American Idol: Word to DeWyze

The fact of the matter is, after last week’s horror show, there was nowhere to go but up.

That’s why I’m not entirely convinced “R&B/Soul” night on “American Idol” was quite the return to form it appeared to be at first glance.

I mean, this season has still mostly felt like eating poop. Last week, someone dropped our plate of poop on the ground and we were forced to eat it anyway. On Tuesday night, someone spread a nice hollandaise sauce and thoughtfully placed some garnish around the poop.

That is to say, things were considerably better, but we were still eating poop.

Take Lee DeWyze (pictured, right) for example. He definitely had his breakout performance last night with his upbeat, entertaining, rocking take on “Treat Her Like a Lady.” If he ever figures out a way to be comfortable on stage, there’s a chance he can put everything together and make a run at the title. (Is there some way we could transplant some confidence/cockiness from guest mentor Usher over to Lee?)

…And yet, I can’t shake the feeling that Lee would be nothing better than a sixth or seventh place finisher (tops!) in past seasons (including last year’s stellar, deep installment). Still, I’m not going to harp on that too much. I’ll just enjoy the fact that Lee pulled off a rare treat (for this season) on Tuesday night — his performance was actually something I could conceivably imagine hearing on the radio in 2010.

Then again, maybe I’m just cranky because when I heard it was going to be “R&B” week, I foolishly envisioned more contemporary song choices (or at least stuff from the 90’s). Somewhere along the line, someone added “soul”, which gave the majority of finalists an excuse to trot out more hopelessly outdated performances. (How was this different than Motown Week, for example?!)

I mean, did we need another rendition of “Ain’t No Sunshine” after Kris Allen performed the song just last year (twice!) and put his stamp on it? Also, it probably wasn’t a good idea for Aaron to ignore Usher’s advice on varying his “I knows.” But who wants a performance that’s actually dynamic?

Similarly, whoever wound up Katie Stevens before her performance of “Chain of Fools” obviously didn’t wind her up hard enough because she appeared to run out of energy almost immediately. Oh well, at least she sounded better than she has in past weeks, as she lethargically made her way from one side of the stage to the other.

I would criticize Tim Urban for his labored, characteristically-disconnected take on “Sweet Love”, but, as Simon hilariously pointed out, it really doesn’t matter. Teflon Tim is going to keep smiling that dopey smile that foreigners plaster on their face when they’re in another country and want to remain polite when someone is speaking a language they don’t understand.

Unfortunately for Siobhan, she wasn’t able to whip up a frozen smile when the judges (rightfully) tore apart her painful cover of Chaka Khan’s “Through the Fire.” I actually think it was a decent choice of song — I just believe she sang it horribly on stage. (Which is strange, because she sounded pretty good in her mentoring session with Usher.) Hopefully, she won’t let this affect her in the long-term and she’ll bounce back next time (I’m with Kara — this just seems like an off week). Also, I would like her to stop yelling at me.

Though Casey James sounded very good and got my foot tapping with “Hold On, I’m Comin’” I still don’t really get the sense that the guy is interested in taking any sort of chance. You could say the same thing about Lee to a lesser extent (and Casey has a little Lee in him with his stiffness and pained facial expressions while he sings), but the reason this is more dangerous for Casey is because he doesn’t have as distinctive a tone as Mr. Dewyze. Right now, Casey is the world’s most competent 80’s night karaoke performer.

Then there’s Didi Benami. Once again, I didn’t think her performance (this time it was “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted”) was anywhere near as horrible as the judges made it out to be. Could she stand to lighten up a bit (or a lot)? Yes. Did she deserve to get totally flogged for her work on stage? (I say no.)

As if that wasn’t painful enough, Ryan (who I actually think does a good job on this show) did his best Kyra Sedgwick impersonation and ruthlessly interrogated Didi about her song choice. He was clearly trying to get her to cry (channeling his inner Tyra) and score her some sympathy points with the audience (channeling, um, her hidden Gokey?) by revealing that Didi sang the song for her deceased friend. Good for Didi for resisting the little man’s relentless advances.

Believe it or not though, there was stuff that I liked.

I was a big fan of Crystal Bowersox’s rendition of “Midnight Train to Georgia” not so much because she ditched the guitar and tried her hand at the piano. The way she slowed down the tempo and made me really pay attention to the lyrics in a song I’ve heard hundreds of time made the performance seem refreshing in a way that was David Cook-ian.

I also thought it was a good idea for Michael Lynche to occupy his hands with a guitar and sit his butt down to keep him from chewing the scenery during a lovely rendition of India.Arie’s “Ready for Love.” (It’s ok, I didn’t know it either.) I just wish he’d kept his eyes open for more than 15% of the performance. Still, what he lacked in connection with the audience, he made up for in his connection with the material.

Finally, (and I do mean FINALLY) I thoroughly enjoyed Andrew Garcia’s cover of “Forever.” His take was so airy and delightful (two words NOT associated with any of Andrew’s live performances this season) that I only occasionally flashed on “girlfriend beater” while he sang the Chris Brown song. Of course, the question remains whether Andrew will build on this momentum or whether he’ll have judges comparing every subsequent performance to that one time he sang “Forever” on top 10 week. I honestly don’t know – I think it can go either way…but it’ll probably go the bad way.

So what’d you think of this episode? Did you enjoy the backstage looks we got coming back from commercial break? (Best moment: Siobhan’s amusingly pissed off demeanor after her performance. Worst moment: Big Mike’s arms.) Why won’t Usher take off his sunglasses indoors? (Other than that, I thought he was a pretty good mentor.) Finally, who do you think is going home? (I’ve got Didi, Katie and Tim in the bottom 3, with Teflon Tim being shipped home with a big smile on his face.)