Initial impressions....(I might change my mind after a TiVo rewatch)
My rankings:
Taylor "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" --classic Taylor. Smart move on his part to pick this song. Simon hated it, because Simon hates Taylor as Clay II --the phenomenally popular, independent, and difficult-to-market Idol.
Elliot--"Somebody to Love." Could he be more adorable? I thought his voice sounded great and he looked a lot more confident on stage this week--not terrified. (You could almost see him remembering to take one of his hands off the mic, so as to look less scared-to-death.) Loved the dorky wave-dance.
Chris: "Innuendo." I haven't heard the song before this, but then I realized it is just the same ol' thing from Chris. Nothing new. Good, but dull!
Paris: "Show Must Go On." Paris rocked as hard as she could, but I was just plain scared. The dominatrix outfit didn't help.
Kellie--"Bohemian Rhapsody." I'm going to get hell from FR for putting her so high on the list, but you know what, girlfriend stuck her head out there and went for it. Granted, her voice was all over the place on the song, but she did *try* to put together a complete performance.
Katharine: "Who Wants to Live Forever." Pageanty, right down to coy smiles over the shoulder. The song WAS too UNFIT for her, despite Randy and Simon's reluctance to say so; she was screeching from five seconds into the song, to the end. No nuance. Bleh.
Bucky--"Fat-Bottomed Girls." Competent, but if I were in a bar and he were singing this number, I'd be turning to my neighbor to chat. Just not sufficient to catch your attention and keep it.
Ace: "We Will Rock You." PFFFFT. What can I say? I laughed out loud when he told Ryan he "rocked." Yeah, Ace. And I loved how the Queen peeps shot down his attempts to rewrite the song. Some things you *don't* change, Ace. For a reason.
Ryan: Last place for wearing that godawful vest thing.
Yup. But, for what it's worth, the Queen guys seemed to like him more than any of the others, IMO. (I don't know how they got through the Ace session with a straight face :)
Ranking:
Elliott--Thought he was the best tonight. Finished the song with a run that just matter of factly said "Nobody else here can do that."
Chris--Didn't like the song, but once again Chris showed that within the narrow confines of his comfort zone, he is very, very good.
Taylor--Back to entertaining. Hope he does some songs in the weeks to come that make the most of his soulful voice though. Manic Taylor is fine and Soulful Taylor is fine; it's the in between stuff that he falls flat with.
Paris--Another chameleonlike performance from her. She's not really great at most of the things she does, but she is good at pretty much all of them.
Bucky--Pretty decent. Not great but still enjoyable.
Katharine--Wasn't my favorite performance from her, but I do like to hear her sing in a straightforward manner. I want to hear her purr rather than belt though.
Ace--Started out much better than I expected. If he would have amped that up a little more and not strayed into Ace-osity as the song continued, it would have been okay.
Kellie--Simon said a lot of people would consider that performance hideous. Yep. But it was better than I expected from her. Only slightly hideous.