The 3 Gs of American Idol: Week 5

In a departure from our normal content, we will be guiding you through this season of American Idol from The A Cappella Blog’s perspective. We’re going to do this through the 3 Gs format.

Great/Good: Represents my thoughts on the best performance(s) of the night—these are the star-makers, the tearjerkers, the ones we’re all going to remember.

Gone: Represents my thoughts on the contestant(s) who I think is most likely to be going home (not necessarily the one I think should be going home).

Give it a second look: Represents the act(s) you might not remember, or that we might not have expected much from, but which delivered just the same, and deserve another listen.

Here are my thoughts from tonight’s episode:

GOOD
When Michael Lynche loves a woman, he can do no wrong: Michael at last arrived at the perfect song choice, in “When A Man Loves A Woman.” This was so slick, so smooth. It’s the sort of showing that does point toward his limited long term potential as a recording artist (how many folks are really going to want to buy an album of this sort of thing?), but within the context of the show, the big guy was winning and oh so likeable. This was a performance made for Idol, and Big Mike has hit his stride.

GONE
Paige coming back next week is against the odds, and that’s what she’s got to face: In a week full of performances that ranged from awful to mediocre, I’ve got to go to my old stand by and predict that it’s finally time for Paige to go home. There was little that was good about her rendition of “Against All Odds,” and I think she may have finally run out of worse contestants to keep her safe.

GIVE IT A SECOND LOOK
Casey James just might save your life: Maybe it’s the ‘80s lover in me, or maybe it’s the judges being biased against one of that decade’s finest tunes, but Casey offered up one of his most entertaining performances to date this week with “The Power of Love.” It was upbeat, fun, and James just looks so much more like a star than most of the field. My only real criticism is—unless my eyes were deceiving me—it looked as though he wasn’t really playing guitar for much of the song—that he was just using it as a prop. Can’t blame the guy for embracing a rocker image, though. Good showing, and worth listening to again.