6 Idol Observations

Last night was rock 'n roll night at American Idol and it was ..... a heck of a thing. A few observations:

1. Everybody knew that Adam & Allison would have a serious edge this week because this is comfortable ground for them. Was I the only one cringing just thinking about how Kris & Danny would survive this genre?

2. Adam & Allison were given the chance to make the first impression. They were in their element and delivered.

3. Adam & Allison were ALSO given the final moments to "get the last word" in the competition with their duet. They delivered again.

4. Seems like the cards were stacked pretty heavily for Adam & Allison to come out huge last night. Kris & Danny were stuffed into the middle, with their songs coming immediately after their duet. No time to rest or recoup. For Kris especially, he had to sing just a few minutes after hearing Simon's disheartening criticism of the duet. Harsh. Good thing I'm not a conspiracy theorist, because if I were, I'd be screaming "FOUL!" for my two favorites left in the competition.

5. Okay, fine. Keepin' it real? Kris' performance was weak and boring. Danny's was entertaining in a horrifying "can't take your eyes off the train wreck" sort of way. It was literally painful to not hit fast-forward as I watched my two favorites crash and burn. Dang.

6. Regardless, one bad night doesn't even come close to changing my mind about who I'm supporting. I have a special method of choosing my A.I. favorites: listening to the music. I understand that all of the Idol fans do this, but I do a little something more (and less). I go buy a few songs of each artist on iTunes, then I set them up in a playlist and I LISTEN. No visual distractions. No judges' sarcasm and in-fighting. No phone numbers or threats of elimination. Just music. I find out really quickly which songs get skipped over repeatedly and which songs I fast-forward to find. I'm usually surprised. 

Last year, I was a total Brooke White fan until I stopped and listened... then I realized that I liked her music, but didn't ADORE it like I thought I did. I discovered that I was actually a huge Jason Castro fan. Huh. Who woulda guessed?

This year, I was surprised again. Take away the goofy grin and great hair, and Kris Allen is good... but not fabulously great. Adam Glambert is no longer cute and fun--he's downright annoyingly unlistenable. (Go ahead. Disagree.) And guess what? Allison's take on "Someone to Watch Over Me" will be on my Faves list for a long, long time. But Danny Gokey will be the one that I watch for when new albums start coming out in the fall. His voice, his style... it's by far my favorite.

Even if his rendition of "Dream On" was 1000% worse than Michael John's amazing performance last year. Even if he made me cringe in horror last night. All of that is forgiven. Go Go Gokey!