American Idol: Adam Lambert Leads the Men of the Top 10

Looking particularly fetching in a silver sharkskin suit and sans his ever present fingernail polish and eye liner, Adam Lambert proved he's no one-trick pony. Sporting his hair slicked back and singing in a clear pure falsetto, he wowed even the great Smokey Robinson with his rendition of "Tracks of My Tears". Lambert has been consistently edgy, trying new things. His version of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" was a sitar infused homage to Ravi Shankar. While Simon denounced the performance, I give Lambert props for stepping out of the box. Actually, Lambert pretty much takes the box and tears it into pieces.

Admittedly, I'm getting on the Lambert bandwagon a little late, not having been as impressed with his earlier performances as some of my cohorts. However, I have been pleased with Lambert's performances the last two weeks. While I am in the minority with regard to Lambert's "Ring of Fire" performance I am standing by my praise.

Obviously having made the Top 10, Lambert has secured a spot as part of the American Idol tour. I'm looking forward to seeing what twists Adam brings to the remainder of the season. While I do see Adam as a contender I don't see him winning the whole schmear.

Bona fide soul brother #1 Matt Giraud continued to bring it. Singing a sexy soulful version of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On", it is easy to see that Matt is stepping up to wrest control of the blue eyed soul banner from Michael Sarver and Danny Gokey. I agree with Kara that quite a few female fans are singing 'Let's Get it On' to their TV screens when Matt takes the stage. Amping up his sex appeal, Matt got from behind the piano to show the people what's he's working with. Proving that he doesn't need to use the keys as a prop, definitely makes Giraud a hotter property.

It didn't hurt that blue eyed soul brothers #2 and #3, Danny Gokey and Michael Sarver were less than stellar in their performances. Michael Sarver's "Ain't to Proud to Beg" had me begging for it to be over. I like Michael Sarver. Hailing from Jasper, TX, he's my homeboy so I'm pulling for him but the truth is last night was pretty bad. In his pre-performance video, he said he wanted to 'church up' the song. While the arrangement took me back to church, the singing did not. He was pitchy and seemed to be over doing it. I have to agree with Randy, though he does have some R&B sensibilities and phrasing, I don't know that he's an R&B artist. However, he could prove me wrong. The thing is that we know he can sing. He's held his own to make it to the Top 10 so he's the real deal. Like Kara, I feel that he needs to show us how he's different and what he's going to bring to bear to get him out of the shadows of Matt Giraud or Danny Gokey.

Danny Gokey performed The Temptations, "Get Ready". It was an okay performance. Not great but not horrible. I noticed that he failed to follow Smokey Robinson's instructions to sing through the complete verse of the song. I think that if he had it would have made a bigger difference in the song. Gokey has the chops, so one bad performance isn't going to take him out of the running. Because he has the skills one expects more from Danny, especially with Matt Giraud and Kris Allen bringing their A -game every week.

Guitar in hand Kris Allen sang "How Sweet It Is" and how sweet it was. Allen has likeability and delivers solid performances week after week. He's not as exciting as Adam or as soulful as Matt or Danny but he's quietly plying his trade with his sights firmly on the finals.

Anoop Desai delivered another solid performance with his version of Smokey Robinson's "Ooh Baby Baby". Using his falsetto for maximum effect he keeps proving the judges were right to keep him around.