The Tracks of My Tears (after my ears bled)

TOP EIGHT -- Motown night. A little trivia for movie fans -- Oz the Great and Powerful was filmed there (Detroit). How was that even possible? It's because Sam Raimi is from there. Go figure.

KOD spot -- Candice. This is almost like a lion stalking a wounded gazelle, if the gazelle is a great singer but too old and in a non-pop style and the lion is the Idol Powers that be who want a young pop singer to win.I think they're setting Candice up to fail so the big singers will drop out, and not overshadow TCO.

Not the best performance ever. Dr. L pointed out the direction, thus far, of this episode sucks. Sloppy camera work, Ryan blowing the intros to the package with Smokey, and then this kind of rambling bluesy forgettable performance.

Janelle -- and Kree! A duet. Interesting. This arrangement was kind of all over the place, but their voices sound nice together. Nice power note at the end. Nicki gives lots of love to Kree, and maybe she's right about her outshining Janelle. That's the danger when two Idols go on at the same time.Funny how they cut them slack when they f up a lyric on these duets, AND they want a girl to win, and then they'll cut their throat when they want to at other times.

Lazaro -- this kid reminds me of Samuel L Jackson from Unbreakable -- one good blow from the REAL record Industry, and he would shatter. He looks better this week, and sounds far more confident. Its fun to see how Idol works with his "Frankie Valli"-ish look every week. Randy seems amused that this schtick is still going, headed for the inevitable fail. Note to Lazaro -- work on cooler costumes or something, your forehead looks like it's going to sweat away.

Side note -- how did they color-coordinate Nicki and Mariah tonight? It's like pumpkin red. I do like Keith's shirt. He always has some catchy saying. 

Janelle solo --  I don't know if I totally agree with Smokey on how to mod the song. It's like, it shows off her voice, but it kid of kills the melody of this great song. SHe sounds fine, but the song itself was kind of whatev. The judges give her the tongue bath, so they want her to stay on a few more weeks. Nicki praises her guitar work, but to me it was pretty weak. Randy bestows the In It To Win It so we KNOW Nigel wants her to make the top 4-5. 

Tin Tin (Devin) -- is Mariah answering a fucking text? God, the world is going to shit LOL. We are slaves to our damn phones. Back to the music: Smokey schools Devin on his timing. Performance -- hey he got the pumpkin red memo. His delivery -- it sounds like a generic faux-R&B performance from a kid his age. Lots of useless melisma, and very little soul. Technically, not bad, but so cookie-cutter IMHO.

Keith sort of calls him on his robotic performance,but soft-balls it. Of course, Nicki loves it, because she's only capable of inauthentic performances herself. 

BTW, how do you guys take the comments like Mariah made here, that she hopes we "get" it? I think we know what we like, and this isn't akin to understanding Abstract Expressionism. Just sing the songs, fools! We buy the music, so we're the experts LOL.

The Oreo Supremes: surprisingly good in moments. Candice of course excels here, and the harmonies were nice. If they work on this it could be really good on the tour. I like the buff & polish they put on Angie's leg's LOL.

Urkel (Burnell) -- Smokey tries to take him to school. He seems intimidated. On the night, nice outfit, but he looks stiff in it. Is that a skull tie thingy? Maybe a Jaguar hood ornament. God, I truly hate his weird phrasing. Nice voice, but this sounds like  a gimmick. Maybe his original music can make it work, but I'm so distracted by it I can never get taken away by the song. Nicki's faces when Keith speaks are worth it, though.

BTW-- Ryan's tie -- how long will the purple tie trend continue? It seems like it has been for a million years. 

TCO -- Angie. Holy crap, the session with Smokey and Jimmy sounded like ass. What a terrible arrangement. On the night -- she sounded better on the Supremes thing. This was a bad song choice, to me. An odd, forced painful performance. These are my favorite comments from Nicki all season thus far, however -- she totally spoke the truth. Angie could be in trouble.

Amber -- doing Stevie. They should seriously call this Wonder Idol, so many contestants return to this well. Oh Lord -- she's doing the Miss America version of this song. Is she ahead of the beat? She has a nice voice, but I think this song is too old for her. It kind of came alive towards the end, and maybe it's enough to save her. I don't know -- who is voting for her? They are seriously pimping her in the judging, so they want her to stay, but would they use the Save on her? I have a feeling one week they may have to. 

The boys trio -- Sugar Pie Honey Bun? HA, these dudes totally throw each other under the bus on the negative criticism. I think there was enough suck to go around, but Burnell and Devin wanted to make sure it wasn't THEM. 

Kree -- in the pimp spot. OK, maybe she's the real TCO. This damn show was so long I almost forgot who we had left to hear. Jimmy and Smokey love her. Doing Aretha -- Good God Almighty, finally a real, honest-to-goodness performance, no apologies needed. She can really sing. I felt like what Nicki said earlier, that a Pro had flown in to sing with the Idols, is really true. This is Kree's contest to lose, as far as ability, but does she have the votes? It's funny, the judges sort of give half-hearted praise, all but Nicki. How is it she is the voice of reason? 

Who is in the B3? If there was a God, it would be Angie, Devin and maybe Janelle.

But Amber is probably in trouble again,  and Candice? I don't know if the craptacular group performance will hurt Lazaro but there was an uncomfortable closeup on him when he APPEARED to forget his lyrics. Maybe he didn't but with all the bus-throwing, America might blame him. Still, I don't think he'll go home, and Candice will.