Idol Chatter & Voice Views

American Idol’s Top 7 of Jack Blocker, Emmy Russell, Julia Gagnon, Abi Carter, Will Moseley, Triston Harper and McKenna Faith Breinholt with the Idol judges. (ABC Photo)

The Top 7 on American Idol tackle a pair of themes this week, songs that make you want to dance and songs by Adele.

I’ll be posting song by song grades for the songs that make you want to dance performances here.

Unfortunately, however, that will not happen live this week. Grades will be posted after Sunday’s show.

Not even dance tunes could derail male county singers Triston Harper and Will Mosely.

Both advanced to the Top 5 Sunday night, along with Abi Carter, Emmy Russell and Jack Blocker.

That meant the elimination of Julia Gagnon and McKenna Faith Breinholt. McKenna had been saved last week by Katy Perry.

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Song by song grades for the Top 7 (Adele round)

Jack Blocker, 25, Dallas, Texas, “Long Tall Sally” by Little Richard: Last week’s Idol was brilliant. And this marked a brilliant start to tonight’s show. Talk about a smart song choice, executed extremely well by a contestant who seems to be gaining momentum and confidence. Even Jack’s sometimes quirky facial expressions contributed to that fun performance. And the breakdown at the end was magnificent. Luke called it 10 out of 10. Katy’s response: “That was crazy.” Grade: A

Julia Gagnon, 21, Cumberland, Maine, “Roam” by The B-52s: Wow, never thought I’d see an Idol contestants sing a song by the B-52’s. Maybe someone will be brave enough to try “Rock Lobster” at some point. OK, maybe that’s why no one has tried the B-52s on the show. That was not Julia’s best vocal. Far, far from it. She actually sounded pitchy in spots. And Julia never sounds pitchy. Luke called her confidence refreshing and said she aced the course. Grade: C

Abi Carter, 21, Indio, Calif., “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark” by Fallout Boy: Abi admits this theme scared her since she’s far from a dancer. Nevertheless, she takes the stage with confidence, perhaps born from last week’s rock star quality performance on an Evanescence cover. Vocally, this wasn’t at the same level. Abi even sounded shouty on the first run through of that chorus. But she also devilered some great glory notes. And an impressive ending. In other words, she sold the performance. Luke called the performance amazing. Katy said she fears for her job. Grade: B

McKenna Faith Breinholt, 25, of Gilbert, Ariz., “E.T.” by Katy Perry: McKenna said she wanted to show her appreciation for last week’s save by singing a Katy song, especially since she found a video of herself dancing to the song when she was young. And she wants to prove she belongs in the Top 5. Not sure singing a dance / pop song is the ideal way for McKenna to have to do that, but her smoky vocals actually sounded quite good on this. The arrangement, however, seemed a bit disjointed and I’m not sure that performance is going to help her leapfrog other members of the Top 7 in the voting. Luke called it a big-star looking moment. Katy said she looked and sounded like a rock/pop star. Grade B–

Will Moseley, 23, of Hazelhurst, Ga., “Three Steps” by Lynyrd Skynyrd: Will’s reaction to this theme: I don’t dance. Ciara tried to teach him three steps; they settled on two. This was a really smart song choice for Will. And one thing about him, the band isn’t going to drown his out. The hand claps were a neat touch. That big ending was a fitting climax for a fun performance. Katy said he’s a rock star. Lionel said it was great fun watching Will have fun on stage. And Luke said he doesn’t think Will has hit a bum not all season. Perhaps not. Grade: B+

Emmy Russell, 24, Nashville, Tenn., “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon: In spite of the theme, Emmy opens behind her piano again, the only contestant to do that so far this round. And I’m a little surprised she never left the piano. Emmy says she planned to do so, but her nerves got the best of her. Regardless, Katy said that’s the most confident she’s seen Emmy. Luke said it might have been her best vocal. My response: Nope to Katy. And not even close, no where near close, to Luke. Grade: C–

Triston Harper, 15, McIntosh, Alabama, “Trouble” by Travis Tritt: A fun, fun performance from Triston, who got to shake his hips a bit and still delivered a fine vocal. It’s pretty impressive when the youngest contestant on the show winds up being the most confortable with a theme that calls for stage presence and performance ability above all else. Check out the way he was tossing the vocals back and forth with the background singers. Dang, Triston. Luke admits Triston can out-gyrate him. All the judges loved how much fun Triston was on stage. So did I. Grade: A–