American Idol Top 7 Redux

I got to watch AI tonight since concert band season is over for awhile. I'll give some analysis on this blog for the rest of the season, now that I've got Tuesday nights free again.

I missed Lil's opening act, unfortunately, but I did catch the quick recap at the end. It seemed bland and uninspired, which sort of resembles every performance Lil has had so far this season. Whatever the judges saw in her in auditions certainly has not materialized during the finals, I'm afraid to say.

Kris's performance of 'She Works Hard For the Money' was very Santana-esque. I only wish he had played the electric guitar to push it over the line into full Santana-hood. I like Kris. He is one of the few that can legitimately sing and play at the same time. I'd call this song flawless. Full marks.

Danny did 'September'. I also loved this one, but then again, I'm a sucker for EW&F and full horn sections. Danny can really do R&B well for a white guy. Something that has taken down many an Idol in the past - getting overwhelmed by the band - definitely isn't one of his weaknesses. Again, full marks. I find myself realizing that the final 7 are a pretty strong group, and I can't remember when Idol has had such a large group of solid singers at the same time.

Allison did a slow raunchy version of 'Hot Stuff', which surprisingly did NOT get an admonition from Simon for being age-inappropriate. To be fair, you'd never know this girl is just 16, the same age as Miley Cyrus. I didn't really love the arrangement. I would have sped it up after the raunchy beginning and done a bit of authentic disco. Altogether, however, I think it worked okay.

Adam did 'If I Can't Have You', which has been covered in different styles by many different artists before. Adam kept his originality streak intact, but I didn't love it. Again, I would have changed up the tempo after the slow beginning. Adam is starting to repeat the same old schtick too often with the falsetto wailing, so I'm beginning to wonder if his appeal is strong enough to overcome Daughtry syndrome, where the singer gets taken for granted by the voters.

Matt did 'Stayin' Alive', which was an overly cute song choice after nearly going home last week. I wonder if he considered the wisdom of leaving in the "I'm going nowhere" lines, which could be interpreted as the kiss of death to his career, rather than as a declaration of his intentions to stay on the show. Matt changed up the song slightly by slowing it down a bit and giving it more of a rock beat rather than a disco groove, but it really didn't click with me. Simon agrees with my take on the performance, while the other judges disagree.

Then there's Anoop. I was hoping he'd do an up-tempo tune and really rock it out disco-style, but he chose to stay in the safe zone and do a ballad-ized version of 'Dim All The Lights'. In reality, it was pretty good. His vocals were perfect up until the last note, which he obviously couldn't make up his mind whether to go high or low and instead split the difference. Anoop had a serious makeover for the show tonight, too. His eyebrows and hair were definitely given some attention by a stylist, and someone dressed him better than usual. Not perfect, but high marks for the performance.

A note on the show: I've long lost interest in Paula's commentary, and Kara and Randy have obviously been coached to keep their comments short, and are doing a bad job of it - essentially boiling it down to "I liked it" or "I hated it". I have much more fun these days by trying to predict what Simon is going to say, and, sadly, he's become quite predictable. I'd vote to clear the board and go with 3 new judges next season. Personally, I liked the panel they used on "America's Next Great Band".

My rankings from this week:
(Same bottom 3 as last week, so the judges' save was wasted, in my opinion.)
7. Lil
6. Matt
5. Anoop
4. Allison
3. Adam
2. Danny
1. Kris

Going home:
Lil and Matt, though Anoop's performance may not save him due to his poor voter turnout lately. It could be Matt and Anoop going home. Nonetheless, I'm confident in my top 4.

I urge anyone who follows Idol to check out dialidol.com tomorrow, because their predictions have pretty much nailed it all season.

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Update:
As of this morning, Dialidol has the voting being too close to call, with the raw numbers showing Lil, of all people, at the top and Kris and Allison as the bottom two!

If Kris gets sent home, how stupid do the judges seem for wasting the save on Matt last week?