Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Tired of waiting until November for each season’s American Idol winner to release an album.

This year, you might not have to.

At least that was the indication from Idol executive producer Ken Warwick during a conference call with the media this afternoon.

Warwick said it’s possible the Season 10 champ’s album timetable will be pushed up.

“It will depend on who wins and what kind of backlog of songs there are ready for them to sing,” Warwick said.

Certainly makes sense for Idol to try to capitalize on the buzz surrounding the winner while he or she is newly minted as opposed to waiting until a couple of months after the summer tour ends to release that post-Idol debut album.

But, wow, some Idol finalists have already felt rushed putting out that first album. Remember how Crystal Bowersox fought to delay hers, hoping to push it back to spring of this year.

And you have to wonder how much input the singer would have with a rushed timetable. Or how many songs they’d have a hand in writing.

Warwick addressed a number of other issues during the conference call. Go here for a recap.

The most encouraging news: He admitted Idol probably has a gender problem and said producers will have a long discussion after Season 10 to see if changes are needed to make the competition fair for females.

The most discouraging news: He thinks Steven Tyler has been a phenomenal success. This despite Steven’s hesitancy to judge ANYTHING.

We head into tonight with at least 39 consecutive performances with nary a negative word from the aging rocker.

Tonight, our Idols sing songs from the 21st century. That’s right, current music. Imagine that?

Hmm, Ken Warwick said Pia would be on tonight’s show. Thought he misspoke. But, nope, here are all of the eliminated contestants with a group number.

OK, that was a rousing start to the show. And nice to have them back for a guest appearance, even Ashthon Jones and Karen Rodriguez, the only two contestants who won’t be touring this summer.

Now, down to the performances that count.

1. Scotty McCreery: Well, looks like performing first won’t result in elimination this week. Scotty’s going nowhere this week, next week or the week after that. Scotty is going to sing “Swingin'” by LeAnn Rimes.  And Jimmy Iovine is trying to talk him into rocking a little bit. I’m not sure whether he rocked. But he had fun with that performance. Even acting corny … on purpose, I hope. And there wasn’t a dang thing wrong with that vocal. In fact, that’s one of my favorite Scotty performances. But, wow, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson are smacking him around a bit, saying he played it too safe. Go figure. I liked seeing the fun side of Scotty after so many serious performances. Grade: B+

2. James Durbin: James is going to sing “Uprising.” Here come a squadron of drummers. What’s he trying to do? Play Adam Lambert? No doubt, James is the most fearless of the Idols. That might have been the most theatrical performance we’ve seen yet this year on Idol. That was actually one of my favorite James vocals, too. Though the shrieks were a little much near the end. And he’s getting well-deserved rave reviews from the judges. Grade: A-

3. Haley Reinhart: She’ll sing Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.” And I worry a little about Haley, following those first two performance. After last week’s duet, I know she can sing as well as any of the remaining contestants. When she’s working the with correct song. That started out pretty rough. The good news is that she hit the chorus and starting sailing at that point. Hmm, and Haley got better feedback from the judges than I thought she would. Grade: B-

4. Jacob Lusk: He’ll sing “Dance with My Father” by Luther Vandross, partly because his dad died when he was 12. Not because it’s Luther’s birthday. Holy Toledo. When he cuts out the vocal histrionics, this guy can sing. That was an amazing performance, especially after he got choked up with emotion so early in the song. That, folks, was one of the best vocals we’ve seen so far this season. Easily my favorite Jacob Lusk performance. Grade: A-.

5. Casey Abrams: He’s going to sing “Harder to Breathe” by Maroon 5. Look at this, Casey is back. Loved that a cappella opening. Love watching Casey rock. Wow, after the last three weeks that was an absolute breath of fresh air from Mr. Abrams. I was afraid he might never rock again. Then he pulls off that performance. Fabulous. Grade: A.

6. Stefano Langone: The Idol flirt is going to sing Ne-Yo’s “Closer.” OK, I wasn’t thrilled with the start of that song. And then I had to wonder what happened. Stefano hit a big note, closed his eyes, then started moaning and making noises and strutting around while the background singers sang. And doesn’t get a single negative comment from any three of the judges. Oh, well. Guess I’m immune to Stefano’s charm. Grade: C-

Lauren Alaina: One country singer opened the show; the other will close the show. Lauren will sing “Born to Fly.” After that buildup by Jimmy, that was a letdown. A very mediocre vocal compared to what we heard from the other contestants tonight. Through the first chorus, she was lucky to have the background singers to carry the tune. There were a couple of special moments in that song, but as a whole, it was just average. Grade: C+