Casey Abrams Bombs, Scotty McCreery Soars on “American Idol”

“American Idol” fans are notorious for speaking out against the supposed “pimping” of certain contestants by the judges and producers. There is no arguing with the fact that such apparent favoritism does occur, although based on the performances during Wednesday’s Top Six show, it is hard to discount the fact that the three “favored” contestants deserve the praise.

Some have convinced themselves to love the Haley Reinhart-Casey Abrams duet of “I Feel the Earth Move,” but at the end of the day, it was clear frontrunner James Durbin–and, to a lesser extent, Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina–is bringing far more to the table than the others in the competition. From talent to charisma, Durbin, McCreery and Alaina proved they deserve to be pushed, even if at the expense of Reinhart, Abrams and Jacob Lusk.

That is not to say the results will support that notion; after all, storms and related power outages in areas that undoubtedly skew towards country performers might adversely affect votes. It is, however, to suggest that the people “Idol” seemingly wants to win this season gave a good reason for the bias.

The dynamics of being a frontrunner
Upon reading such praise, some will immediately point out the fact that the show, in many ways, came off as a “goodbye, Lauren” episode. Her solo version of “Where You Lead” was not especially memorable, and her exchanges with Jimmy Iovine, Babyface, Miley Cyrus and the judges strongly gave the impression that while she has potential, she is not yet at “superstar” level. It was almost the “I’m so proud of you for being so brave” nonsense that was showered on hated contestants Sanjaya and Tim Urban as they neared their inevitable exists. But even in that unmemorable solo performance, she still managed to demonstrate vocal power and her beautiful tone–the only vocal tone that is universally-endearing this season–and thus still managed to prove she is not only in this competition for her age, Southern accent and “aww, shucks” attitude. Cracking on the big final note was not her finest achievement, and her failure to pick a song that contained a nice build or story-telling quality worked against her, but at the end of the day, she still sang well and proved she is something special.

And on her duet of “Up on the Roof” with frequent duet partner Scotty McCreery, she shined like no other in the competition. Her country-infused vocals soared on the performance, crowning her as the only contestant Wednesday to even remotely approach his or her potential on the duet portion. And while she was definitely over-powering Scotty, sometimes in a way that was not unflinchingly appealing, her vocals still complemented the softer-singing, deeper-voiced McCreery and made for a strong vocal duet. The two again clicked in their “Lady Antebellum Junior” (maybe Girl Antebellum?) dynamic.

Scotty clearly came off like the weaker of the two country teens on the duet–not even Jennifer Lopez could avoid making that clear in her review–but his solo performance was leaps and bounds better than that of Lauren. His haunting, sensitive, country take on “You’ve Got a Friend” established just how dangerously-relevant he can be on the commercial charts. As the judges pointed out, the “reaching” for certain notes absolutely exposed the limitations of his range, but the quality of his voice as he moved into a higher, more tender part of his register should absolutely not be discounted. This was the kind of performance that makes a dated, somewhat-cheesy song seem relevant and emotionally-important. It was the kind of performance that most felt he would need to continue his momentum as the season’s clearest frontrunner–once Scotty stopped being able to get by on his ridiculously-recognizable, shockingly-deep voice, he would have to prove his worth as a frontrunner by delivering an objectively-incredible performance. He did that.

And still, Scotty was not quite the best of the night. That honor goes clearly to James Durbin, whose “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” instantly positioned itself as one of the best performances of the season. The stunning a capella open proved, without a doubt, that Durbin is a legitimate singing sensation rather than a lame Adam Lambert knock-off, and the retro, instrumentally-backed follow-up was musically-engaging while effortlessly authentic. James did not need to dress or “act” retro–he, in fact, kept himself current and simply allowed his voice to do justice to the number’s original roots.

The performance was so good, in fact, that James might have a tough decision to make about where to go as a performer as the competition approaches its conclusion. This performance, at best, was only as “heavy” as a David Cook performance, but there were frankly even glimpses of contestants like Clay Aiken in the delivery. Either way, this was a far cry from the James who sang songs like “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin'” and “Heavy Metal,” and it definitely shows that Durbin has options as he proceeds in the competition. It all just comes down to whether he feels he can gain more fans by being a sensitive, powerhouse vocalist than he would alienate if he softened his stance on hard rock.

His duet was another story. The kind of performance that probably should not be judged, he and Jacob Lusk just totally went the “fun” route on “I’m into Something Good.” The vocals were not absolutely atrocious, but the delivery, dancing and emotion were beyond-cheesy, resulting in a very “Brady Bunch” style performance. Ultimately, though, it was probably the best James and Jacob could have done in terms of trying to engage the audience, as they have no obvious vocal chemistry and were only paired as duet partners because the other groups gel together so well.

Jacob Lusk’s solo seems to be getting the short end of the stick in terms of online reviews. Corny dancing aside, “Oh No, Not My Baby” was a fun way to open the show and definitely a solid vocal performance. Short of a “Bridge Over Troubled Water” or “You’re All I Need to Get By,” it’s unlikely Jacob will do anything to convince voters he belongs to go much farther, but this was definitely not the weak performance some online would have you believe. Still, at the end of the day, he did not seize the night the way the aforementioned three did and thus did not make the case that an elimination would be unjustified.

Special or not?
Haley Reinhart, especially this week, represents one of the biggest points of contention in the competition. There is no denying her talent, and no denying the unique, impressive quality of her edgy, soulful voice. But it seems that rebellion over the fact that Haley has not been “pimped” by the judges, even though she was showcased heavily even in the early parts of the season, has led many Internet diehards to overrate her contribution to the show. She’s an attractive, poised, talented contestant, but she is not a goddess.

Last week’s “Rolling in the Deep” epitomizes the issue perfectly. It was a reliable performance that did justice to a tremendous pop song, but it still paled in comparison to the original. This was not “Idol”‘s answer to “Glee” star Darren Criss showing Katy Perry how one should REALLY sing “Teenage Dream.” This was Haley proving she can be relevant in the industry while simultaneously proving she is not quite at Adele’s level. Yet many treated the performance was one of the best of the season.

Rallying behind her two numbers on this week’s show would be even harder to justify. Her “Beautiful” was beyond unremarkable, hindered by middling vocals (particularly in the begin) and an absence of presence and lyrical engagement. She brought the performance to a lofty high with some termendous notes near the end, but for much of the number, this was Haley letting her affected voice carry the show–it wasn’t about her feeling anything.

Her duet with Casey on “I Feel the Earth Move,” meanwhile, was a major disappointment. It was not terrible–the two alleged lovers have great chemistry on stage and obviously have some true vocal chops–but it was so unremarkable in comparison to their well-received “Moanin’.” Worse, while they independently have strong vocals, their chemistry is not of the vocal sort–they don’t sound great together but instead simply look comfortable with each other. Throw in some lazy vocals from Casey and non-committal singing from Haley, and you get a duet that was solid, better than the James-Jacob number but far from as effective as what Lauren and Scotty did.

Let’s resort to a cliche for Casey’s solo performance–if you looked up “forced” in the dictionary, you would find his “Hi-De-Ho That Old Sweet Roll.” With a song selection and arrangement that was more about melodic “screaming” than singing, the performance technically could have rekindled the magic of his well-received “I Put a Spell on You.” Instead, however, he completely lost himself in the process of crafting this song, resorting to a vintage jazz outfit and interactions with a mass of on-stage instrumentalists, which combined with his ridiculously insincere vocals to create nothing more than a cartoon. Self-indulgent would not even apply here because there was no hint of Casey’s self–it was him playing an old blues or jazz singer on a television show rather than him unlocking the retro voice inside. And for all the flack Lauren gets about not “challenging” herself vocally, what should one call this?

Perhaps this is a more “unique” or “interesting” turn for Casey than his renditions of “With a Little Help from My Friends” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain,” but there is no way the cheesiness of the entire spectacle, coupled with barking that did reach the point of being painful, stacks up from a quality standpoint.

Elimination Thoughts:
It should not be Scotty or James this week. Any of the other four could go, but Lauren made the best case for survival of the bunch and also has the most fans. A Jacob exit would not anger too many, while neither Casey nor Haley would be a surprise at this point in the competition.

Performance Rankings (Overall):
1) James Durbin
2) Scotty McCreery
3) Lauren Alaina
4) Haley Reinhart
5) Jacob Lusk
6) Casey Abrams

Rankings Averages after Eight Weeks
James – 2.2
Casey – 4.3
Jacob – 4.6
Lauren – 4.9
Haley – 4.9
Scotty – 5.4