Idol Recap: Hair More Entertaining Than The Music

Last night on American Idol, it was more about the hair than the music. Because if nothing else, the hair was more entertaining. It’s getting pretty easy to start weeding contestants out (we’re going to make a prediction that the final four will be Allison Iraheta, Adam Lambert, Danny Gokey and Kris Allen), because basically everyone has had a dud by this point, but some people haven’t recovered from those duds. There was no official theme for the show this week, the contestants could sing any songs that are popular on the iTunes download list, new or old. No mentors to glean important, historic lessons from either. There weren’t many highlights last night but here are a few moments that stood out for us:

5. All About The Hair

Everyone was rocking a new or improved ‘do last night. Megan Joy had a weird braidy-dreadlocky thing happening as an homage to her Bob Marley song, Allison Iraheta had the pink version of Tina Turner’s 1980′s wig, Scott MacIntyre was introduced to pomade before being given a ride in a convertible, Lil Rounds got a sleek new wig, and Adam Lambert kept his Elvis pompadour even though he was singing disco. All in all, we were focused on the follicles more than anything else this week – seems the contestants knew that we’d need something to distract us from their singing.

4. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (That Will Be Served At Home Because Their Free Ride To Hollywood Can’t Last Much Longer)?

To quote Kara DioGuardi every time she speaks, “Here’s the thing — .” The thing is, people’s flaws are starting to show pretty badly and no matter how much we liked some of these kids at the start, they are starting to wear out their welcome. Paula Abdul told Megan after her performance “All the things we liked about you are disappearing.” She also told Matt Giraud (we think this is especially mean and…poorly worded) that during his performance “You aborted everything we liked about you.” Also harsh was when Simon Cowell told Anoop that he “was like college boy trying to be a pop star.” Well, yeah, Simon, because he is. But truth be told, his performance probably isn’t in anyone’s top five of the night.

3. Obligatory Adam Moment

Adam Lambert lovers: we get it. We GET why you love him His artistry is original. The arrangements, his style, we appreciate. But good God it’s the shrieking we just can’t stand. Are we the only ones who think his voice is a liability? We had to listen to his “Play That Funky Music” rendition with our fingers half in our ears because it was so screechy – as original as he is, we just can’t admit that his is the voice of a pop star. We still think there’s a regional production of Jesus Christ Superstar somewhere that could use him as their Jesus.

2. Scott MacIntyre Has a Good But Not Great Moment

Each week we try to come up with a career plan for Scott, because he so clearly can’t win this show. We have no doubt that Scott deserves to make a living as a musician, but he’s just no Idol. Last week we decided he would make a great singer in an outdoor gazebo at Disney World. Before that we thought he should be his own performing float and rent himself out for famous parades. See, Scott is one of those permanently PG, feel-good types that for reasons we can’t explain rub us the wrong way, but make him perfect for the very young and the very old. (We feel the same way about Jennifer Love Hewitt and Kellie Martin, that actress from Life Goes On who will forever be known as Corky’s sister.) Scott had a great performance last night when he sang “Just The Way You Are.” He proved to the judges that when he’s allowed to perform in his element he does well but even with a good performance like that, Scott won’t win.

1. The Best of the Night

When Danny Gokey, the night’s third singer, came out and sang “What Hurts the Most,” our first thought was wow, he just blew the previous two singers, Anoop and Megan, away. Danny had swagger and stage presence that was natural and real and he owned the stage – even in nine more rounds of singing, we don’t think Anoop or Megan could learn to do what he did. Allison Iraheta was the same way. We cringed when we heard that her song choice was No Doubt (and prayed that there would be no Gwen Stefani imitations), but for the first time since 1998, we enjoyed hearing “Don’t Speak.” And yeah, we liked Kris Allen’s version of “Ain’t No Sunshine” too. That kid and his crooked Arkansas smile have totally grown on us.

Final Thoughts:

Kara DioGuardi, Pop Culture Expert: “It was like Studio 57 up in here!”

Lil Rounds’ daughter + Randy Jackson = Precious