E.K. NATION

E.K.: Well, last night we said goodbye to the first singer who became a favorite of mine this year, Kristy Lee Cook. I called her a "refreshing lime wedge" in my first write-up of the season, if only because on that audition show she followed a guy who sang badly like a foul shot of tequila. At times Kristy displayed a nice voice, but then she had her bad weeks, and now she gets voted off right when she's picking up momentum. Oh well. She's still cute, and she'll probably be able to get a country record released sometime soon. Now, in the words of Casey Kasem, on with the countdown. And once again here is E.K. Nation's Senior American Idol Correspondent Smooth to get us rolling, what with the week's performances forthwith notwithstanding heretofore post haste tout de suite:

Smooth: Well, hello, once again! First we had David Archuleta. Even though this was one of his better performances in the last few weeks, I'm not loving it, and I think I'm getting biased against him. He is a pretty good (but not GREAT) singer who is mostly devoid of personality and overperforms every time he's on stage. Plus, he picks some boring songs. It was overall a solid vocal, but when he tried to hit a high note (per Mariah's suggestion) he missed it initially, and it sounded bad. I don't understand the fawning over him...is it just because he's young?

E.K.: Nope.

Smooth: Is it the fact that the gals think he's cute?

E.K.: Bingo.

Smooth: I wouldn't be angry if he wins or anything, but I feel like he is being way over-pimped by the judges, and it's annoying.

E.K.: I agree that he is picking some boring songs. Trouble with this week, at least for me, is that I've never found Mariah Carey's songs to be all that interesting. Her videos, on the other hand...

Smooth: Mmmmm...Mariah Carey videos.

E.K.: Mmmmmm.

Smooth: Mmmmmmmmmmm.

E.K.: Mmmmmmm-hmmmmmmmm.

Smooth: Mmmmmmmmmm.

(long pause)

E.K.: Wait, what?

Smooth: We were talking about Mariah Carey videos.

E.K.: Mmmmmmmmmm.

Smooth: Oh, jeezly crow. We were talking, actually, about David Archuleta.

E.K.: Oh yeah. Okay, so I think he's been a pretty solid singer most of the time, save for a couple really bad weeks. And yes, the girls love him 'cause they think he's cute and all that. And now with Michael Johns out of the way, he's a threat to win it. I thought this week was one of his better performances. But there's just something about him that's missing when considering whether he deserves to win. He's just not on a par with other winners.

Smooth: Moving on to Carly Smithson...Nice, Ryan, take up Carly's screen time talking about how much you miss Michael Johns. Another predictable song choice ("Without You"). I still don't understand why Carly exhibits so much more personality off stage than on it. Here's a shocker: She sounded very good but looked very angry. She's just okay once again. I just don't see her breaking through and really turning into an entertainer. This is one of the more well-known songs of the night, not sure if that hurts or helps here, really.

E.K.: She definitely needs to bring the charm she has offstage with her on to the stage during her performancers. And yeah, it was the same old thing: She just seemed angry while singing again. Only this time, I thought she strained way too much to hit those high notes. I watched this episode via YouTube so I'm not sure if the audio quality was worthy, but she just sounded like those higher notes were just out of her range and she missed them. I could sense that she was thinking, "Wait, I'm not going to hit these notes, so how can I make it sound like I planned to do something else?" I'm no longer sold on Carly. If she doesn't bust out with a Fantasia-"Summertime"-level performance soon, she'll be close to gone. I liked the top she had on, though. The costumers finally got a clue.

Smooth: I knew Syesha Mercado would be the closest to a "Mariah Carey" style, and it just doesn't help her. It's a very good vocal, but although Mariah Carey is a crazy ho, she can SING. Syesha's just not going to live up to that. She has tackled other tough songs lately and pulled through, so maybe she'll be OK, but in the end, it wasn't that memorable.

E.K.: For me, not only was it not memorable, it was annoying. My god, it seemed like the last third of the song consisted of those ridiculous runs that grate on me like scat does. I hate those things. Sing some words, dammit! Not only that, but of course, she's going to be compared to Mariah, and that never helps. I thought she sang the lyrics rather well, though, and she has definitely surprised me with her staying power. She will in no way win this thing.

Smooth: Well, Brooke White stripped "Hero" down to a piano arrangement. What else could she do, really? She has nowhere near the power in her voice to pull off most Mariah Carey songs. When MC is mentoring her, she basically has to ask Brooke "um... that was the note you were going for, right?" and I LOL'ed. The problem with this performance is that we have seen the exact same thing from Brooke like four times now, and this is not an improvement. It might have been interesting at first, but now it's just boring. I really agree with Randy's assessment that she gradually lost confidence throughout the performance because it got worse and worse towards the end.

E.K.: We've seen all she has to offer, apparently. It's nice and all, and she could probably do a pretty good remake of Tapestry, but it's not enough to win this thing. If it were Truly Genuine and Great Person Idol, she'd win, hands down. They'd have stopped the fight already.

Smooth: Why did every contestant pick a ballad? Mariah's done a lot of uptempo stuff, right?

E.K.: I'm thinking the faster tempo songs aren't the best vehicle to show off singing talent. Then again, I don't really have any Mariah songs burned into my mind to accurately say that. And I'm thinking "Touch My Body" might be too suggestive for the littler viewers.

Smooth: Anyway, it was a good performance. Glad they're not perming her hair anymore. Unlike Syesha, her vocal style is naturally different from MC's and the arrangement is country-fried slightly so she doesn't invoke the comparison at all. It's still pretty boring, though. She was consistent, and factoring in the country fan base, I was thinking she might stick around a few more weeks.

E.K.: I like how they turned it into a country song by just putting in three or four one-measure-long slide guitar riffs. Kinda cheap, actually, but I suppose she had to do something. I'm a bit sad to see her go, but not because of her singing. She's just so damn pretty. And I liked how genuinely excited she was whenever Simon gave her good reviews. She didn't have anything fake going on; what we saw was who she is.

Smooth: After last week's disaster, David Cook got back to doin' what he do. He did an unusual arrangement of "Always Be My Baby" that worked surprisingly well... the strings were used to nice effect, and the song built tension over time, allowing for a rock ending. I would be very interested to learn how much input David has into these arrangements, because if he is doing most of it himself I think he could actually have more talent as a producer than a singer. His vocals are good; I'm just saying that the key to his success has really stemmed from his song choices. Unlike Brooke, he's changing things up each week and it makes each performance more memorable. At this point I think he is the only threat to the coronation of David A., but if Chris Daughtry only managed to finish fourth (albeit in a fairly strong year), can DC really win?

E.K.: I must confess, I had to view this one twice. The first time I wasn't really into it. I thought the notes were a bit low to start out, and the arrangement kind of threw me off. But after I listened to the judges rave about it, I decided to go back and see what it was I apparently missed...and lo and behold, I missed the whole thing. It was damn good after all! Shame on me for letting a comment by Paula -- that it would have been great for a movie soundtrack -- sway me into changing my take. I shall now stand in the corner for twenty minutes.

Smooth: Well, hold on, we just have Jason Castro left to discuss. Once again, there was a torrent of goofy faces. I don't think the vocal is that great; it was a bit shaky and I think a bit flat before he launches into the chorus. From there, it got better. Overall, it's an average-to-good performance for him. Tonight, that's good enough to go through.

E.K.: I said previously that I felt he was kind of going along with this competition as a goof, but Paula said, and I agree, that -- oh, no, I really deserve to stand in a corner now -- he's been growing more confident with each week, and I think that is indeed reflected in his performances. I thought this week was great again. The vocal worked for me a lot better than it did for you, I guess. And the arrangement was great too. I had Carly, David A. and Syesha in my bottom three, for no real reason other than stranger things have happened, and I thought Syesha's time had run out. I was wrong.

Smooth: I had Carly, Syesha and Brooke in my bottom three and Carly being voted out.

E.K.: Well, what do we know, really?

Smooth: Not much, I guess.

E.K.: Here's what we'll do next week. Along with our write-ups, we'll also try to encapsulate a review of each singer's performance by creating an anagram of that person's name. Think it can be done?

Smooth: Uhhh...I'm thinking you might be on your own with that.

E.K.: Okay. The point is "moot. Sh!" (Get it?)

Smooth: (rolls eyes)