The American Idol Top 9 iTunes Performance tracks are now available for download. I review them below.
My favorites: Haley Reinhart and James Durbin.
- American Idol 10 Top 9 Performances – $6.99 – iTunes
- Jacob Lusk – “Man in the Mirror” – When Jacob isn’t over-singing, he’s over-acting. The vocal here is good, but the tearful quiver in his voice is overkill. iTunes
- Haley Reinhart – “Piece of My Heart” – Even better than her already pretty amazing live performance. This is one to download. iTunes
- Casey Abrams – “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” – Casey gets his growl on, but in a good way. A solid vocal, but the arrangement isn’t much of a departure from the original – iTunes
- Lauren Alaina – “Natural Woman” – I wish the arrangement was a little more country. It would have set Lauren apart from the many covers of this song already out there. – iTunes
- James Durbin – “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” – The longer recorded version gives the song time to build. The vocal on this recording is SPECTACULAR. James would have had the best vocal of the night if he’d had more time. – iTunes
- Scotty McCreery – “That’s Alright” – The vocal on this sounds totally karaoke–Scotty doing his Elvis impression. Not terrible, but not very interesting. What saved the live version was Scotty’s appealing charisma – iTunes
- Pia Toscano – “River Deep Mountain High” – Wow. Girl can wail on those high notes. Her range is incredble. Not really down with the tinky-tink arrangement (Too bad Phil Spector wasn’t available to lend a hand. Heh.) But the vocal is solid. – iTunes
- Stefano Langone – “When a Man Loves a Woman” – Not digging Stefano’s falsetto on this so much, but the vocal on this recording is mostly stellar. If you listen to Stefano without watching him, he doesn’t seem so cheesy – iTunes
- Paul McDonald – “Folsom Prison Blues” – Why can’t Jimmy’s team figure out how to record Paul’s voice so that he doesn’t sound like a chipmunk on helium? It’s disappointing, because the live version was awesome. The arrangement here is decent too. – iTunes
