AI8 - Top 7 (4/14/09)

Tonight's theme is Music from the Movies, and the 'Mentor' is Quentin Tarantino! He's an avid Idol fan (was a guest judge in S3) and is described as being "passionate" about music. He met the contestants at a famous sound stage and gave most of them pretty strong advice/opinions, actually more than most singing mentors usually do. Not all of them took his advice, as usual!

Simon also apologized for the show's running over time last week and joked that it was all "the girls' fault." As a result, only 2 judges will critique each performance tonight. (Still didn't help enough, but was a nice try!)

Allison "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" - another should-be-banned-from-Idol-due-to-overuse song. It was nice that she got a full orchestra, but I didn't think it was one of her better performances. The crowd loved it & judges were positive.

Anoop "Everything I Do I Do For You" - Great! I like the song to begin with, but I love Anoop best when he does ballads like this. Still threw him a few votes after the close call last week! Randy & Kara both liked it; Kara said that he does best choosing pop songs & then adding his "soul." She also said she felt a connection & liked the changes he made.

Adam "Born to be Wild" - Very good, typical Adam. ;-) It was nice how he played/sang to & with the band on one side & then the background singers on the other; also how he slowed & softened down the bridge. Crowd loved it! Paula said he's one of the bravest contestants they've ever had; Simon said it was vocally excellent but wasn't sure everyone would like how he changed up such a popular song, that it was too "Rocky Horror the Musical."

Matt "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" - I like the song, but Matt changed both the style and melody and I'm not sure it was an improvement over the original; he also had some weak vocal spots. The crowd seemed to like it. Randy said he tried to do too much w/it; Kara said he again wrongly chose a "rock" song instead of R&B even though he tried to alter it to fit his style.

Danny "Endless Love" - Really?! Sigh. It was bad enough when the judges/producers kept alluding to the dead wife, but now he's chosen songs 2 weeks in a row that overtly remind everyone of his sob story. Not cool & distracts from the decent vocals; with him, unfortunately, it's not just about the vocals. The judges liked but Simon was disappointed he didn't do anything special w/it (different from the original); he even mentioned David Cook's rearrangements of last season. But then he also said he acknowledged how emotionally difficult the song was to do & gave him credit for that. What?! It's not like he was forced to do the song, Simon! He could have easily *not* sung something that made everyone pity him for being a young widower. But then, Simon wants him in the finals, so he put a positive spin on it. Sigh.

Kris "Falling Slowly" - I don't know this one; it's from a movie called "Once"? Quentin did say that Kris took the theme the most to heart of any contestants in that he picked a movie that "meant something to him," instead of just choosing a song on its own merit. The performance didn't wow me in any way but it was good & enjoyable. Randy said it never really 'caught' him, but Kara said it was one of his best performances, despite choosing an obscure song.

Lil "The Rose" - 1st half was boring, but when she started the gospelizing it became very good! I think this is what she's been needing to show. However... Simon said it was too soft/mellow a song for her and that she's not the artist they thought she was early in the competition. (ouch! but then I think they overrated her early on...)

Hard to pick a bottom 3: I'll predict Allison, Matt, & Kris, with Matt going home.