American Idol: Season 14 - Top 9 Perform, 8 Move On

Hello friends and welcome back to this crazy season of Idol.  In a season of declining interest, I personally had been looking forward to this week.   The one the only inaugural winner of Idol, Kelly Clarkson returned and proved just why she is still the best to ever grace the stage!  She provided invaluable advice and her usual blunt humor that is equally awkward and refreshing.  Most of the contestants pulled out some interesting renditions of her favorite tunes.  And even with the twist "twitter save" the right thing happened at the end.  Let's dive into a quick recap and pick for next week!

1. Nick - "Catch My Breath" - Eh.  He did an okay job.  Pretty much sounds the same every week at this point to me.  
2. Jax - "Beautiful Disaster" - Harry clearly did not hear Kelly's rendition on the Breakaway album of this song or her live performance on Idol at the season 3 finale.  That was basically the version Jax did and it is the much better version than the overproduced version on Kelly's first album.  Jax, naturally, added her unique voice to it and it worked very well. She is easily one of the top 3 of this season. 
3. Tyanna - "Mr. Know it All" - Definitely a performance with conviction and a few pitch problems.  She still has a powerful instrument in that voice and is a force to reckon with.  
4. Joey - "Miss Independent" - Fine, we get it Harry, you are a modern day jazz musician.  But that shouldn't take away from what Joey is doing out there.  She turned the song on its head and it sounded really really good.  I'm continuing my 180 on my opinion of her.  She's very good at what she does.  Is it relevant in today's market?  Depends.  As I've mentioned, Adele has an old fashioned sound and has proven herself very relevant.  Time will tell. 
5. Quentin - "Darkside" - Love the song choice.  It's one of the songs from Stronger that I tend to go back to.  He sounded very good on the verses, choruses were a little rough.  But, there's still something about him that's appealing for now.  
6. Qaasim - "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" - Ugh, I really wanted to like his arrangement.  You can tell that this guy has talent, but the vocal killed the whole thing.  It sounded good in rehearsal with Kelly, but when he gets on stage he overdoes it or something and is all over the place.  He might be in trouble. 
7. Clark - "The Trouble With Love Is" - My wife's favorite Kelly song of all time.  Kelly does nail the vocal on that song.  But, so did Clark.  He is easily the one to beat at this point.  He wavered a bit in the beginning, but what he brought to that 2nd half was awesome.  The feeling, the growling, the vocal turned it into a pretty magnetic performance.  I look forward to hearing  him each week.  Definitely safe.   
8. Daniel- "Breakaway" - Still boycotting commentary, but I will say I knew he would sing this song and it was as awful as I thought it could be.
9. Rayvon - "Since U Been Gone" - Definitely Rayvon's best performance to date.  I'm sure toning things down helped to showcase his voice.  Also, going head to head with Daniel for a save helped to shine him in a different light.  Will it be enough to save him next week? Probably. 

Elimination this week:

 

Farewell Daniel! (For the record I had Daniel and Rayvon in my bottom 3)

Bottom 3 for next week: Nick, Qaasim, Rayvon

Elimination Pick for next week: Nick 

In all honesty it should be Qaasim, but I think there's more upside to him than there is Nick and I think the voters will lean that way too.  Going first never helps either! 

That's all I have for this week.  Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and see you next week!