American Idol: The Nine

--  Top Forty?  Eh, not really.  Still, some highs and lows.  Let's start with the lows and go up from there. --

Megan:  Don't turn the lights down, just turn the sound off.

Anoop:  Never, never, never, never sing "Caught Up" in a singing competition.  Multiply that advice by a thousand if you're not black.  Anoop has no niche, and I don't think he's ever going to find one either.  He has a good voice, but he's not marketable.  It's sad.  (He's still my favorite.)

Matt:  Ironically, after saying that he sounds just like the lead singer from The Fray, he does "You Found Me."  The problem is, when you already sound just like someone, you shouldn't be singing their songs--at that point, it just sounds like an impersonation.  He needs to let someone else pick his songs from now on.

Scott:  Okay, it was the best he's done.  Considering how safe the song choice was, I don't think that's saying much.  I think it would be perfect if he went home this week--on a high note.  It was a very sweet performance, but sweet don't sell records, Garfunkel.  (Oh, and Paula, let's be real.  There's never a moment when everyone's NOT aware that he's blind.  Don't just say meaningful bullshit for the sake of being inspirational.  It's annoying.  It's been annoying for the past 8 seasons.  End of rant.)

Allison:  I thought it was an okay performance, but too safe a choice.  I don't think there's too much you can do with the song--truth be told, I don't even like it very much when No Doubt does it.  That being said, it was solid.

Lil Rounds:  Lil frustrates me.  If you just watched the performance, she looked like the biggest star on the show.  (Channeling Kelly Rowlands?  Anyone?)  The trouble is, when she's not hitting the high notes--her voice isn't all that pleasant.  She just needs to pull it together.  The low parts need to be nicer, and then she'll be unstoppable.

Danny:  My only issue?  We already did Country Week.  Show that you can do something else.  And will everyone please stop bringing up how hard his life is.  I don't care if a person's entire family goes over a cliff in a bus (Veronica Mars?  Anyone).  I only care about how well they do.  He did very well, but he could have done better if he didn't try milking the sympathy vote.  (And by the way, when you sing "What Hurts the Most" the same week that your grandfather dies, you're milking the sympathy vote.  That's all.)

Kris:  For my money, he's the most marketable guy in the entire competition.  He's consistently good every week.  The problem is, another one of his competitors--the one who took Best Performance of the Night--has moments of sheer greatness that Kris can't seem to manage.  Still, I would wager that in the end this boy is going to be able to move some records one way or another.

Adam:  He is smoking.  I think it would have been smarter for him to pick a more current song to show that he can be on today's radio and not on VH1 Classics, but I can't hate too much.  It was the best performance of the night.