Episode 'American Idol' Season 10, Episode 30 - The Top 5 Perform Recap

There's no love lost of Casey's elimination apparently. No dramatic intro, no recap of beardface's exit...just Steven Tyler mocking Ryan Seacrest. Wait...was that Anthony Hopkins in the audience? I swear I just saw Anthony Hopkins.

The assignment for the week is for the Idols to sing two songs: a current one and a classic one. So basically, half of the songs will be terrible and the other half will be great. Sheryl Crow is the guest coach this week, which is interesting because she's not from the 1960's and she's definitely not current.

James Durbin (1st Performance)

James chooses "Closer to the Edge" by 30 Seconds to Mars. See what I mean about half the songs being terrible? James should perform it well though, as it provides a lot of chances to show off his range.

Sure enough, he kicks it up an octave...but he really could've picked a better song. It's a great performance, but not a very interesting one. Randy actually praises the song choice. I think. The judges ramble on so much it's really kind of hard to tell if there's a point among all of those words.

Jacob Lusk (1st Performance):

Jacob's up now for the Coca-Cola Minute, in which Seacrest and the contestant say meaningless things while Coke advertises itself.

Jacob chooses "No Air" by Jordin Sparks, a tough choice to sing for a dude. This is gonna be high. Jacob sounds like he was straining through that, but he really performed it, so that's good. Jennifer sums it up: he has the showmanship, he has the voice, but his song choices aren't the best for him. Randy thinks "No Air" and the whole pop persona is the wrong direction for Jacob (and notes that the performance was sharp. Finally someone notes the pitchiness!).

Lauren Alaina (1st Performance):

Lauren chooses a Carrie Underwood song, and none of the conversation is about her singing...it's about her standing. She doesn't stand and deliver, she dances around a bit, and so does J Lo, who looks kind of pained.

It's a solid performance, and a good choice for Lauren, who has trouble breaking out of her shell. The fun of a Carrie Underwood song seems to help her along, and the judges agree. "Lauren is in it!" exclaims Randy. Reference to J.Lo's face by Seacrest. Nice.

Scotty McCreery (1st Performance):

Scotty goes with "She's Gone" for his first song, still a country song but more of an angsty, energetic one. So, no more sitting there and crooning for Scotty. An important adjustment...as Jimmy said last week, subtleties don't work in this arena. The energy of the song makes Scotty hold his mic like a person who knows how to hold things, and he has a blast singing.

A really great physcial performance from Scotty along with the vocal performance, something we don't see much. As Randy says, we saw the "concert Scotty." Major comeback for the country dude.

Haley Reinhart (1st Performance):

Haley will be singing an unreleased Lady Gaga song, which apparently she got Our Lady of Perpetual Gaga's own blessing. Jimmy and Sheryl seem pretty confident.

You know, sometimes the contestants' opening poses kind of annoy me. What. Is. That. The rest of the performance is pretty good though, except that it gets a little repetitive at the end. Jennifer thinks doing the Gaga track was a bad choice and that she should have done one that everybody knows.

James Durbin (2nd Performance):

James is going to slow it down and sing "Without You," and even just listening to the song makes James break into tears. Will he be able to sing it without wavering?

Nope. He does start crying during the chorus, but he manages to keep it together enough to finish. He falls a little flat on the high notes as a result, but not enough to dock him the points he earned for putting on a solid emotional performance.

The judges love it, and Randy says the competition is his to lose. He's right. James has turned on the jets in the past couple of weeks, and if he keeps it up he's going to win this thing hands down.

Jacob Lusk (2nd Performance):

For his next number, Jacob chooses "Love Hurts" at Jimmy's recommendation. Yes, that "Love Hurts," the rock ballad. Jacob is hesitant, but when he hears Sheryl singing it, he decides to do it.

He really rocks it, but his voice breaks pretty majorly. He makes up for it a bit at the end, when he drops a Durbin-esque note at the end.

There! There's Anthony Hopkins! I knew I saw him! What...what is he doing there? Is he going to eat one of the contestants' livers with fava beans and a nice chianti?

Lauren Alaina (2nd Performance):

"Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers is Lauren's choice, it's her parents' song. Why is everyone doing the low-key song second? Shouldn't it be the other way around? End with a bang?

Lauren still has the talent to make the performance impressive, but the song doesn't serve her very well. That might be because there's not a lot to do with it or because she isn't putting as much emotion into it as James and Jacob put into theirs. But as the judges say, it was technically very solid.

Scotty McCreery (2nd Performance):

Scotty goes with an Elvis Presley song, "You Were Always On My Mind." Jimmy basically tells him to ignore the judges and keep doing his thing. Scotty is clearly Cheryl's favorite.

Somebody really should have taped down the cord for Scotty's earpiece.

It wasn't the greatest performance, but solid. As J Lo says, he's a good performer, and it was "captivating."

Haley Reinhart (2nd Performance):

Haley chooses "House of the Rising Sun," an awesome song and an awesome choice for Haley, though it'll be interesting to see if the absence of the baritone will kill it or not. Plus, the meaning of the song is kind of gender-specific.

Sure enough, Haley doesn't change the "boy" to "girl," which was a good choice. It starts off very dramatically, then gets a little boring, but she finishes strong. A great interpretation of the song and a great performance. But is it enough to make up for the sub-par Gaga performance? The judges seem to think so: Randy thinks it's the performance of the night.

A strong night, but tomorrow somebody goes. I'm putting my money on either Jacob or Haley.