'American Idol' Top 6 recap: James Durbin steals the show on Carole King night
California rocker James Durbin may have pushed himself into front-runner status on "American Idol" last night after converting a sleepy Carole King ballad into a fun, guitar-driven rock song that had the audience going wild.
Durbin was the star of the night, out-shining the other finalists in the Top 6 who sifted through the vast songbook of prolific hit-maker Carole King. There were some other good performances, but none as entertaining as Durbin's.
Here's my take on last night's live show, which could have easily been condensed to one hour but was stretched into 90 minutes:
• BEST OF THE NIGHT: James Durbin and Scotty McCreery
• GOOD, BUT NOT GREAT: Lauren Alaina, Haley Reinhart, Casey Abrams
• DANGER ZONE: Jacob Lusk (with Haley Reinhart and Casey Abrams joining him in the bottom three)
THE PERFORMANCES
(order of appearance)
• JACOB LUSK ("Oh No, Not My Baby") – Oh no, Jacob is in trouble this week. Jacob was soulful, upbeat and full of energy, but I just wasn't feeling it. The whole first verse was so high-pitched, it was annoying to listen to. It was also annoying to watch, with that tacky bow-tie, checkered jacket and bouncy dancing. I'm not sure why the judges liked this performance so much.
• LAUREN ALAINA ("Where You Lead") – Lauren got a big surprise during her rehearsal, when Miley Cyrus showed up. It seemed to give her the inspiration to turn in a good performance last night. But I don't think she stepped it up as much as the judges had asked her to last week. Jennifer Lopez felt differently, saying Lauren pushed it hard, and Randy Jackson felt she came out with some extra swagger. I think they were being too polite to the likeable teen.
• SCOTTY McCREERY ("You’ve Got a Friend") – Scotty put a slight country spin on this pop classic. He seemed to try too hard to hold back his southern twang, but I thought he sounded really good. Not as good as James, but one of the best performances of the night.
• JAMES DURBIN ("Will You Love Me Tomorrow") – Mr. Heavy Metal showed his softer side last night, starting out his song a capella and drifting into a grooving, rhythmic, 60s-style love song. (see video clip below) It was terrific – definitely the best of the night, and good enough to prompt Randy Jackson to proclaim: “This guy just might win the whole thing!” Randy even left his seat to go up on stage to give James a hug.
• CASEY ABRAMS ("Hi-De-Ho") – I liked how his voice sounded at the start, but I wasn't crazy about all those grunts and groans that followed. Blues lovers probably loved this performance. I liked it, but I didn't love it.
• HALEY REINHART ("Beautiful") – Haley got off to a shaky start, then sounded smoother as she went along and hit some very tough notes at the end. It was good and entertaining, but probably not strong enough to keep her out of the bottom three.
NEXT UP: On Thursday's live results show (April 28 at 8 p.m. on Fox), we will have to say goodbye to one of the finalists as the Top 6 gets cut to 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment