American Idol: Lusk, Caution

I had low expectations for last night’s episode once I saw that it was Motown (Again!) Week.

Don’t get me wrong: Motown music is obviously fantastic and timeless for very good reasons. It’s just that with the rehash of “Songs from Your Birth Year” last week, and the umpteenth iteration of Motown Week this time around, it seems like the producers aren’t even trying to come up with fresh themes for the show this season.

It’s a good thing the finalists stepped their game up and delivered the best Top 11 show that I can remember.

I mention Top 11 week in particular because in this stage of the competition there are usually still at least two or three stiffs that allow you to take a bathroom or snack break (though preferably not both at the same time) when they hit the stage.

Fortunately, this year the only stiff is Thia Megia.

She mercifully picked an up-tempo number last night and actually appeared to start off strong while also getting the crowd involved. Then I realized that most people were probably just relieved that she hadn’t picked a drippy ballad again, so the middle and final portion of the song quickly got boring. I give her credit for appearing to drop a few lyrics but covering it up well. I take away credit for singing “(Love is like a) Heat Wave,” one of the most overplayed songs on this show. (Know your “Idol” history!)

Speaking of knowing your “Idol” history, was there no one around to tell Stefano Langone that David Cook OWNS “Hello” on this show? That wasn’t even my biggest problem with the song. I was more annoyed by the fact that Lionel Richie’s “Hello” is an 80’s pop tune and clearly NOT a classic Motown song. (Why not just sing Motown classic “Dancing on the Ceiling”?) Still, the thing that annoyed me the most was that Stefano seemed more preoccupied with proving he could hit high notes and nail impressive runs than he was with connecting to the song. The good news is that he sounded great. The bad news is that no one was interested in listening to him. Also, in case you forgot that Gordon Ramsay is a monster, he dissed the food that Stefano's mom had made earlier in the week. Just not a good night for the Langone family.

Other than those two, I pretty much enjoyed every other performance. I mean, I didn’t enjoy the fact that Casey Abrams sang “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” — a strong challenger to “Heat Wave” as the most overplayed song on this show — to open the episode, but his walk-through-the-audience performance was well executed. I would’ve liked to have heard more contrast in his vocals to balance out the growl. Also, his slicked back hair only made his unruly bushy bear look even faker than it usually does.

Haley Reinhart is known to rely on her growl, but she also mixed in a few more tools from he vocal repertoire in her solid rendition of “You Really Got a Hold on Me.” I was worried for her when she began her performance by awkwardly lumbering down the staircase, but she recovered nicely. I still say she’s running out of time to deliver the “Wow” performance she really needs. Pretty soon, it’s not going to matter that I think her vocal ceiling is as high as anyone else’s because she’ll be going home.

Naima Adedapo —also perpetually in danger of going home during the first part of the finals — just went out and did what she does: inserted a probably unnecessary dance break in the middle of her song. (This time it was “Dancing in the Street.”) I like that she’s trying to show that she’s the total package as a performer, and I liked that she paid more attention to her vocals which were still just good, not great. (She smartly saved the dancing for the end, when she was pretty much done singing). For better or worse (and unlike Haley) Naima knows EXACTLY who she is.

The same can be said about Paul McDonald, who delivered his best and most pleasing performance. (To be fair though, it’s kind of hard to screw up the beautiful “Tracks of My Tears.”) The best compliment I can give him is that Erica — who threatened suicide last week after listening to him sing (and I’m only mostly sure she was kidding) — didn’t run out of the room while he was singing. I also thought having a guitar and mic stand literally anchored to a portion of the stage and contributed to the restraint.

We saw similar restraint from the similarly off-putting Jacob Lusk on his version of “You’re All I Need to Get By.” Like Paul, Jacob benefitted greatly from toning everything (except for his ridiculous facial expressions) WAY down. It was the first time I really enjoyed listening to Jacob sing, and I also really liked that he seemed to be enjoying himself so much. I’m kind of bummed that I didn’t get to go up on stage the way Steven Tyler and most of the first row.

Jacob had competition in the ham and cheesy facial expression department from Scotty McCreery. I reflexively crined when I heard we’d get a country-fied makeover of a beloved classic, but I actually really ended up liking Scotty’s take on “For Once in My Life.” Scotty sang well, but didn’t seem totally comfortable, which may have contributed to his creepy, Lusk-esque facial expressions that seemed pre-meditated.

Lauren Alaina also played around with her song — “You Keep Me Hanging On” — though certainly not to the extent Scotty did. I really liked the slowed-down opening, and I thought she delivered the energy and attitude that Thia Megia has only read about in books. That being said, I still don’t feel like Lauren is quite “there” yet. At least, she looked like a star last night in her floor-length zebra print dress. (Bold!)

Pia Toscano, on the other hand, looks and sounds like a star whenever she takes the stage. Is it necessarily a bad thing that all Pia wants to do on “Idol” is stand in the middle of the stage and knock a ballad out of the park? (Like she did last night with “All In Love is Fair.”) I think it’s only a problem in that a TV show is being produced here. Not only would it be visually interesting if she actually moved once in a while, but we feel like we have to see a progression of a storyline or a character arc. Even though, I’m getting a little sick of all the ballads, it’d be hard for me to tell her to change what she’s doing because she’s doing it so well. Unlike fellow serial-balladeer Thia, Pia seems to be connecting with and feeling what she’s singing, in addition to sounding good.

Finally, there was James Durbin who closed the show with a crowd-pleasing version of “Living for the City” (which fit his voice very well). Though it wasn’t quite as revelatory is his “Maybe I’m Amazed”, it was still very strong (especially once he started exploring and dancing around other parts of the stage).

So what’d you think of this episode? Could Casey and/or Stefano make surprising bottom three appearances tonight? Who will be the next “Actress Who Was a Much Bigger Deal in the Early 2000’s” to show up in the “Idol” audience? (We’ve head Kate Hudson, Liv Tyler and Kirsten Dunst…maybe Catherine Zeta-Jones?) Finally, who do you think is going home? (I’m going with Naima in a mild shocker…I’m thinking maybe her fans got a little complacent last night.)