American Idol: Final Four Fatigue

Photo credit: Michael Becker/FOX

After a semi-ludicrous attempt to stack the finalists deck with a teen idol nobody wanted, this week the 13th season of American Idol was down to its last four contestants. All four possessed a few commonalities: they're all very young and still green; they're all adept at writing their own material; they all operate from somewhere on the rock axis. So making the Final Four's theme "Break-Ups and Make-Ups" was a bit strangely undefined—so much so, in fact, that one of the themes-within-the-theme was apparently tossed out at the last minute.

That last-minute uncertainty was apparent even with the jam-packed performance schedule, during which each contestant sang three songs. This week's show had a lot of strange choices, and, as a result, I didn't really have one favorite. In the Battle Of The Gaga Tracks, Jess Meuse's twanged-out "Yoü And I" whomped Jena Irene's off-kilter "Bad Romance," although Jess's other two songs were given key changes that were just slight enough to sound grating. Jena did a super-schmaltzy version of "Can't Help Falling In Love With You" that was all vocal wobble and "meaningful" enunciation, and then she dedicated it to her mom—a total Idol Pageant Chick move. Alex Preston turned a compelling off-kilter hit into Yet Another Moody Song Where He Strums. And Caleb Johnson, coming off a weekend that warranted a Happy First Attempt At Damage Control cake, probably had the best single performance of the night, although if you're a rock guy who screws up "Maybe I'm Amazed" you should probably have your Rock Bona Fides card taken away by brute force.

It's getting down to the wire at Idol, and the exhaustion is setting in, just like it has in so many other recent years!

Jena Irene. Each contestant was charged with singing three selections this week: a breakup song, a makeup song, and a "dedication." Jena's makeup song was the aforementioned Elvis cover, which made Jennifer Lopez FREAK THE HECK OUT a la Steven Tyler popping up to give Jacob Lusk a hug after The Greatest Performance In (Recent) Idol History. Sit down, Jen—it wasn't that good. However, it was nice to see the hyperactive Jena calm down a bit, particularly after a screamy take on "Bad Romance" that threw out everything great about that song in favor of yelling over an absolute mess of an arrangement. Jess's third song was the old Idol stalwart "Heartbreaker," and I could hear Simon Cowell smirking and getting ready to spit out "karaoke," especially at the end, when she just repeated the chorus over and over a la the "Personal Jesus" karaoke arrangement. Reach out, touch faith!

Caleb Johnson. Caleb had a bit of a rough week leading up to the competition, thanks to his calling those Twitter members who kept telling him what to sing A Word That It's Not Really Okay To Use. His first selection was Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name," and his performance, too, had a karaoke element to it—it wasn't off, just blah. Then he did Creedence's "Travelin' Band," which he dedicated to his bandmates at home, who I guess are just sitting by the phone waiting for him to call. It was fine, although it seemed a bit out of place in the context of the evening. Once he got to "Maybe I'm Amazed," though, all was well; of course, that song is an absolute barnburner, all devotion and bluster and really wrenching SCREAMING at the end. He pulled it off.

Jess Meuse. Why any Idol contestant—especially one who's received so much grief from the judges this season—would put themselves in the line of fire by deciding to sing a track associated with not just an Idol winner, but with Grand Poobah Of All That Is Idol, Kelly Clarkson, is beyond me. Perhaps picking "Since U Been Gone"—a great track! a too-great track?—was Jess's signal that she wanted out? The lackluster singing on the lower-register vocals, which need to be hit in order to give the bigger notes some heft, was a sign that she was probably toast this week. Her second performance, of P!nk's bratty-for-its-own-sake "So What," had similar problems, coming off halfhearted when it should have been powered by its own arrogance. She redeemed herself with "Yoü And I," which couldn't be more in her country-punk wheelhouse, but would it be enough? (Spoiler: No.)

Alex Preston. Alex Clare's "Too Close" is one of the odder tracks to make it sorta-big on pop radio in the Hegemonic EDM (Plus Pharrell) Era—it has a jittery rhythm and its massive dubstep wobble actually works as a telegraph of exploding emotion. Why Alex (Preston) decided to water it down so it sounded just like every single one of his other songs is beyond me. I mean I can probably guess (familiarity!), but it was a super-disappointing choice, rendering the song inert. For his dedication track, he sang his buddy Jason Mraz's unkillable "I'm Yours," and it was fine. Just fine. As was his soporific "Yellow." I mean, look, the morning after the performance episode aired I was at the dentist, and the musical selections proffered by Boston's local "all the hits and variety (as long as you don't talk about those icky genres like rap that we leave out)" station made me realize that Alex is the most commercially ready of the four remaining contestants—breathy, delicate, sensitive, strummy. But something happened over the past few weeks to iron out his quirks and make him less interesting than he seemed all those months ago. Then again, that could probably be said for this Idol season on the whole.

MY VOTES: None. I remembered to vote 20 minutes after the polls closed Thursday afternoon.

THE BOTTOM TWO: Jess and Alex.

WHO WENT HOME: Jess. It was her time, especially in the eyes of the producers, one of whom is growing a bit weary of original songs, a.k.a. the Slapout strummer's specialty. That weariness came to a head this week, actually, thanks to a last-minute change to the original plan:

All four of the contestants had practiced original songs during the week? “The “So What” song was a last minute switcheroo and I had to learn it in like a day.”

All four contestants were going to perform an original song, and then at the last minute, they told all four ‘No, you can’t do an original song, you have to pick another one? “Yes.”

All four had to switch their songs on Monday? “Pretty much. The day of rehearsal we made the cut for that third song.”

They didn’t tell you why they were switching it, just that it was happening? ”No. There were just like ‘There’s a change, you have to do this.’”

At that point, were you just presented with songs–took what you could get? ”Yeah. Pretty much. The lyrics of ‘So What’ I liked them. And I love P!nk. She’s really awesome. I went with it.”

And thus is explained the not-great version of "So What." Ah, Jess. Your speaking truth to power will be missed.

FILLER ALERT: Three songs each by four contestants made for a fairly tight performance show, although the judges were so chatty that there was less than half an hour left for the final four songs.

SPEAKING OF NEXT WEEK: It's the top three extravaganza—teary-eyed hometown visits, and song choices by the judges, Randy Jackson (uh), and each finalist's hometown (uhhhh). Plus, Season 10 winner and recent crime victim Scotty McCreery comes by to play a song on an hourlong results episode. Sorry, Chris Meloni—your time playing Stabler's daddy issues for laughs had to come to an end eventually.

Maura Johnston is blasting adult contemporary radio right now. She's on Twitter - @maura

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Want more? Read all of Maura's Idol recaps here.