concert set list that needs changing up. This is certainly a departure from his usual thing -- even if he is sticking with his guitar -- but it's a much more successful departure than his Gavin DeGraw cover from a couple of weeks ago. This is bouncier and more fun, and his singing is both clearer and more effortless than usual. I still don't like how he wears his pants though. Keith says that we're at the stage where the artists are starting to emerge, and that was completely Alex. Jennifer loved it, and says that's what she means by owning the stage. She also compares him to Buddy Holly somewhat. Harry brings up those squirt-gun horse races at the midway, by way of saying that Alex hit his target first and is thus in the lead artistry-wise. Ryan comes out with a laptop and a phone to read him some tweets, including from one person who calls him a "bay" and another from someone called "Nile," whatever those things are. Oh dear, I just pissed off the One Direction fans, didn't I?"
After the ads, Ryan admits to the judges that the evening started a little slow but has shifted into a new gear with the last couple of performances. Oh, so he wasn't talking about the pace of the show itself so much. Anyway, the judges talk about how they need to see more intensity from some of the contestants than they have, which can only mean they're not aware of the murder-gaze M.K. has fixed on them right now. That's intense, damn. Malaya's up , telling DJ Ryan that she picked "When I Was Your Man" because it relates to watching a family member's relationship getting ready to crash and burn. She's leaving the piano playing to the band so we can concentrate on her vocals, and that appears to be a solid decision. Even if, as she admitted to Ryan, she has no experience at all with what happens in the song, having never received flowers.
The performance itself turns out to be pretty solid as well, apart from a few notes where she takes a split-second to land on the right pitch. Jennifer admits that she was ready to give her shit for not changing the gender in the lyrics, but she ended up being so affected by it that she didn't care. Goosies and all. Harry liked it too, even her interpretation of the lyrics. He can also tell that she's eager to learn, and suggests she work with the music people a little to learn some new chords and stuff, and how she can sing runs over the notes that exist in the chord like she's not always doing now. Keith is behind her leaving the lyrics alone, and appreciates that her control seems to be improving. Then Ryan brings her a big pot of flowers, because she said nobody ever brought her flowers before. Having the note say they were charged to Harry's credit card was a nice touch.
Tonight Caleb is the one who has to field a "fan question," which this week is about how they get away from the stress of the competition. Caleb talks about some pranks that have been going on, including putting peanuts in Alex's socks and underwear because he's allergic. Which will be hilarious if Alex dies. Ryan is all excited about how Caleb will be doing a Lady Gaga song, "The Edge of Glory." He worked with Randy on the tempo, which explains a lot -- unfortunately, it's been slowed down to an '80s power ballad, which does neither the song nor Caleb any favors. Plus Caleb just sort of wanders around the stage with very little of his usual showmanship. Harry admires Caleb's choice of a pop song and dragging it out, but although he's seen better performances from Caleb, he gives him an A for originality. Though he raises it to an A+ at Keith's prompting, saying Caleb is really good at loud, unlike most of the rest of the field (coughJenacoughMalayacough). Keith agrees that Caleb has the tone that nobody else in the competition has, and is on my side about how slowing the song down was a rotten idea. Jennifer, as usual, is torn between their perspectives, and is briefly distracted by their clowning as she says there wasn't much feeling to it. Whatever Ryan was going to say to sum up afterward is totally upstaged by Harry and Keith doing impromptu impersonations of each other, so he lets it drop. Which is wise. Then after the ads, Caleb and Ryan impersonate each other, as Caleb reads the cue cards while Ryan bellows Caleb-like. It worked better when Harry and Keith did it. As do most things.
C.J. is doing "Invisible" by Hunter Hayes, telling DJ Ryan that he can relate to it. He's going with a strings-heavy arrangement that also incorporates his own guitar playing. No hat, I'm happy to say. He's sounding good, a little sharp as usual, but he deserves going to get dinged on his breath control for singing the title as "Invi… sible" and other such vocal artefacts. Before offering his comments, Keith reads that C.J. is a little nervous and says he's got a great voice before saying that he didn't do such a great job of staying in tune -- like he apparently did during rehearsal. Jennifer is with Keith, assuring C.J. that they're all rooting for him and hoping that he comes back week. Harry, on the other hand, makes a point of not going to rehearsals because he only wants to see how people do on camera, and then gives C.J. a remedial lecture on his habitual sharpness. Ryan plays him a quick video message of support from his old coworkers at the barbecue shack, which would be just what C.J. needed after that rough round of comments if it weren't so half-assed.
Jessica is going with "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People, because what better way to grub for votes than with a jaunty ditty about a school shooting? "It's twisted," she freely admits on Ryan's radio show. She also learns something about radio broadcasting, which is the function of the "cough" button. No, Jessica, it doesn't make that sound for you. Jessica claims to have changed the arrangement of the song, but if anything, she's smoothed it out and made it sound even more innocuous. And maybe not so much with the smiling. At least she looks more comfortable onstage tonight than she usually does. Jennifer liked this a lot better than what Jessica did last week, but Harry disagrees, saying that Jessica's interpretation of the lyrics was a little in question given the complacent smile she had on for most of it. He wants more emotional dimension from her, basically. Keith liked it and is talking about the lyrics being the opposite of the sound, and this turns out to be the first time Jennifer's ever listened to the lyrics. This sort of blows up into a whole debate that Jessica ends up watching rather than participating in, which isn't a great sign.
We've been saving the two survivors of last week's bottom three for last, apparently, as Majesty is up . She didn't care for that experience, unsurprisingly. Tonight she's doing "Wake Me Up" by Avicii to try to make up for it, accompanying herself on her old hand-painted guitar on a folky, stripped-down arrangement. She sounds okay but she's looking pretty stiff nervous, so she has clearly not recovered from last week. Harry likes what she did with it, calling Majesty "smart" and "complex" and challenging, comparing her to the Majesty he liked from her first audition. Keith isn't on board, saying he likes Majesty and her voice but didn't think that removing the heavy beat worked. Jennifer noticed the same fear I did, and says she can't let that show. "I don't want to see that other girl ever again," she concludes. No goosies then?
Sam was the other member of last week's bottom three, and this week he's going with "We Are Young" by Fun. I actually dig this performance more than what I've seen from Sam to date, even though his hat, shirt and boots seem calculated to turn off teenage girls -- or maybe because of that reason. His singing isn't spectacular, but it's solid and actually shows some dynamic range for once. Keith's comments, all but shouted over the screams of the audience, are basically about how he wants more time to talk to him but is sure he'll get a chance week. Jennifer says it was better than last week, and Harry still thinks Sam needs to be more self-assertive and less timid. Harry's not wrong either. Sam himself thinks this was maybe his second-best performance so far, which is not terribly self-assertive of him. Ryan tries to get something started by inviting Harry to tweak his judges, but Harry goes the sincere route, saying it's great that the contestants get to have different yet valid perspectives from the judges' table. I'm with Harry on that. I've been thinking all season that it was really quite smart to put together a panel that includes two such accomplished musicians.
M. Giant is a Minneapolis- based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, follow him on Twitter, or just e-mail him at m.giant[at]gmail.com.