Review of Tuesday's American Idol

Tuesday's performances on American Idol were an improvement over last week's abysmal showing. In a change of plans from their usual routine, the men performed Tuesday following the announcement that contestant Crystal Bowersox would not be able to perform due to medical reasons. As it stands right now, Crystal is scheduled to perform on Wednesday night with the rest of the women.

The men's performances began with a bang as Michael Lynche sang "This is a Man's World" by James Brown. It was an enjoyable performance to watch and his smooth singing was a great start to the show. The next two performances of John Park and Casey James were not as great and were, frankly, forgettable.

Alex Lambert was the next stand-out performance with a definite improvement on last week's shaky singing. He seemed nervous at first but really settled into the song, and maybe playing the guitar helped him this time around. That hair, however, is so distracting. Surely the make-up artists or stylists or whatever American Idol has can suggest something better for him haircut wise.

Following Lambert were two guys that are just trying too hard to impress. Todrick Hall, who seems to be trying to make a song his own, has sang two consecutive songs by female artists that he has changed to an extent that they just weren't enjoyable to listen to. Jermaine Sellers pre-performance interview on wearing a onesie was hilarious, but it didn't make up for the fact that he still sounds like a lounge singer.

The next three performances were good but not great. They showed the potential that Andrew Garcia, Aaron Kelley, and Tim Urban have, but if they are going to make it past the next couple weeks they need to kick it into overdrive. Lee Dewyze wrapped up the show with the song "Lips of an Angel" by Hinder. Dewyze has such a great, throaty rock voice that is sure to be popular with fans. Despite the disparate styles of Lynche and Dewyze, the night's performances started off great and ended great but there was a lot of shaky ground in-between.