Beatles night redux a bust

Although it is hard to blame Nigel & Co. for trying to milk their rights to the Lennon-McCartney songbook for all it's worth, even Simon had to concede it wasn't a good idea to feature the theme two weeks in a row.

Bingo! Especially considering how most everyone fared well last week, the only direction the finalists could really go was down. And for the most part, they did.

Amanda Overmyer started the show off by reverting to her mumbling jumbling indecipherable "singing" with her take on "Back in the USSR" After actually doing not half-bad last week, Amanda responded to Simon's suggestion that she do a ballad by exclaiming "ballads are boring!" Well, so is singing the same exact style of music every week.

But the rock 'n roll nurse wasn't the only one to receive negative feedback. Brooke White seemed to get more of a reaction from her bright yellow sundress and her awkward dancing than from her singing, which was probably her weakest vocal delivery to top it off. Simon called her rendition of "Here Comes the Sun" "terrible" and "wet" among other things, prompting Brooke to nervously talk over his critique as she tried to excuse her performance away.

Another finalist that drew the ire of the judges was Michael Johns, who by their accounts should be doing much better than he has done the past few weeks. Although his performance of "A Day in the Life" wasn't "a mess" as Simon called it, it was definitely lackluster. Paula also found herself back peddling when she tried to explain that it was because Michael was wearing an ear piece that caused his underwhelming vocals, only to be told by Michael that he was not wearing one. So much for that theory, Paula!

And then there's Chikezie, who basically decided that because the theme was the same as last week's, he had the green light to deliver the same exact performance as he did last week. Starting out slow with "I've Just Seen a Face," then morphing it into a southern/country/rock mesh of harmonica-playing and toe-tapping, the judges were split on what they had just witnessed. Randy liked the second half better than the first, while Simon hated the first half and only disliked the second. He said it was gimmicky and that there were too many artists mixed into one performance, which Paula vehemently disagreed with.

Jason Castro also got mixed reviews for his take on "Michelle." Although his performance was boring to the max, he did score points with the French-speaking population by nailing the annunciation of the infused foreign lyrics. Too bad France and Canada can't vote. Randy and Paula pinpointed his lifeless performance on the fact that he was disconnected, especially since he was away from his guitar, though they still thought it was "alright." Simon put it more bluntly, saying if it were a radio show instead of a television show he would have turned it off. Ouch.

But it was Kristy Lee Cook who once again took the worst beating of the night for her delivery of "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away." Described as being "musical wallpaper" by Simon, the performance was very up and down in terms of the stark contrast between her upper and lower register (the latter being much worse). He also said she's only memorable when she's terrible like last week. But her comeback to Simon of "I can blow you out of your socks next week and you know it!" pretty much made up for her awful performance.

But the night wasn't all a wash. David Cook pulled off another week of solid rock with his version of "Day Tripper," which he performed in the Whitesnake arrangement. Despite being accused of being "smug" by Simon (oh, so he really is the next Daughtry?), Cook's talents of playing the guitar, voice box and singing showed that he was talented more than he was full of himself.

Carly Smithson also had strong vocals, though "Blackbird" never did sound so dreary as it did last night. After Paula and Randy gave praise to her control, emotion and inflections among other things, Simon picked on Carly for the song's subject matter and lyrics, and calling her choice "indulgent." The discussion got more philosophical than he bargained for when Carly said the lyrics were meaningful to her as they represented how the music industry is a cruel place and like birds trying to learn to fly free she was trying to break the stranglehold the industry has on her, to which Simon launched into sarcasm mode ("Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were all poor little birds on this show").

But it was David Archuleta who showed the most improvement from last week's lyrical disaster. He once again proved that he's the one to beat, as his rendition of "Long and Winding Road" was definitely more in his comfort zone. It wasn't nearly on an "Imagine" level but it sounded like a Grammy-winning performance compared to the rest of the finalists. All three judges lobbed comments like "amazing!" "wonderful!" and "that was hotness!" his way, and the world returned to order once again.

The big surprise of the night was Syesha Mercado, whose vulnerable and controlled performance of "Yesterday" won her mostly praise from the judges. Although she looked beautiful and sounded pleasant compared to her usual over-singing and sometimes even shoutfests, Paula wasn't the only one to notice her blatant disregard to look into the camera or at the studio audience. Instead, she opted to fix her eyes on something on the stage floor (maybe Ryan left a gum wrapper down there?). Either way, the judges liked it, and Simon predicted she would make it through to the Top 10.

Finally, Ramiele Malubay closed out the show with "I Should Have Known Better." It was definitely a step up from last week's snorefest, and she was wearing a cool hat. But the judges still gave her bland comments, probably the most generic of the night. Randy liked her confidence but said it was "alright." Paula liked her better this week than she did last week. And Simon thought she picked the wrong song and the whole thing was amateurish. So Ramiele will just have to make do with whatever all that is supposed to mean.

Predictions
Bottom 3: Kristy Lee, Amanda, Chikezie
Bottom 2: Kristy Lee, Amanda
Eliminated: Kristy Lee