American Idol: "Rat Pack"age Artists

I LOVED pretty much everything about the latest episode of "American Idol."

I LOVED the songs. The week’s theme was "Songs Popularized by the Rat Pack." Or as I like to call it, "Ways the Producers Continue to Rename Old Themes to Make Them Seem New." ("Grand Ole Opry Week" = "Country Week"). Either way, the music featured last night was some of the very best ever written and timeless in the best sense of the word. No "artistic" reimagining necessary.

I LOVED guest mentor Jamie Foxx. For the first time in a while, the show made the bold decision to feature a guest mentor who’s currently on the pop charts. (I believe the last time this happened, Gwen Stefani was the mentor two years ago.) I think this is especially crucial, since he’s presumably at the place these contestants want to be. At first, I was a little underwhelmed by the "surprise" reveal that Foxx was the mentor, since I’m often annoyed at how such a ridiculously-talented guy can act like a butthead so often. However, I was immediately won over by his genuine enthusiasm, his specific and helpful critiques (no generic Smokey Robinson-esque, "You’re all great" fawning) and his ability to do whatever he needed to do (call a contestant back into the room; invade someone’s minty personal space) to get a great performance out of them.

I LOVED that the judges not named Simon or Paula said something that was memorable for the right reasons. Kudos to Kara for championing Allison Iraheta’s potential place in the finals and to Randy for vocalizing what I felt was wrong with Matt Giraud’s performance. On the flip side, Simon pretty much had his worst night EVER. Still, the more I think about it, the more I come to this conclusion. Simon is a lot of things, but he’s not a tone-deaf idiot. As a result, I’ve decided to believe that his slamming of the superb work by Kris Allen and Allison and his weird praise for Matt’s song were a reverse-psychology ploy to mobilize the former two contestants’ fan bases, while maybe giving the latter’s fan base a false sense of security. (I swear I’m not usually a conspiracy theory nut)

I LOVED the performances. The judges and producers (rightfully) took a lot of heat for some of their earlier, dubious selections during auditions, Hollywood Week and the Wild Card round. However, with most of the fat stripped away, I think this has the potential to be the strongest final four in the show’s run. (Yes, even stronger than the fabled Hicks/McPhee/Yamin/Daughtry Final Four from season 5.) All of the singers last night were good. Unfortunately, it turns out that Matt is simply less good than his competition.

(I’ll know stop my annoying habit of starting every paragraph with "I LOVED") Matt certainly had the highest degree of difficulty with "My Funny Valentine" and I liked Foxx’s suggestion of changing the key to give Matt a different sound. Indeed, some of Matt’s performance sounded pretty great, while other parts sounded pretty jank. The bottom line is that Matt (with his Sinatra fedora) was the only singer last night who had any significant number of jank notes.

I suppose if I had to pick someone to join Matt in the bottom two, I’d pick Kris. It’s not because I agree with Simon’s assessment that Kris’ performance was "wet" (let’s not go there) or the repeated suggestion that he lacks star quality. I really liked his phrasing, and I liked that the band came in toward the end to change things up and I thought he sounded pretty terrific on "The Way You Look Tonight" (though I’m not quite as enthusiastic as Foxx). No I think he might be in the bottom two because he sang first, and everyone who followed (except for Matt) was simply better.

One of those people was Allison. At the risk of sounding like Randy, I’ll say it before and I’ll say it again - it’s incredible how good this 16, I mean 17-year-old girl is! As Paula pointed out, she hit every musical AND emotional note during her performance of "Someone to Watch Over Me." Though I’m not quite sure how much she followed it, Foxx’s advice to deromanticize the lyrics was smart, since one knock against Allison is that she doesn’t pick age-appropriate tunes. As I said before, I’ve chosen to believe that Simon’s earlier comment was meant to spur Allison’s fans to vote, because there’s literally no other explanation as to why he wouldn’t think she was any good.

Still, I have to say that my favorite moment from last night was watching Danny Gokey (pictured, left) finally, FINALLY deliver the performance we’ve been waiting for. Listening to his voice, we all knew he was capable of a breakout performance, so watching him clumsily, methodically and karaoke-ly take the Idol stage in the finals has been frustrating, since we had a pretty good idea he had this in him. I LOVED watching him work the verses with finesse for a change (Foxx made him pay attention to that by getting in his face) before going all Gokey on us in the end. This was his best work of the finals BY FAR and my favorite performance of the evening. I’m not so much thoroughly delighted because I love the guy or anything - I’m thoroughly delighted because NOW we’re going to have a hell of a final four (assuming he, Kris and Allison make it).

If you notice I left Adam out of that group. It’s not meant as disrespect - I just figure his title as this year’s "Idol" is pretty secure, so I didn’t need to say he’d be in the final four.

That being said, I didn’t LOVE his rendition of "Feeling Good." As I’ve written before, I’m more of a fan of (semi)restrained Adam, so his over-the-top take on the jazzy number seemed unnecessary and, yes, indulgent. However, watching him be the one person who attacks the stage (or a staircase this week, actually) each time is fantastic. Also, that glory note was just unbelievable. I keep waiting for him to have a letdown week (how can he possibly top that note?) but he just seems totally incapable of A) singing badly and B) being totally entertaining.

So what’d you think of this episode? Is there any way we could get Jamie Foxx to come back as a mentor next week or are we going to have to wait until he has another movie and/or album to promote? Why does Simon think that acting like an arrogant A-hole and having star quality are the same thing? Finally, who do you think is going home? (Is there any way it’s not Matt?)