The Top 11

Huh. The parade of contestants reminds me that I forgot about Bucky.

Tonight it's songs from the 50s. The contestants had guidance from Barry Manilow, who -- quite coincidentally -- has a new album of 50s favorites. They actually flew them all to Vegas to work with Barry. That's just so awesomely perverse I don't know how to describe it. Barry has a much better attitude than Stevie did. He has the spirit of a teacher.

Mandisa sings "I Don't Hurt Any More." It's very nice, technically excellent, but somehow doesn't connect with me. The judges loved it.

While Blogger is down temporarily, Bucky gives a disturbingly breathless and awkward performance of "Oh Boy." Randy and Paula pointedly don't talk about the actual quality of the singing, but when Simon quite correctly blasts the vocals, Randy and Paula interrupt and splutter and are ridiculous.

Paris gives a brilliantly paced rendition of "Fever," letting the vocal power emerge gradually rather than belting from start to finish. She is vocally more assured than we've heard lately, and she made wonderful strategic use of vibrato for warmth and drama. (Remember: vibrato is a tool, not a condition.) Surpassed Mandisa in my book.

Ryan banters with a seven-year-old, and I shudder at how cute I find it all.

Chris is doing "I Walk the Line," which is actually quite a bold choice for him. It starts out sounding like a perverse Nine-Inch-Nails-with-a-head-cold version, but then, holy crap, it just takes off, and it is arresting and powerful and if you like modern rock in the vein of Live, as I do, well, it's just great, so great that it makes me write a run-on sentence. Chris is a pro in a show full of amateurs. And I like that Chris is wearing all black in honor of Mr Cash (and looking awfully darn hot, I must say).

Katharine, looking beautiful and elegant, interviews about the wonderfulness of Barry Manilow. He advises her to sing "Come Rain or Come Shine" to someone. It says something that she doesn't think, "Well, duh!" I like the way she's being playful and sultry at the same time. Vocally it's another great performance from her. She has the most versatile instrument of all the finalists. Simon says, "Tonight you turned into a star."

Looking over at Professor Althouse, I find that she connects Chris with Live too. I got there first, but she knew Ed Kowalcyk's name, so she gets the bonus coolness points.

Taylor makes his entrance singing "Mandy," which is just appalling, but Barry pretends to find it charming. I love that Barry is an arranger and can help adapt the songs in a way that showcases the singers without overwhelming them. Taylor is doing the classic Idol why-should-I-have-to-breathe-when-I'm-not-singing-high thing, which just drives me crazy. If Simon doesn't call this a karaoke performace I will be very disppointed, because this is exactly the performance for which that comment was invented. It is tedious, mannered, twitchy, and vocally just not that great. Remember the "drunk uncle" comment? Well, reprise that, only without adding "but you can actually sing."

Or was it drunk father?

Anyway, Randy and Paula again do that thing where they talk around the vocal performance rather than about it. Simon actually begins with 'but', which is just priceless. "It was a complete mess. . . . That was like some hideous party performance. . . . Paula, you're talking rubbish." Spot on, Simon.

Lisa will show us what "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" sounds like with four key changes. And it is just not good. She's on key, but it's all so lackluster, and she seems to be a little behind the beat for about the first half of the song. I don't quite know what happened with that, but she might be in a bit of danger.

Kevin sweetly talks about love, and how he hasn't experienced it yet, and I feel moderately ashamed of my prior snarkiness. We see Barry giving him excellent advice. Honestly, this is the best we've heard him sound. I cannot believe he's doing the whole thing with one hand in his pocket. I hate to say it, but that may have been good enough to push Lisa Tucker out this week. Even Simon didn't hate it, although more because it was well-marketed than because it was well-sung. I wonder why they couldn't have found a way to dress Kevin that didn't emphasize his scrawniness.

Elliott comes right out and says that he didn't like Barry Manilow's music, but now he's a fan. Barry tries to get Elliott to "crawl into the story" of the song. Elliott sings "Teach Me Tonight," channeling Al Jarreau and making me think of Moonlighting. It's just a'ight for me, but then I simply don't get what people see in Elliott. Simon says his singing was "fantastic."

Barry didn't know "Walkin' After Midnight"? How is that possible? Barry does this weird thing where he tries to get Kellie to understand what the hell she's singing about, which is an entirely new thought to her. And the payoff . . . is disappointingly unimpressive. The effort of thinking about the story of the song is too much for her, I think. Paula says "This was a true, authentic Kellie Pickler performance," which sounds as if it means something but actually doesn't. Simon thought it was just great. Hmm. Maybe I missed something.

Ace will do a jazzy version of "In the Still of the Night." You know, I really want to like Ace, and certainly there were some very lovely moments in his performance, but overall it was not that great. He'll surely make it through, because he was good enough and he's looking exceptionally hot tonight, but I don't know how much longer he can last.

I would put Lisa at the bottom, then Bucky, then Taylor (seriously!).