Deja Vu All Over Again

Before Simon said anything I had a bad feeling about doing a repeat theme. Sure last week was the Lennon-McCartney songbook, this week was The Beatles. Not much of a difference in my mind. Last night's show had such a low impact on my night that I almost forgot to review it today. Well, I am happily anticipating the sun this morning, but that's about all that stuck.

RANDOM THOUGHTS: This set just isn't doing it for me. It all seems a bit Season 1 to me. I could tell Simon was unenthusiastic about a repeat of The Beatles before we even got started so his criticism later was not too shocking. The nice thing about changing genres each week is the contestants get a chance to do something new and interesting each time even though Randy thinks they just need to sing well each week. Is it me, or has product placement gotten worse this year? And what's with grabbing random people out of the crowd to stand with Ryan while he says goofy stuff? It's still goofy, even if you've got Grandpa standing uncomfortably next to you.

AMANDA OVERMYER: Didn't I get this last week? And the week before, and before? A ballad? Yeah right, Paula! Last weak was tolerable because she did quite well. This week she was off and overconfident. It's old already.

KRISTY LEE COOK: Her arrangement was much better this week, but the singing was not. She is not one that has been done right by The Beatles. Unfortunately we may never get a chance to see anything else from her.

DAVID ARCHULETA: Back to the ballads and predictably it was much better. He was definitely someone who stood to gain a lot by repeating the theme. Can't get much worse than last week for him.

MICHAEL JOHNS: I think the judges were a bit too harsh on this one. The arrangement is tough since, like "Bohemian Rhapsody," the song is all over the place, but it suited his voice and style. Contestants do need to stop picking songs for other people, though, even though the sentiment on this one was touching.

BROOKE WHITE: Ouch. So corny. So awkward. So "too much." See, she stood to lose a lot this week after her brilliance last week, and she even said as much. Maybe that's where she went wrong--picking a song she even thought she had no hope of doing well.

DAVID COOK: I'm starting to see a little of his arrogance returning. This was something that turned me off to him in the very beginning. With that said, he is still a great performer and did a great job. Even though Simon called it predictable, I still think he'd prefer this to much of what he saw last night. Simon mostly has issues with smugness.

CARLY SMITHSON: Whatever her reasoning on this selection is was great. You can definitely see Simon's boredom by this point in the show because his criticism was a bit harsh if you ask me. Carly chose a great song, showed incredible range on it, and proved why she's a solid pick to take it to the finals.

JASON CASTRO: From his song selection alone I have to give him the "No, No, don't do that, no, no" award this week. He's a nice kid that is genuine and unique, but this performance was borderline awful. Simon was right on in his criticism this week, and Paula's right about the guitar. I wouldn' t mind if he brought it out routinely. It is who he is.

SYESHA MERCADO: This week was one of her best weeks vocally. I'm not a Syesha fan, but I wanted to get that honest praise out of the way first. Now, on to what I didn't like. It was all a bit contrived in my opinion. She had all the cliches going tonight: nice gown, sitting on the edge of the stage, gently guitar accompaniment, looking down at the stage for dramatic effect, picking "Yesterday" for goodness sake. I felt like I was watching an actor put on a front, not a singer performing from the heart.

CHIKEZIE: I was afraid of the return of the jugband. It was a pretty good performance overall, but he stood to lose a lot after a breakout performance last week. The harmonica was an interesting choice, and not as bad as Simon thought it was, but he should ditch those ideas in the future.

RAMIELE MALUBAY: She strikes me as those silly high school girls that do that fake pout and whine, thinking acting 3 or 4 years younger is adorable. It's not. I'm not seeing anything special from her and haven't for a while now. She's still a solid middle-of-the-pack performer for me.

MY TOP THREE: David Cook, Carly Smithson, David Archuleta
MY BOTTOM THREE: Amanda Overmyer, Kristy Lee Cook, Brooke White
LOOKING AS THOUGH YESTERDAY'S PROBLEMS ARE HERE TO STAY: Kristy Lee Cook