Neal Justin back at the reins and, I must confess, I’m still upset with you, America. Not only was the elimination of Carly totally uncalled for , but you once again put Syesha, my longtime favorite female contestant, back on the hot seat. What does the girl have to do, people?

But enough of that. Time to move on to a new rant: Neil Diamond. I love the guy for the very reasons that he makes a terrible choice to be an “Idol” mentor. His songs are simple, with little range and little ambition. That’s why you hear “Solitary Man” at every karaoke bar. Anyone can sing his songs. ANYONE. That doesn’t make for a very good challenge and it doesn’t give us much insight as to who has the best pipes.

That being said, I hope the contestants stay away from the more familiar hits, although Brooke and Jason Castro probably won’t be able to help themselves.

I’d love to hear someone tackle something off of Diamond’s last album, “12 Songs” (”Hell Yeah” perhaps?) and some lesser known, but nevertheless beautiful numbers, like “Play Me” and “If You Know What I Mean.” Unfortunately, I’m bracing myself for yet another version of “Red Red Wine.” Groan.

What do you hope to hear - and who do you want to see soar (Let me hear from my fellow Syesha fans. C’mon!)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 12:12 pm and is filed under American Idol. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.