If I Had to Pick a Bottom Three this Week

It would be Luke Menard, Jason Yeager and Danny Noriega.

Listen: David Archuleta obviously stood out with his rendition of Imagine, a song I've hated ever since it was recorded. But David did it quite well and with poise. Michael Johns, Go Your Own Way, Robbie Carrico, Hot Blooded and Chikezie, I Believe to My Soul (never heard that one before) were all adequate - nothing special, not particularly bad - middle of the road. None of the three had the "wow factor" if I may use the cliche.

On the other hand, I liked Jason Castro's rendition of I Just Want to Be Your Everything, though it actually took me a few minutes to identify the song. It's one of those songs I'm happy to never hear again. However, Jason's version had a David Gray-ish feel to it, and I think that it was a good performance. I suspect Randy was right when he said that without the guitar, the vocals would have been week.

David Hernandez, Papa Was a Rolling Stone was one I mostly missed due to boredom with all the commercial time - I think more time was devoted to hawking products than singing last night. What I did hear of it was pretty good.

David Cook, All Right Now, was throwback all the way. He doesn't seem very comfortable on stage and doesn't come across as particularly personable. But he handled the song and guitar quite well. The rest can come with seasoning.

That leaves the first three I mentioned.

Danny Noriega is a bit too winsome for me, too foppish. He didn't do anything special with Superstar, so it came across as strictly a Carpenters cover.

Luke Menard did not do Killer Queen any favors. The real irony there was that as a singer in an a capella group, he said his vocals had to be perfect all the time. He should have picked a song that didn't have so many vocal gymnastics.

Jason Yeager, Long Train Running, I loved the song when it came out originally, and Yeager's version was passable. But it wasn't really much more than a Holiday Inn cover band version.

Overall, there seems to be a better level of singing talent among the guys this year, but less personality. Can't really find one I like a lot.

Same is true with the women.