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DAVID COOK - Round 1: I was deeply unimpressed and unmoved by this performance and was having a hard time wrapping my mind around WHY it wasn't so good. I came to the conclusion that it was because he didn't have the support of the band that the song needed. Something about the sound mix had the vocals so overpower the instrumentals, and what we ended up with was a faint, muted electric guitar back-up that you could barely hear. This song and this style is driven by the rhythm section. You need the bass. You need the drums. Without them, the vocals can't carry it. I think that's what happened here. Moreover, I imagine that, live, where you could actually probably HEAR the band, it probably sounded completely different. David's voice was distinctive and decent and he executed the song decently, if unremarkably. It's hard to gauge the full impact, though, because of the mix. I ain't mad at him, though.

SYESHA MERCADO - Round 1: What was lacking here was the confidence to make any of it her own. She pulled off the choreography, but she didn't make it look natural. She pulled off the vocals (more in the early slower part in her lower register than when she went up and got more shrill), but she didn't OWN the song. This was just okay for me.

JASON CASTRO - Round 1: I have to say, I'd rather sit through "Memory" a hundred times than see this again. That one, at least, had a delicious train-wreck quality. This one was as boring as it was bad. My parrot decided to start screaming in the middle of it (who could blame him?) and I welcomed the distraction! And what was with the guitar?!

DAVID ARCHULETA - Round 1: The gasping DEFINITELY has got to go, but aside from that, I didn't think this was bad at all. He played around with the melody a little, but didn't butcher the song, and the simplicity of it didn't prove to be more than he could handle. I thought the "Beautiful Girls" allusion to the contemporary sample was brilliant in every way. It made him feel more current/relevant, it played to his tweentard fans, and it made the song that much less predictable. I also thought it was smart to go into the falsetto at the end. It's a tool that David hasn't overused, so it's nice to see that when he does reach for it, that it's there and it's used in a smart way. Not fantastic, but solid against other performances that were far less so…

Round 1 Rankings:
1. DAVID ARCHULETA
2. DAVID COOK (with a better mix, he might have been #1)
3. SYESHA MERCADO
4. JASON CASTRO


DAVID COOK - Round 2: When he mentioned that there was more he could have done with his first song, I was afraid that David was going to overdo this one. He didn't. He showed restraint. He has a gift for only doing what feels organic to the moment, and that gives his performances a refreshing honesty. I was impressed when he started the chorus and hit the high note. I was more impressed when he started to lose the high note and adjusted and dropped down rather than going flat. He understands music on a technical level better than anybody else, and that helps him. I liked the beginning better than the ending, but the whole thing was good except the very last cut off word. I just didn't get it…

SYESHA MERCADO - Round 2: She had more confidence and commanded the stage MUCH more this time. Unfortunately her pitch suffered, particularly on the sustained notes. For her, this was a weak vocal. In the context of all of the finalists over the course of the finals, it was average… Her body, though, is well above average… For the record, I didn't find her intro about the Civil Rights Movement to be obnoxious, and I didn't find the crying to be manipulative. I think she's trying the best she can to connect with mixed results…

JASON CASTRO - Round 2: The dropped lyrics are what they are, so I'm going to try to focus on the rest of the performance instead. Jason was actually more interesting to me, here, but that is largely because he was doing an impersonation of Bob Dylan. Dylan's vocal idiosyncracies as mimicked by Jason were much more unique and special than anything Jason can come up with when he's being himself. This is not a competition looking for the best impersonator. If it were, Kady Malloy would have it sewn up. Therefore, even though I didn't hate this one, I have a hard time giving Jason much credit for it. This does not really show me anything more promising about what Jason could be as his own artist.

DAVID ARCHULETA - Round 2: He has a beautiful voice. That can't be denied. That being said, I thought he took far too many liberties with the melody and the meaning behind the words seemed phony from him. Overall, it was pretty but boring. I'm not surprised the judges loved it, though. It was show-offy in exactly the way they always go for…

Round 2 Rankings:
1. DAVID COOK
2. SYESHA MERCADO
3. DAVID ARCHULETA
4. JASON CASTRO


Combined Rankings:
1. Cook - Round 2
2. Archuleta - Round 1
3. Cook - Round 1
4. Syesha - Round 2
5. Archuleta - Round 2
6. Syesha - Round 1
7. Jason - Round 2
8. Jason - Round 1


Performer Rankings (obviously):
1. DAVID COOK
2. DAVID ARCHULETA
3. SYESHA MERCADO (not a great night when she needed to have one)
4. JASON CASTRO