American Idol explored all sides of love last night (May 7) as the top 4 took on make up and break up anthems. For the first time this season, each contestant took on three songs and notably improved throughout the night.
Once again, Caleb Johnson and Jena Irene established themselves as the frontrunners with a string of insanely strong performances. Each of the powerhouse singers took on two big anthems and one subdued song, showing that they can live -- and thrive -- in the quiet moments.
Meanwhile, Jessica Meuse is as good as gone with two horrible performances one so-so song. Alex Preston is great but not great enough to win, and did some really nice things with two of his three songs...
Like last week, let's count down the performances from worst to best, starting unfortunately with three takes from Jessica...
12. Jessica Meuse, "Since U Been Gone": Kelly Clarkson, the original American Idol by the way, has a lot of zip and personality. Jessica Meuse, who somehow made her way into this season's top 4, does not. For some totally unknown reason, Jessica performed "Since U Been Gone," a song full of attitude and one that basically demands you run around the stage and sing with a ton of pain and personality and strength. Jessica did none of these things. For someone who's remained pretty lifeless throughout this entire competition, Jessica really just amped her lack of personality and love of performing this week. I've never seen someone less enthusiastic to be on stage. And, no, those little nose snarls aren't making up for it.
11. Jessica Meuse, "So What": If you're going to sing about being a rock star and having rock moves, maybe you should act like one and maybe dance a little bit around stage. I'll give it to Jessica Meuse, she actually stepped in FRONT of the mic stand for her take on P!nk's "So What" but oh my goodness... this was awful. The first verse was so insanely flat, both in tone and of personality, that I wasn't sure what I was watching. The instrumentation wasn't even particularly loud but Jessica still got lost in the mix. She picked up the attitude and personality minimally for the chorus, but the point of "So What" is that a newly single P!nk is still having a blast sans her man, and Jessica was only having like 50 percent fun. You're not a rock star or an American Idol, ya know what? Go hooooome.
10. Jessica Meuse, "You & I": Jessica Meuse's first two performances of the night were just abysmal, there's no other way around it. Somehow, some way, she was able to recover and pull out an actual solid rendition of Lady Gaga's "You & I." Beside her ever-present frozen stage presence, Jessica's vocals were actually pretty solid here. Yes, I'm as amazed as anybody. Maybe, just maybe, if Jessica really slayed this performance, swung that guitar to her back and rocked out she could've saved herself this week, but of course, that didn't happen and a solid performance and two bum tracks are just not good enough to make it into the top 3.
9. Jena Irene, "Bad Romance": Seven performance into the night and the Idols had mostly been keeping close enough to the original arrangements and melodies of the songs they were covering (excepting Alex Preston's "Too Close"), but Jena Irene took the key down a notch for hey cover of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" and pumped up the guitars... it sort of worked? It was a little distracting but not nearly as distracting as the stage setup... flashing neon green lasers and a bunch of weird levels? OK. This wasn't the massively bombastic performance that "Bad Romance" on American Idol could have been, but it wasn't so bad, either.
8. Alex Preston, "I'm Yours": I don't need to be the one to say that Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" is insanely overdone on American Idol. Shoot, Mraz himself said it last week. So... yeah. Anyway, despite that, Alex Preston chose to take this anthem on... this time with a ukulele instead of a guitar! SHAKE UP! Alex tackled this song straight up, and it was cutesy enough, even if the song choice was predictable and a little boring. I like Alex, his musical style gels the most with my personal taste, but he's just not thrilling enough to win this competition. I'm calling him for third place unless he pulls out something really spectacular soon.
7. Alex Preston, "Too Close": Alex Preston did that thing that he's been really good at doing this season yet again this week, which is to say he totally deconstructed a popular song and put his own artistic spin on it. For Alex Clare's stomping Internet Explorer theme song "Too Close," Alex put on a jazzy little acoustic spin while still maintaining the attitude and complete melody of the original version. Like Caleb and Jena, at this point it's obvious that Alex is going to have a pretty solid vocal, but unlike those other two contestants, he's not quite as comfortable on stage. Maybe it's the inherent anger and power of the original EDM-infused version of this track, but as Keith Urban pointed out, Alex just needed a little more zest in this performance, at least take the volume up a few notches, eh? And really, Idol, it's time to ditch those guitars. The instruments are just too much of a crutch anymore.
6. Caleb Johnson, "You Give Love A Bad Name": Is Caleb Johnson American Idol season 13's frontrunner? In a lot of ways, it seems as though he is, but he's just such a weird choice in today's not-rock driven music market. Predictably, for the break up performance of last night's show, Caleb tackled Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name," and yeah, he was good. At this point, you know what to expect from Caleb, and it's going to be a solid performance. As Harry Connick, Jr. pointed out, his vocal flairs from week-to-week remain the same, and this is a problem I've had with Caleb since basically the beginning of the competition. He's good, easily the most at home on stage this season, but he's just a little redundant.
5. Jena Irene, "Heartbreaker": You know, it was about time that Jena Irene took that insane power she has behind her voice and put it to some good classic rock use, which she did with her first song for Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker." This was just a perfect song choice for her from the vengeful attitude of the song to the tempo and instrumentation, which remained basically untouched from the original version. Jena is really comfortable on American Idol, and it may have been nice for her to do her usual thing of moving about the whole stage, interacting with the band members, judges and audience, but she sort of stayed behind the microphone stand. I could've at least used a big ol' head bang. I mean, she's got the mane to do it...
4. Caleb Johnson, "Travelin' Band": I mean, yeah, for his second performance of the night with Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Travelin' Band," Caleb Johnson was consistent. It was nice to see him take his classic rock love a little bit South with this gritty little anthem, but there's not a lot else to say about such a consistent performer. Unlike Jennifer Lopez, who is clearly obsessed with everything about Caleb, I'm not so sure he's the one to beat (seems to be Jena Irene to me). But, you know, he's a really great rock singer and would be a solid frontman.
3. Alex Preston, "Yellow": Alex has such a beautiful and unique voice and he's so set on who he is as an artist that it's really nice and refreshing to watch him perform every week. For his final song of the night (and the final performance overall), he performed Coldplay's first signature song "Yellow," and he added all the little Alex bits that make a performance so him while still maintaining the original Coldplay version, which is something I note a lot in the review. It was really good, though I don't know if I would call it great. As much as I love his tone and vibe, I just can't see Alex breaking apart the musical juggernauts of Caleb and Jena.
2. Caleb Johnson, "Maybe I'm Amazed": So, Caleb Johnson can be really predictable, and his first two performances for the top 4 show were. Well, I guess I take that back. I feel like his take on Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed" was his first real subdued performance of the season and it really worked. It was tender, the falsetto was sweet at the end and he was engaging with both the camera, audience, judges and (most importantly) the song and its lyrics. This was an A+ take!
1. Jena Irene, "Can't Help Falling In Love": Wow. Jena Irene actually kept an entire performance subdued for once. Yes, she never blasted for her take on Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling In Love," and it was really pretty. It wasn't quite the breathtaking, quiet performance that will go fully viral but I'll be damned if this wasn't a beautiful moment. Jennifer Lopez loved it so much she kissed Jena after her performance, which was a sweet moment, but not nearly as sweet as that song.
Who Should Go Home? Jessica Meuse, please.
Who Will Go Home? Jessica Meuse, please!
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