I'm just going to warn you that if you like inspirational music you should stop reading this writeup right now because I tend to hate schmaltzy treacle, and we got a lot of it tonight. Some of it was sung quite well but I will never get enthusiastic about any version of a Goo Goo Dolls song or "I Believe I Can Fly." I'm just that kind of jerk. If Idol wanted to make money of iTunes downloads for Idol Gives Back it should have chosen a different theme, like "Music people want to pay money to hear."
Casey kicked things off with "Don't Stop" which will always remind me of the Clintons and Gores getting their groove on at the 1992 Democratic National Convention so I didn't anticipate Casey being able to make it very current, and he didn't. As he's done the last two weeks, he sang and played guitar proficiently but it was Classic Casey: good but not great. The judges agreed. Dude is coasting.
Lee took on "The Boxer" which is a very good song but I thought with the strings, backup singers, melody switcheroos, grand piano and yarling (thanks to Maura Johnston for introducing me to that word) the whole thing got a little too-too. Lee sang it well as he always does but I think I would have liked it a lot more had he pared the arrangement down significantly. The judges loved it though and Simon decided right then and there to declare it the best of the night.
Tim sang "Better Days" by the Goo Goo Dolls. His hair was flatironed and I was bored. I'm realizing the best thing about Tim's performances are Ellen's food similes and today she compared him to the soup of the day: sometimes she likes it and sometimes she doesn't, and today she didn't. Simon tempered his criticism saying that Tim's improved over the past few weeks but this week was a bit of a letdown. If I can verbally chart his progression on the show it went from whatever to awful to not so bad and we're back to whatever.
Aaron sang "I Believe I Can Fly" and even mentor Alicia Keyes said it's a song that can be "overkill." At first I cringed at how cheesy the performance was as Aaron shut his eyes and shook his head about how he did not think he could go on but he sang the song really well especially towards the end (complete with a splay-legged pose, singing into mic held aloft). But Simon made the same observation I did: would many people want to listen to this on the radio, let alone buy a version of it?
Once again, I have no idea what kind of singer Siobhan wants to be. She took on "When You Believe", a Mariah AND Whitney song, and I had a feeling it would be annoying when Alicia advised her to pause before hitting her bit note to let the audience know it was going to be special. Actually, it wasn't as precious and cheesy as I thought it would be: it was duller than that. Her Midsummer Night's Dream getup was more interesting than the performance. Randy didn't like the song choice and the other judges agreed that she failed to nail a performance or give a good idea of what kind of recording artist she would be. Once again she took what felt like forever talking about how nothing is going to scare her away from singing the songs that touch her so deeply and once again the audience applauded. As she spoke the camera got in tighter and tighter on her face until I thought I could see my reflection in her lip gloss.