'American Idol' Season 11, Episode 27 Recap - 'Top 7 Perform'

"How do you find the strength to carry on," the opening titles ask, "when your friends leave one by one?" How about this: you remember that you're on a TV show, and that person leaving means you're one step closer to a very lucrative record deal, which is what you showed up for in the first place? Also, you didn't know this person two months ago. You aren't that close.

Anyway, I have issues with DeAndre going home. I am confused, though, as to why "Modern Family" star Eric Stonestreet is in the audience. I'm sure we'll find out.

Wasting no time, we're back with Tommy Hilfiger, who says that the contestants should wear nice clothes outside of the competition as well, and then dresses them in a bunch of awful clothes. Maybe I'm just behind on fashion, but I feel like shiny screen prints are out, aren't they?

Skylar is up first, and we're visiting their hometowns this week, so we go to Brandon, Mississippi. They have a big LED billboard up for her, and I'm very impressed that they have one. I'm impressed they have electricity. Guest mentor loves Skylar's voice, saying, "your voice is f*ckin' stupid."

She sings "Didn't You Know How Much I Loved You," a bittersweet country song by Kellie Pickler. How convenient. She sings it nicely, as she usually does. Also, there's fire on the stage! Fire!

The judges love it! Steven says he's "enamored by the women this year" and says something about crows. I dunno. They all like it.

On to Murfreesboro, where Colton is from. For a guy who didn't even want to audition this year, and had to be goaded into his by his now-eliminated sister, Colton's doing remarkable. He wants to do "Love the Way You Lie," but when Jimmy calls him "high Phillip," they decide to tweak the song a bit to make Colton stand out.

He's behind a piano again, which is usually where he's best. He hits the falsetto pretty cleanly, kills the bridge, and does a pretty great job with the cover overall. I like it better than the original, anyway.

The judges love it! Steven thinks that track would be ready to go, with no overdubs. Really? NO overdubs? I thought at least an overdub or two! But NONE, according to Steven!

Oh dammit. The first duet of the night is "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye, which Elise wanted but Phillip didn't. I wish he'd gotten his way. In the last week, this song has been on "The Voice," "Glee" and now "American Idol." This truly excellent song is being slowly murdered. These two put at least a few bullets into it... I like Elise, but for someone who wanted to do this song so badly, she sure it phoning it in. There's no emotion behind it. It's very loungey. Booo. Boo to all of this.

The judges love it! Steven says he has the song on loop, and they nailed it! He's totally wrong! Jennifer loves the "feel" that they brought to it. What feel?

Time for Jessica, who is from Chula Vista, right outside of San Diego. She chose "Stuttering" by Jasmine Sullivan, which I have not heard before. It probably won't matter, because it's Jessica. Akon apparently wanted to steal her, and also feed her some hamburgers. Both might be a good idea. She's better than this competition.

The song, as it turns out, is a great way for Jessica to show off her control, which is a great idea. Yeah, she can belt with the best of them, but she also has a tremendous amount of control for someone her age.

The judges love it! Apparently Jessica's arrangement was a little different from the original, which isn't a huge surprise, as she's been known to do that. Randy thinks Jessica "took down a whale," to which Seacrest says "not that we advocate taking down a whale," which is met with no laughs.

Joshua is up next, who gets a happy birthday wish from Fantasia, and Joshua is more animated than he's been the entire season thus far. We already know a lot about his upbringing in Westlake, Lousisiana, what with all the crawfish and such. Joshua is doing Bruno Mars' "Runaway Baby."

The song works for him, especially because Bruno Mars himself has a bit of a throwback style to him, which suits the blues/jazz-friendly Joshua just fine. It might not be the most wow-worthy performance of Joshua's, but it's certainly the most energetic.

The judges love it! Steven wants to know how tall Joshua is, and tells him to get the number of the dancer in the back. Steven's gaydar might be a bit off.

Colton and Skylar will be doing another country duet, this time with Kelly Clarkson's "Don't You Wanna Stay." They make another big deal about rumors of the duo dating, which is clearly not the case. The duet is what you would expect from these two, though it seems like Skylar might be reaching a bit. Not like these duets matter for anything anyway.

The judges love it! Except for Randy, who says "that was okay for me." He says Skylar was a little pitchy, which she was, and gets booooooooed.

On to McKinney, Texas, where Hollie is from. Her charming Liverpudlian parents are back to talk in their Scouser accents. Hollie is singing "Perfect" by Pink, and gets the same note from Jimmy that she has always gotten: she has to be natural, feel it, not be so technical.

Sadly, she still doesn't quite get there. There's really no change in tone or emotion to sell the song, and it still feels too carefully plotted out. She seems much more on pitch tonight, though it might be an easier song, too.

The judges don't love it! You can tell by the way they clap, and when you hear Jennifer say "you look beautiful tonight," you know it's not going to be good. Jennifer and Steven talk to her like they're telling her she has terminal cancer. Randy says she improved over last week, which is true. Still, Hollie is definitely toast this week, barring some kind of catastrophe from the other contestants.

Phillip time, which means we're going to Leesburg, Georgia. We visit the pawn shop, which of course means it's time to cue the "Sanford and Son" theme song. Phillip wants to do "Give a Little More" by Maroon 5, but Akon thinks it's a little boring. A couple of instrumental tweaks, and now suddenly it's fine. Jimmy compares Phillip to Colton, just as he compared Colton to Phillip. Motivation technique? An attempt to spur on a fistfight? What's his game?

I'm not a fan of the performance. It's the same old Phillip stuff, only this time a little slower and with a song that isn't quite as good as some of the others he's done. It just doesn't really build to anything.

The judges kinda love it! Steven calls him a "Steve McQueen, Johnny Cash kind of guy." Jennifer calls it "underwhelming," and Randy agrees that it didn't really go anywhere.

Since there's an odd number of contestants, Hollie, Jessica and Joshua will team up to sing "Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson, and a big deal is made of how Hollie and Joshua are so close, while Jessica is "a third wheel." Aww. Too bad Hollie will be going home tomorrow.

The judges love it! They love heard the three big voices at the same time. Steven makes some kind of pun.

Finally on to Elise, who apparently is a big Jason Segel fan. Well surprise, Jason Segel recorded a greeting! Elise is tickled. On to Kinnelon, New Jersey, where her friend made a little tutorial video on how to vote for Elise. She also has a drink named after her at the bar, which I think I've decided is my new goal in life.

Elise is doing "You and I" by Lady Gaga, and wants to pull a Reed Grimm and play the drums at the top of the song. Jimmy and Akon tell her she's out her damn mind, and that she just needs to kill it. So instead, she starts at the piano. The performance is fine, with some good improvisations (and a few not so good ones). It feels like kind of a safe choice. Also, didn't Haley do this last year?

The judges love it! Randy goes nuts about Elise's vocals, declaring that she's "back." Steven thinks she turned the song into genius. A sentence that actually halfway made sense.

The judges once again dodged the "who are you worried about" question, so let me answer that for them: Hollie. She's almost definitely done. I'm not sure who will join her in the bottom three, but I would assume that Jessica and Colton are untouchable, and Joshua is nearly so. Phillip, Elise or Skylar may join Hollie in the bottom three, but we won't see them leaving this week.