New Wave, Reggae, Doo Wop, Soul, Folk...I heard about everything except rock and roll, how about you?

Sigh. This is the American idol season that simply should have been better. Early promise has fizzled into mind-numbing same-ness. I am disappointed in you, my little Idol children.

Last night each contestant performed two songs from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 most influential songs. So, can I start off by saying I am shocked that "Hungry Like the Wolf" is even ON that list?

Sigh, again.

1. David C. kicked off with the aforementioned Duran Duran song, and brought no killer energy to it. If you're going to do this overwrought, over the top disco-masquerading-as-new-wave song then how about having some of Simon LeBon's drama queen persona? 'Cause the song all on its own? Kinda boring. David C. paced back and forth more like someone on a subway platform than a caged animal. He talked about switching up the song, but it sounded pretty faithful to me. He has a great rock voice. Too bad he squandered it with this low-energy performance.

David C.'s second song was Baba O'Reilly by The Who. My S.O. strenuously disagreed with me, but I loathed this. Hated it. I'm ready to call it the worst performance by any Top 12 performer this season. Here's why: If the song can't be done justice in a minute thirty, don't fucking do it, OK...not this song, or any anthemic, iconic rock song like it. This came out like some Bryan Adams ballad for 90% of it, complete with artful rasp in the voice. Maybe, maybe, I could have lived with it if he had done the boring, slow, PREDICTABLE, "moody" first verse if at some point, any point, it had broken into that signature keyboard riff, played me some HUGE descending chords and given me even David C.'s pale imitation of a Roger Daltry wail. but no, talk about songus interruptus. What a let-down and disappointment.

Bottom line: Still safe. But dude, you have let your mid-season promise start to trickle away.

2. Syesha first sang the Tina Turner version of Proud Mary...like any of us needed to hear that ever again. Yes, it was exactly a copycat version, albeit an energetic copycat version. I thought she looked hot and sounded good...but why, oh why, just do what is bound to be a pale imitation. No one is going to match Tina Turner's muscular performance...particularly not wispy Syesha.

Syesha's second song was Change is Gonna Come. Let's all leave aside Syesha's (and Paula's) comparison of Syesha evolution as a performer to the need for change in our country's civil rights policies and racial attitudes. I'll just cut her some slack there. I thought she tried too much and too hard with her last run, which subsequently had some pitch issues. But otherwise I need to totally give Syesha some props for being the only finalist left who seems to make any effort to move beyond generalized emotional displays to actually seem like she's singing something specific and connecting to it. She also showed some good dynamic range in the song, so even in a minute 30 one can git various levels, vocally and emotionally. Fancy that.

Bottom line: She's at risk. but I called it weeks and weeks ago: Syesha is this season's Kimberly Locke. She can't get no respect; she's always in the Bottom 2 or 3...but she will end up coming in third, just like K-Lo.

3. Jason first sang what should have been a brilliant choice: Bob Marley's I Shot the Sheriff. I really didn't get why the judges were so down on him. I thought it was an intelligent performance, with more guts and energy in his vocal than he's shown in weeks. The guitar was really just a prop, but he's better with a guitar strapped on than when he's just standing there, so it didn't bother me. Jason is my chief disappointment of this season...the guy I thought I would continue to love who just seemed to stop trying early on. Yet I can still say I might actually buy his album, and I can't say that about the other three at this point.

Jason's second song was another apt choice, Boby Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man. What a boring song. Did I mention i think Dylan is totally overrated? This was kinda cute, but it had no meaning. I couldn't remember what he sang or why milliseconds after it was over. Although several blogs I read made a BIG HUGE DEAL that Jason forgot a BIG HUGE CHUNK of lyrics, he really only mumbled his way through one line. Which was barely differentiable form how he sang the rest of, actually. I really like the timbre of his voice and his basic vocal styling. But he could at least pretend to care...even Daughtry pretended to care.

Bottom line: Jason probably finally sealed his doom last night.

4. David A. first sang Stand By Me. Listen, the kid has a nice voice. Performance-wise, though, he seriously needs help. Of course, who can forget that Ruben Studdard had basically one arm move and merely alternated which arm reached out palm up at various points in each song? So, if that's any indication, the kid should be just fine. One other thing is that ALW cured David A. of his eyes-closed singing style, which has revealed to us all that he's dead behind those eyes. Seriously, I hate to say it: But I know what Paula is talking about when she bugs David A. to show us more joy in his singing.

David A.'s second song was Love Me Tender. Again, nice sweet voice. Again, I'm just completely over his style, his Johnny-one-note boy band lite performances. It's funny, I usually give people crap for inappropriately smiling through songs that are sad or serious. David inappropriately looks tragic during songs that aren't. And not in an intentional way.

I mean I once saw this amazing cabaret singer...she was probably in her 60s. She had MS or something else that required her to use crutches to stand there at the mic. She sang "I'm Just a Cock-Eyed Optimist" from South Pacific. Normally, that's just about as perky a song as you can come by. Sung by Nellie Forbush, a young nurse from the sticks.

Imagine these lyrics:

When the skies are brighter canary yellow
I forget ev'ry cloud I've ever seen,
So they called me a cockeyed optimist
Immature and incurably green.

I have heard people rant and rave and bellow
That we're done and we might as well be dead,
But I'm only a cockeyed optimist
And I can't get it into my head.

I hear the human race
Is fallin' on its face
And hasn't very far to go,
But ev'ry whippoorwill
Is sellin' me a bill,
And tellin' me it just ain't so.

I could say life is just a bowl of Jello
And appear more intelligent and smart,
But I'm stuck like a dope
With a thing called hope,
And I can't get it out of my heart!
Not this heart...

Imagine them being sung by a woman who has lived, and probably had a tough life. Sung by a woman with lines on her face, a smile on her lips, but a tear in her eye. Imagine them sung in a slowed down, rueful way. Imagine the concept of being "stuck" with hope when sung in with this subtext. Imagine that, in her version, she "can't" get it into her head...no matter how hard she's tried...because it would certainly make life easier to stop being an optimist and stop being hopeful, in the face of all the evidence that, for her, such optimism and hope is unfounded.

I will never forget that performance. I have tried to emulate that performance with other songs. I totally GET turning a song around and having the subtext play against the text. It can be stunning when done well. But David A. just looks like a guy that finds it slightly traumatic to sing.

Bottom line: OK, forgive my rant: Clearly he's safe.

Bottom line for the Bottom 2:

Seems clear: Syesha and Jason in the Bottom 2 (the Davids have been untouchable, haven't they?) and Jason going home. Wouldn't be shocked if Syesha went home, but I think it will be Jason.

But what did you think?