<p>I’m with you fishymom - Lauren, Scotty and Haley were great. Loved the Lady Gaga song. What is wrong with those judges? Voting for both the girls tonight.</p>
<p>OK… so this was the first night I basically watched the entire show.</p>
<p>And I’d like to vote, but I did not write down the numbers, and I don’t want to vote through my Facebook. Anyone know how I can find the numbers to text my vote to?</p>
<p>Haley was simply superb with House of the Rising Sun!</p>
<p>IMO–based on tonight’s performance, the bottom 2 this week should be Jacob and James.</p>
<p>^teriwtt 1-866-436-57_ _</p>
<p>James 01 or 06
Jacob 02 or 07
Lauren 03 or 08
Scotty 04 or 09
Haley 05 or 10</p>
<p>Thanks! May manage to get in a few votes before time is up.</p>
<p>Agree with all of this</p>
<p>Can’t quote on my iPhone :rolleyes: I was referring to mommaj’s comments up thread</p>
<p>I’m watching in a slight lag, so I can ffwd thru the dumb stuff and commercials; so I’m posting without reading any spoilers that might have come before me.</p>
<p>First set: Haley in a cake walk! (And I’ve never been a fan of hers before. I don’t care what the judges said.) But then again, I wasn’t a fan of the song choices of the other four…</p>
<p>Second round:</p>
<p>James - well I’ve probably listened to Nillson Schmillson about a hundred thousand times because that’s how much I love it. Despite a missed note or two in the middle, he nailed it; he moved me. Just what Randy said. GO JAMES!</p>
<p>Jacob - I thought Sheryl did him a great service in showing him how to do that song. It began beautifully, but I wish he didn’t feel the need to use every bit of his power on every song. I liked the beginning way more than the end.</p>
<p>Lauren - too many missteps for me. Were the judges damning with faint praise? (“there’s nothing to judge”…??)</p>
<p>James- what happened tonight? it was as if he cannot sing! And he sounded so desperate. I think he might have blown it. Tonight really surprised me- his worst week, for sure. And he has not really had any bad weeks till tonight. Either he lost confidence in himself or he is missing his family. Or maybe he is just feeling too much pressure…</p>
<p>Jacob did some amazing stuff vocally tonight, but his overall style is just is not mainstream enough or something…</p>
<p>Scotty has so much maturity and confidence- it is really keeping him in this.
Lauren was really good tonight!!! She keeps growing.</p>
<p>I keep trying to listen to Haley without looking to hear how she would sound on the radio… not sure it works often enough. HOTRS was unusually creative, and it worked.</p>
<p>The judges were definitely more critical tonight. JLo really reacts strongly when Randy does not agree with her! ST is still too cuddly and supportive. I think they get really tired of this- coming up with the “right” thing to say: please the network and producers, express their opinion, come up with an original and catchy way to say it., deal with disagreement among themselves. I feel a palpable struggle, almost a dread of having a turn to give the critique. It makes me cringe to hear them for the whole hour. Overall, they are just way too attached to these performers, as if they are their babies. Simon never did that LOL</p>
<p>I am truly sick of Randy. It’s time he’s replaced! Enough “he’s in it to win it”, “yo dog”, “for me for you”, etc.</p>
<p>Scotty sang it best, 'it’s time he’s (Randy’s) gone!"</p>
<p>Scotty’s second - just not my style, but I can’t imagine he won’t have a great career and if the country-western vote is huge for AI… well then, he’s it.</p>
<p>Haley - a second brilliant piece of advice from Sheryl Crowe. I thought she was amazing with House of the Rising Sun.</p>
<p>The ladies are back! If Haley should end up winning it all, it would have to be the biggest comeback in the history of the show. I even liked Haley’s round 1 song. I also think her stage presence has improved dramatically from earlier weeks. </p>
<p>I didn’t think any of the guys tonight performed two good round 1 and round 2 performances back-to-back. In some cases, I even thought that parts of one song either started out strong and finished weak or vice versa. For example with James round 2 song, it started out great and finished poorly, just as jmmom said. It got worse, when he threw in the point about leaving everything on the stage each and every week. I wonder if that will play to the voters as well as the tears will? (The tears WERE real, I just thought the bit about “leaving it on the stage” was an overkill. Let actions speak louder than words.)</p>
<p>I thought Lauren was very good tonight as well, particularly her round 1 song, but both were good.</p>
<p>Jimmy Iovine really confuses me. He tells Jacob he needs to do something different and not do another gospel (sounding) song, but then he tells Scotty “to be true to yourself”. I think Jacob would have improved his chances if he had STAYED on the same genre of music right from the get-go. I still think BROADWAY is where Jacob belongs.</p>
<p>I thought JLo looked ridiculous in that outfit. She looked like a combo between Mary Poppins and Eliza Doolittle. At least when she was turned toward Randy and interrupting him, I didn’t have to look at that stupid flower pinned to the side of her head. Steven set a new record tonight using the word “beautiful”. Can’t the producers give him a list of alternate words for him to use instead of THAT word in a Thesaurus?</p>
<p>It seems like the first two performances have been poor for the past several weeks now.</p>
<p>The end of the road for Jacob, I would have to think.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I was going to write this very same thing, but jmmom beat me to it!</p>
<p>I liked both songs by Lauren and Haley–not sure WHAT the judges were going on and on about. The girls are coming on strong at the end.</p>
<p>James didn’t do it for me this week, for the first time. </p>
<p>Jacob–time to go…</p>
<p>Sheryl Crow was REALLY a useful mentor, unlike some of the bozos they’ve had on there. She has good instincts. Maybe she should take Jimmy Iovine’s job…</p>
<p>Haley is my vote for last night. Her last song really knocked it out of the park. She has had a great comeback.</p>
<p>Scotty surprised me … he has reduced the number of times he country “scoops” his notes, so I really appreciated being able to hear his pure voice. He’s quite talented as a performer.</p>
<p>I also give kudos to Lauren. She’s trying really hard to show confidence and it’s almost working. I think if she keeps acting confident, eventually her real confidence will catch up. She’s young, but in two years she will be confident and famous.</p>
<p>Jacob was okay … I love what his voice can do but not sure I will buy his records.</p>
<p>James may be going home … that performance was not good, even if he was missing his family. I don’t think he hit half the notes. The tears almost seemed like the highlight of the performance. He’s super talented, but this week was his worst and the worst of the five. Sorry James, I like you, but not this performance at all.</p>
<p>It was also good to have a different mentor, even though I like Jimmy. Will.i.am is still my favorite mentor, so I hope he comes back.</p>
<p>Scotty is really paying attention to the very little critiquing they do. Last week they told him not to drop off so fast and hold his high. This week he nailed it. Before that they told him to use more of his range and last week he gave a much bigger range to his songs. He is paying attention.</p>
<p>If my FB friends are any indication James is ahead by a mile, but I like Scotty and after Haley’s TRULY amazing comeback I’d be ok with either of those two winning it all.</p>
<p>Just catching up on my DVR and my first impression is that there was far too much shouting last night. I liked James’ Without You. I’ve always loved that song and I thought he did a good job with it. </p>
<p>I wasn’t as impressed with Lauren’s Unchained Melody as some others were. She had real control issues after the belted parts, with the soft sections really disappearing. That switching back and forth is difficult, even for experienced singers, though.</p>
<p>Those two are my favorites but it’s impossible to predict who will leave at this stage when there are so few left.</p>
<p>Scotty has also quit treating his microphone as a taco he’s about to eat and he’s cut down on the eyebrow thing. Maybe he’s got someone combing CC so that he can get some REAL useful constructive criticism every week.</p>
<p>Not surprised with the outcome tonight. I think Jimmy gave the most helpful analysis. Much better then the judges.</p>