1. Syesha Mercado: Just ok, nothing special, kinda cruise-shippy. After nailing last week unexpectedly well I was hoping for another above average performance.

2. Chikezie: So far he’s been overlooked & underappreciated by the judges & fans alike. Now how can anyone not be entertained by his latest? That was awesome! Who knew a smooth R&B singer could rock out, not to mention bust out some bluegrass groovin too? Its time for Chikezie to get his due cred!

3. Rameile Mulabay: Stuck in first gear AGAIN & never shifted. Very pretty tho, but very dull. Me & the wife laughed for several minutes once Randy echoed our sentiments in deadpan fashion - “Yeah, that was pretty boring, yo.”

4. Jason Castro: Hmm, I wonder what was so familiar about his performance... oh yeah, it was THE EXACT SAME THING HE DID LAST WEEK! Acoutic guitar, stool, same sweet heartfelt sound, just an exact repeat of last week to the point of being interchangable.

5. Carly Smithson: Her best effort to date. She can rule a rockin ballad, but this time she just rocked. Consistently & solidly above average.

6. David Cook: Pure genius two weeks running. He’s really found his sound. He keeps choosing songs with a sardonic lyrical bent, magnified tenfold by his vocal style. He officially just pulled ahead of the pack.

7. Brooke White: Her piano seemed a bit of a distraction for her singing, but she still did a great job. She has real emotion, & would sound good doing patriotic music with stirring lyrics. Another consistently good performer.

8. David Hernandez: Ive been a fan, but this was not good. It was a single layer cake with seven layers of frosting. The things he was doing that made him stand out before are now being overly exaggerated.

9. Amanda Overmeyer: Whatever umph she was lacking last week has been reclaimed! She’s FINALLY reached the point I was hoping she would attain. The trick to singing like Janis is to NOT sing a Janis song. Last week her hair was her biggest visual distraction, this week it was her biggest attraction. She’s still carrying around that ‘hard life’ vibe tho, & I wonder if singing in bars for so long has dampened her passion somewhat.

10. Michael Johns: Good job, could have been great. He took too long to reach his stride, and then never quite reached it. He got real close tho, I was so close to feeling real inspiration - if he only had added just an extra little sumthin...

11. Kristy Lee Cook: Dolly Pardon on helium. It’d be funny if it werent so sad. All she was missing was a hillbilly slapping his ass in the background while galloping around with a horsehead on a stick. Ill be having nightmares about the resurgence of Hee-Haw for weeks.

12. David Archuleta: Time for an old saw... ‘My how the mighty have fallen’. There was really nowhere else for him to go. Hes been put on a pedestal & has been getting huge facetime on Youtube. Basically a crash & burn scenario. Fortunately for him, he has a lot of time for a recovery, because he’s not going anywhere for a while. But he DID do a faceplant off his own pedestal, & David Cook seems more than happy to take his place at the top (for the time being...............).

It seems I'm in the minority here..........I just don't get the whole Amanda vibe. IMHO......she's a decent singer, but I'm not on board with the "raves" she is getting. I feel much of what she's done so far all sounds about the same......it'd be interesting to see if they had a true "ballad" night if she would pull it off or if she's stuck in that rock n roll style.