Idol Chatter & Voice Views

On Wednesday night, the American Idol Top 4 sang for a chance to make a triumphant trip home this weekend.

And it’s pretty clear who two of those triumphant trips should belong to.

Jennifer Lopez reacts to Jena Irene’s performance of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” (FOX Photo)

I’m talking about Jena Irene and Caleb Johnson.

The third spot? Well, that’s a whole lot tougher to determine.

For all the song by song grades from tonight’s show — everyone sang three times — head here.

And for a photo gallery, go here.

Now, the recap …

Jena Irene performs Wednesday night on American Idol. (FOX Photo)

Best of the Night: Wednesday belonged to Caleb Johnson. Until Jena Irene sat behind her piano and launched into — of all things — an Elvis Presley song from 1961 — “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” This should not have worked. Right? Wrong. Jena showed off all of her vocal brilliance in the 2 minutes that followed. I mean, that might have been the best performance of Season 13. Heck, it gave me the goosies.

Runners-up: Caleb on “You Give Love a Bad Name.” Caleb on “Traveling Band.” Most of all, Caleb on “Maybe I’m Amazed,” which I was sorry he picked because it’s been done so often, until he added that fabulous flourish at the end that made it my second choice for best performance of the night. Folks, the American Idol Top 3 would seem very, very empty if either Caleb or Jena missed out.

Worst of the Night: On a generally solid night of American Idol music, there were a couple of clunkers. The first came courtesy of Jess Meuse, when she tried to channel Kelly Clarkson on “Since You’ve Been Gone” and pretty much misfired from the first note. The second came courtesy of Alex Preston, when he took on the Jason Mraz mega-hit “I’m Yours” and created a version that would never, ever have been a hit.

Please save him/her: Jess Meuse. Sorry, Alex fans, but given the choice of listening to one of the two, I’ll take Jess any day. And her cover of Lady Gaga’s “You and I” was stronger than anything Alex delivered on Wednesday night.

Baffled by the judges: Hey, kudos to the judges for a very strong, very fair night of judging. Oh, they did have to slip a little plug in for Alex there at the end. And they were overly generous in their praise of his nothing-special cover of “Yellow” (Brooke White from Season 7 does a much, much better version). But, all in all, solid night for the Idol judges.

Baffled by Idol: That said, the show is another matter altogether. I’ve downloaded one Idol song all season — Jess Meuse’s original “Blue Eyed Lie.” I wanted to download Jena’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” It’s not available. Only one song from each artist is — “Heartbreaker” from Jena, “Traveling Band” from Caleb, “You and I” from Jess and “Too Close” from Alex. So we can’t download the two best performances of the night. Brilliant, Idol. Just brilliant.

What should happen Thursday: A bottom two of Alex and Jess, with Alex going home.

What will happen Thursday: A bottom two of Alex and Jess, with Jess going home.