David A. has by far the best natural vocal instrument, and he’s got the technique. He also reads as having a lot of personal magnetism — too bad he (or his dad, or AI, or his church) seems to be confining him/self to a limited choice of safe songs. Does anyone else see him as a tragic figure?

Michael Johns has the pipes, but I don’t find him particularly appealing.

David Cook does well, but he’s nothing special compared to a lot of other singers I’ve heard.

Jason Castro — face it, he’s become the new Sanjaya.

Carly and Ramielle started out as intriguing, but, well, it seems like everyone is getting “Idol”-ized to fit TPTB’s idea of what a pop singer should be. And maybe they’re right. I usually lose interest in the competition at this point in the season anyway because the songs get blander and the clothing looks more like costumes (worn by understudies), what you’d see in ads or catalog pages.

Probably too much to wish that people this young could be original, interesting AND have the strength to prevail over the pap-singer idolmakers.

and can it get any more obvious that the judges are on the nuts of archuleta? kid puts up a bland performance every week and he can’t get enough praise from all three of them.

Good points, all.

At the end of last nite’s show, I found it particularly difficult to do a 1-to-9 ranking of the performances. Sure, I thought Michael was noticeably better than Ramiele, for example, but I think the differences between 2 and 3, or 3 and 4, for example, were difficult to parse. And who exactly was “in the middle” last nite? That could easily have been 5 or so of the 9.

It’s become almost cliche to say that “this year’s crop is the most talented ever!” — whether that’s true or not — but it’s fast becoming very difficult to differentiate #3 from #8. And it will only get harder from here.

Regarding Carly: Simon has a history of commenting unfavorably on wardrobes. Carly really, really needs the help of a stylist and some sleeves and a new makeup look. She just seems to be a mass of contradictions, looks wise, and it distracts from her vocals, which are good.

I agree with you that Ramiele’s number is probably finally up, and I think the next to go are Kristy Lee, Syesha, and Jason.

That top 5 competition is gonna be brutal.

Simon’s commentary was rude but true – usually at this point in the competition the contestants have gotten their makeovers and look way better – Carly, I would say, has been looking worse. As if she bought her entire outfit at Forever 21 in a size that was too small for her.

Also, I think Simon tends to say what everyone is thinking – minutes before he said that several people around me said some variation of “girl, your pants are too tight.”

???