American Idol 2012 - Week 11 - California Dreaming/Songs they wish they'd written.

Sorry, couldn't think how to abbreviate that second one.

1. Phillip Phillips - Have You Ever Seen The Rain? (Creedence Clearwater Revival).
Surprisingly poppy and mainstream (by Phillip's standards, anyway) and I actually quite enjoyed it. Maybe he's playing it safe now that the final is in sight, and if it's making the likes of me stop complaining about him, then I don't blame him.

2. Hollie Cavanagh - Faithfully (Journey).
Blimey this song sounds like The Winner Takes It All at times, though this lacks a decent chorus. Hollie didn't start great but owned the song by the end, and her last 30 seconds or so were amazing.

3. Joshua Ledet - You Raise Me Up (Secret Garden/Josh Groban).
"I'm in the top 40, it's ridiculous!", says Joshua. Quite. He avoided the hairballs this week, but he came closer to his trademark hacking than he did to the song's melody. Sigh.

4. Jessica Sanchez - Steal Away (Etta James).
Looks like Jessica has fallen into the Joshua trap, hacking up a few hairballs herself. However, hers sounded in tune as the jazzy song lends itself to that form of singing a way that You Raise Me Up most certainly does not. Plus it demonstrated another side to her voice that we haven't heard before, proving she's no one trick pony.

Phillip & Joshua - This Love (Maroon 5).
You can't keep a good song down, even with Joshua and Phillip attacking it. As is becoming increasingly evident, the performers aren't given as much free reign to put their stamp on the duets, and they and the song sound better as a result- particularly where this two are concerned. More so with Phillip, of course.

Hollie & Jessica - Eternal Flame (Bangles).
Hollie definitely came off second best here, but their voices blended nicely, even if they didn't connect as well onstage.

Adam Shankman drops by to show clips from forthcoming movie Rock of Ages. If it's anything like the stage show, it's going to be excruciatingly bad. But he directed Hairspray, so fingers crossed he spotted something I didn't.
There's apparently some sort of history between Ryan Seacrest and Julianne Hough. I have no idea to what they were alluding, but literally couldn't care less.

Top 4 - Waiting For A Girl Like You (Foreigner).
Surprisingly, it was the girls whose harmonies sounded off this time, but it was quite poor overall.

5. Phillip Phillips - Volcano (Damien Rice).
Not much to the song, not much to the performance, but it felt authentic and true.

6. Hollie Cavangh - I Can't Make You Love Me (Bonnie Raitt).
Hollie, by contrast, takes a simple song and makes it BIG. She sang it very well, but I'd have preferred an acoustic version, as Phillip did, as the emotion was lost, yet again.

7. Joshua Ledet - It's A Man's Man's Man's World (James Brown).
Hearing that Joshua was about to tackle a James Brown song terrified me to my very core, before I even knew what the song was. It lived up to expectations. And then some. Horrible. What about that performance that surprised the judges bemuses me. "If you want to know what singing is really about, and emotion ... watch Joshua". You mean that tear-free blank expression on Joshua's face? No, Randy, I think YOU need to start watching some Adele. Or wait another ten minutes.

8. Jessica Sanchez - And I Am Telling You I Am Not Going (Jennifer Holliday).
I've never really been a fan of this song, and even Jennifer Hudson's Oscar-winning performance of this in Dreamgirls was for me one of the most embarrassing moments in cinema history. But as a vocal showcase, it's a tough one to beat, if you get it right. Jessica hasn't changed my mind on that song, but she unquestionably got it very very right. It's basically somebody shouting it you, but it's supposed to be, and her teary eyes told you all you needed to know.

RESULTS SHOW

Top 4 - California Dreaming (Mamas and the Papas)
More of a California Nightmare. I don't know why these group performances rarely work, but they rarely do.

David Cook gives a decent live performance that demonstrated borh why he won, and why he isn't a megastar.
J-Lo, on the other hand, lip-synced her way through a performance that demonstrated her opinion as a judge as valuable as mine.

Hollie goes home, but not before an adequate encore of The Climb.
Considering Hollie made it to the Green Mile stages last year, advised to give it a year or two to come back, it's a shame she didn't do an Alexandra Burke and wait two, as she'd have probably done even better next year.