Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Will Casey James ditch his baby blue electric guitar?

Will Andrew Garcia turn it around and get back to his “Straight Up” form?

Which Michael Lynche will we see? Will he stick to last week’s stylish R&B?

And does it matter?

Honestly, I don’t think it does.

I think there are three performers we need to pay attention to tonight — Todrick Hall, Tim Urban and Alex Lambert. One makes the American Idol finals. Two go home.

The other five guys are locks to be performing next week.

But that’s just my opinion, and the next hour could certainly change it.

So here we go, song-by-song grades as the Idol guys try to impress one last time.

Lee DeWyze: He’ll be singing “Fireflies” by Owl City. Good idea, opening the show with Lee, who’s been the most consistent guy in the semifinals. He added a little more edge to the song, seemed less reserved than he has in past weeks. Not exactly dazzling, but a solid performance that should assure him a spot in the finals. I just really like this guy’s sound. Grade: B

Next up, two of those guys on the bubble — Tim Urban and Alex Lambert.

Alex Lambert: Hey, Alex looks much more relaxed, singing “Trouble.” Whoa, whoa, whoa. That was by miles the best Alex performance of the semifinals. Ellen calls his a mushy banana, as compared to the unripe banana who showed up at the start of the semifinals. He’s getting mixed reviews, partly because he’s still a bit stiff in his performances. But I’m surprised. In the most pressure-filled performance of his life, he came through pretty well. Grade: C+

Tim Urban: He’ll be singing “Hallelujah,” the Jeff Buckley version of the song that scored major points for Jason Castro two years ago. Lots of guys strumming guitars this year, huh? Hey, compared to what we heard a week ago, the guys have really stepped it up tonight. Another improved vocal from one of the guys who really needed it. As with Alex, Tim’s best performance of the semifinals. Hey, it even earned an on-stage hug from Ellen. That’s an Idol first. Grade: B.

Andrew Garcia: He’s decided to offer up an unexpected song again, Christina Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle.” Randy Jackson says it didn’t work for him. You know what, it didn’t work for me either. Perhaps the “Straight Up” performance was the aberration, because Andrew hasn’t come close to matching that since. And, you know what, the vocal wasn’t all that good either. The former frontrunner just turned in the weakest performance of the night. Grade: C-

Casey James: He has indeed ditched the electric guitar and he’ll be singing Keith Urban’s “You’ll Think of Me.” This seems genuine. So much more genuine than last week. This is the style of music Casey excels at. That ranked among the best vocals we’ve seen from the guys this season. Completely disagree with Randy. Kara says she’s still looking for a spark. (Bet she is.) Simon wasn’t a big fan of it either. Grade: A-

Aaron Kelly: He’ll stick with his forte, country music, singing Lone Star’s “I’m Already There.” Finally, a song with a little kick to it. The problem is, a heck of a lot of Kelly’s kick seemed sharp. He kept going off pitch. I think the judges already boarded the Aaron train, so it didn’t matter how he sounded. Fact was, that vocal joined Andrew’s as tonight’s weakest. Picking a nice song doesn’t count for much if you don’t sing it well. Grade: C-

Todrick Hall: Now, the wicked wizard of butchered songs and canceled Oz performances will try to sing “Queen.” He’s chosen “Somebody To Love.” OK, so he hit a big note at the end. I hope that drove the final nail into Todrick Hall’s Idol coffin. Sorry, the background singers sounded great. Todrick sounded just OK. Better than the last two weeks. Nowhere near the best tonight. Grade: C.

Mike Lynche: Big Mike wraps up the show, singing “This Woman’s Work” by Maxwell. Mike keeps the stylish look. And he has Kara in tears. Don’t think that has happened before. And Simon just called it the best performance of all the live shows this year. Not sure I agree with that. But I won’t argue that it was one of the best vocals of the night, on a difficult song, no less. The big guy hit some incredible notes. Grade: A-.

Nice way to wrap up the show, Mike. Recap blog coming up in a few.