Idol Chatter & Voice Views

That theme did the trick.

After a season marked by mediocrity, the American Idol Top 8 came into their own Wednesday night when they had a chance to repeat the songs that earned them golden tickets to Hollywood.

In spite of some stumbles when the singers were asked to duet, it was — hands down — the best performance show so far in Season 13.

For song-by-song grades from Wednesday’s show, head here. For a photo gallery, head here.

On with the recap.

Jess Meuse and Caleb Johnson sing “Stop Dragging My Heart Around” on American Idol Wednesday night. (FOX Photo)

Best of the Night: I refuse to choose between Jess Meuse and Caleb Johnson. Jess became the first Idol to ever perform an original on a performance episode of the show. The song is called “Blue Eyed Lie.” And what an original it is. Jess sounded fantastic. It will be the first Idol song from Season 13 that I downloaded. As for Caleb, once again, he delivered one of the night’s most self-assured performances. Better yet, he took the classic “Chain of Fools” and turned it into a blues-rock jam. And sounded great doing it. They rank as two of the best performances from Season 13 to date. Oh, by the way, Caleb and Jess also paired up to duet on “Stop Dragging My Heart Around.” And it was the night’s best duet, too.

Runners-up: The goal of Wednesday night was to show us how far the Idols have come since they auditioned, and no one showed a more dramatic transformation than Malaya Watson. Just a couple of weeks ago, she couldn’t control her energy enough to deliver a controlled vocal. She was completely in control of a performance of “Ain’t No Way” on Wednesday. Dexter Roberts also deserves mention for turning in his best performance to date with “One Mississippi.”

Worst of the Night: The cuteness meter was going into overdrive when they took the stage together. Unfortunately, that was all that worked. Sam seemed lost vocally, mumbling lyrics at times. Malaya tried to carry the song and couldn’t pull it off. They would have been better off just standing there, smiling at the audience and waving. They were singing “Lucky.” Let’s just say they weren’t.

Jena Irene sings “Rolling in the Deep” Wednesday night on American Idol. (FOX Photo)

Please save him/her: While most of the audition songs played to the Idol’s strengths, Jena Irene (Asciutto) was stuck with the unfortunate task of singing Adele’s so-often done “Rolling in the Deep.” She did her best to change up the song. She sounded wonderful on the opening and on the ending. The verses seemed to drag. But I still think she’s got the talent to win this thing, and Keith Urban loved the risk she took.

Baffled by Idols: For the last two weeks, Idol ditched the in-show results. I figured that ill-conceived experiment had been shelved for good. Wednesday night, they reappeared. What did we discover? That cute Sam Woolf is much more popular with young voters than he is with older voters. Surprise!

Line of the night from the judges: Keith Urban to Caleb: “You are a blues warrior. You are a soul conqueror. You, Caleb, are a rock and roll Viking.”

What should happen Thursday: On a night when so many singers excel, you have to go to each singer’s body of work. That would put Malaya, Dexter and C.J. in the bottom three, with C.J. going home.

What will happen Thursday: Malaya has gained too much momentum lately to land there. So I’m predicting a bottom three of Sam, Dexter and C.J., with C.J. going home.