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Here's my problem, Jacuzzi
Even though I’m on record as saying I think the boys are stronger than the girls on season seven of American Idol, I have to admit that none of the top twelve guys who performed tonight blew me away. As usual, I agree with Simon in some cases and think he’s way off base on others. Michael Johns is the most polished male performer in the competition, but his version of “Light My Fire” was kind of tame and basically competent without being fiery. The most charismatic singers tonight were David Archuleta, who gave “Shop Around” a little more sass than I thought he was capable of, and Jason Castro, whom I hadn’t even seen perform previously. His totally unique version of “Daydream” was the biggest and happiest surprise of the night, and I hope the fact that he wasn’t shown during the audition rounds doesn’t keep him from being voted back next week, because I’d like to see him again.

At the other end of the spectrum, I thought the judges were way too easy on Chikezie, whose pitch problems on “More Today Than Yesterday” were obvious even to me, so I’m shocked Randy didn’t point them out. I was unimpressed with Garrett Haley’s version of “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” but in this case the judges agreed. Everybody else was somewhere in the middle, not particularly memorable although no one was truly awful. I do want to give props to Luke Menard, another singer who hadn’t been seen earlier, because I liked his take on “Everybody’s Talking” way more than the judges did, and I’d like to see him back next week as well.

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