Lee Dewyze, Alex Lambert Shine On “American Idol” Tuesday

While there were some minor improvements, the second week of male semifinalist performances on “American Idol” played out largely like the first week. Save for one or two strong showings, there was an excess of mediocrity on stage and a surplus of contradiction at the judges’ table.

The four judges continued their streak of inconsistency, offering blatantly contradictory advice that sent a trail of mixed messages through the pack of ten male semifinalists. For some, the judges adamantly called for originality, declaring that the contestants failed to internalize the song and use the performance to convey something unique about their style. For others, the judges panned an attempt to leave the realm of the original song, instead urging the contestant to sing the melody as it was written.

With advice as inconsistent as that, even the biggest judge kiss-up would be hard-pressed to satisfy the panel of four.

And few did.

Even a contestant like Lee Dewyze, who excelled on “Lips of an Angel” en route to becoming Simon Cowell’s declared favorite of the male pack, failed to earn unanimous praise from the panel. Emphasis, albeit valid emphasis, was placed on Dewyze’s failure to stay on pitch for the entirety of the song, but in focusing on that struggle, the judges largely failed to grasp what made the performance so effective. Dewyze, certainly better than any male in the competition, knows how to adapt a song to his voice. His alternation between raspy power and vulnerability adds layers of emotion and intrigue to his performances, assuring that voters will remember what he did on stage.

Dewyze is still a brighter personality and an amazing performance away from clinching a long-term position in the competition, but amidst a pool of mediocrity, he continues to bring a largely absent dimension of passion and freshness.

The unhelpful judge criticism also applied to Alex Lambert, who performed John Legend’s “Everybody Knows.” Though Lambert’s performance was dragged slightly down by one or two painful notes, the bulk of his performance was strong, and his high points were absolutely unrivaled Tuesday night. Still, while the judges correctly praised his phenomenally colorful and unique voice, they never really criticized him in the context of the competition. The fact that he improved over last week is all well and good, but without giving true insight into how he stacks up against frontrunners like Michael “Big Mike” Lynche, it is hard to know whether Lambert truly stands a chance this year.

On the subject of Lynche, he, too, seemed to elude any sort of uniform criticism from the panel. His “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” was vocally impressive, probably marking his best singing performance to date in this competition. But the judges, obviously due to his larger-than-life character when not performing, seemed to excuse the self-indulgence and lack of personality that otherwise would have produced their harsh wrath. He showed talent in his performance, but he did not stand out as a legitimate music sensation.

Todrick Hall, meanwhile, continued to serve as the epitome of self-indulgence with “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” Despite an assurance in his video package that he would not follow the critically-panned “Since U Been Gone” with another over-the-top alteration, Hall again took the song far away from its roots.

The inconsistency of the judges in ripping Hall for not singing the original melody on the same night in which they berated contestants for playing it safe should not have been lost on anyone, but there was still merit to the idea of ripping Hall. He did not sound fantastic, and even when he did hit the notes, he still was doing little to connect with the song. The contestant has a lot of potential–he has an interesting voice, great stage presence and a great look–but without nailing a song, it remains tough for him to back himself out of whatever corner led to the judges disliking his approach to “Idol.”

Jermaine Sellers ran into similar difficulties on “What’s Going On?” For all the vocal tricks and gimmicks he threw at viewers, he ignored the most important part of the song–the soul. Sellers’ voice came across as too airy and detached on last week’s “Get Here,” so applying that same style to one of the most beloved and soulful songs of all-time could be viewed as musical blasphemy. Like Hall, there is something there with Sellers–he has a tremendously likable and quirky personality and definitely has some vocal skills–but this was not the performance he needed to amplify those talents.

After emerging as a surprise judge favorite last week, Aaron Kelly lost quite a few points this week with “My Girl.” The performance was passable and leagues better than John Stevens’ infamous and disastrous season three rendition of the song, but it certainly marked one of the worst strategic decisions of the night. Kelly’s previous success with “The Climb” and last week’s “Here Comes Goodbye” should have cemented his style as that of a pop-country singer. The fact that he did not embrace that niche this week, and instead went in a completely different direction, was nothing short of baffling.

Also on the strategically-baffling front was Casey James, who sleepwalked his way through “I Don’t Wanna Be.” His technically flawed but entertaining guitar-playing prevented this from becoming a disaster, but this was still not the performance he needed. Instead of using his looks and swagger to sell an emotional performance to his fans (ala last week’s “Heaven”), he delivered a fairly routine and “karaoke” version of a very cliched song. There was absolutely nothing about this performance that screamed ‘star,’ and the judges were right to call him out on this one.

Elsewhere, one-time frontrunner Andrew Garcia painfully made his way through “You Give Me Something.” Though one of the most notable victims of the judges’ inconsistency this season–after ripping on his liberal interpretation of “Sugar, We’re Going Down” last week, the judges got on his case this week for not taking enough chances with his song–he still has no excuse for sounding so terrible. His voice, while appealing in past performances, just did not work, and there were some rather terrible pitch violations. Garcia has benefited from an extremely likable personality and a buzzworthy, acoustic rendition of “Straight Up,” but he is inching closer to an irrevocable loss of his frontrunner status.

John Park joined Garcia in the world of pain with an abysmal rendition of “Gravity.” His voice was acceptable at times, but the note violations and utterly terrible arrangement turned one of John Mayer’s most well-written songs into an absolute mess. And even beyond the vocals, Park’s performance showed none of the youth and charm that peps up his interview segments; this was just bad, and Simon Cowell was right to call into question Park’s status in the competition.

Tim Urban, last week’s worst performer, moved up in the rankings a bit with a passable rendition of “Come on Get Higher.” He added nothing new save for some interesting interpretations in the song’s climax, but the performance was solid enough to highlight his understated likability. Urban has been nowhere near good enough to build a passionate fanbase, but with a solid performance and an endorsement from Simon Cowell this week, he might very well land in the ‘safe’ column come Thursday’s results show.

Performance Rankings – Top Ten Males
This is an assessment of the performance quality, not a prediction about vote tallies.
1) Lee Dewyze
2) Alex Lambert
3) Michael Lynche
4) Tim Urban
5) Todrick Hall
6) Jermaine Sellers
7) Aaron Kelly
8) Casey James
9) Andrew Garcia
10) John Park

The top ten females perform Wednesday; results are revealed Thursday.