American Idol Top 4 Show Reaction

American Idol 05/05/2009
Reaction






Last night's theme was "Rock Music" and American Idol brought legendary guitarist Slash in to mentor the contestants. This was actually a pretty cool theme this week with Slash and his band switching up the traditional way that the rehearsals go down. However this theme, like many others, really played to the strengths of two contestants and showed the weakness of the other two contestants. This was also the first week that the producers had to get a little creative with the timing of the show. With only four contestants left you don't have enough time in one hour to fit in two songs from each but one song does not fill the time slot either. So they pulled out the rock duets. With the way that the "straws" were drawn the pairings were very lop sided and very different performances. Anyways, on with the speculation!


Adam Lambert - Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin
The theme this week fell right into the lap of Adam Lambert as his voice and persona was built for Rock music. I know a lot of people, including me were disappointed that Adam when for a Zeppelin song rather than something from Guns N' Roses. Adam is the only contestant we've seen come this far that could tackle a voice like that of Axl Rose. From a critical review standpoint Adam had a good week this week. He worked the stage, jammed with the guitarist, and screamed his little voice off. The judges enjoyed it and all of them reviewed him well concluding with Simon Cowell's nod of approval. From my personal point of view, Mr. Lambert is beginning to get on my nerves. When he reaches the stage you can tell that everything he is doing has been extremely thought out and super over produced. Adam is a showman and will do whatever he thinks best to get the crowd rowdy and excited. This tactic and his shrieking voice are both beginning to wear on me. Adam is very talented and will be a great competitor that could find himself in this years final but it's safe to say that he is not my cup of tea. As predicted the controversy surrounding Adam's private life is beginning to heat up a bit backed by the exposure that Bill O'Reilly has been giving the issue. More about this in a future post!


Allison Iraheta - Cry Baby by Janis Joplin
Much like Adam, Allison had to have been drooling over the theme this week as it was right in her wheel house. Allison made a very good choice in picking Janis Joplin but I think that now more than ever, her flaws are sticking out like a sore thumb. Each week the judges tell her that is was great, BUT she needs to spice it up a little bit or it was too sound-a-like. It's starting to look like these issues are more of a deal breaker than originally thought. It's been at least three weeks since they told her that she needs to show a little more personality and spice up the performance, yet each week she receives the same critique telling her to be herself. I think that was we see is what we get with Allison. She is a good young singing talent but she has no personality to work with, which would hurt her musical career and will ultimately hold her back in this competition. And despite what Allison seems to believe, arguing with the judges critiques is not the type of window into your personality that they were telling you to bring out. At the end of the day Allison should have some sort of future ahead of her, but she has some maturing to do. At 17 there no way that you have fully grown into the person that you are going to be and you have not fully developed your personality. These seem to be the two big things that are keeping her from being a star. I think that Allison will be in the bottom two this week but will be safe (more speculation about Allison's "safety" to come in future post).


Kris Allen - Come Together by The Beatles
It was kind of funny when Slash commented on how Kris got nervous when Slash handed him his guitar! Kris wasn't fooling anybody when he said that this genre was not necessarily his strong suit but I think he made a very good decision in picking a Beatles song. Out of all the possible songs that he could pick, The Beatles songs were in his range and very notable making them fun for the studio and TV audiences. I actually kind of liked Kris' performance last night. I know that this is nitpicking a little bit but I liked what Kris did with the verses a lot more than what he did with the chorus of the song. Playing the guitar worked well for Kris last night as I think he heeded the advice Slash gave him in suggesting to add a little flare to the guitar performance. Kris is a very talented contestant and it is going to hurt me a little bit to make this prediction but I think that Kris will find himself in the bottom 2 tonight and ultimately will be packing his bags and heading back to Arkansas this evening.


Danny Gokey - Dream On by Aerosmith
Out of all the contestants remaining in the competition, it was well known that Danny was going to struggle with last night's theme. Rock music and Danny Gokey have never been uttered in the same sentence and after last night, that will probably remain a true statement. Danny is my favorite remaining contestant but last night he attempted a dangerous song and sort of laid an egg. I agree with the judges as they said that Aerosmith was a good choice for Danny but this particular song caused him to strain to hit some notes that he had not attempted to this point in the competition. Seacrest announced to the world last night that Danny was the only one left in the competition who had not been voted into the bottom to this point. Well with only four contestants left unfortunately Danny's top-three-less streak will probably end tonight :) I liked the majority of Danny's song last night but when he attempted to hit those big high notes at the end it reminded me of my feeble attempts to sing along with Freddy Mercury. I think that Danny knows last night was sub par but he should be safely headed into this seasons top three next week.

Overall Predictions: after the 05/05/2009 performance show
Last week I was correct in sending Matt home but we received a bit of a shock with Adam Lambert gracing the likes of the bottom two. Sorry guys, that won't happen this week.

1. Adam Lambert
2. Danny Gokey (struggled last night but his fan base is HUGE)
   
3. Allison Iraheta
4. Kris Allen (I like him a lot but he doesn't have that "it" factor that is needed to win)
   

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