Well, I've been afraid of singing 'cause I built that note around ewww...

Back before the season started. “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson told reporters that he had been pleasantly surprised that more of the singers auditioning last summer hadn’t been a retread of last season’s finalists Adam Lambert and Kris Allen. I guess he thought that meant that more people were willing to do their own thing rather than follow a trend. But after seeing most of last night’s top 12 girls, I think he might have only been talking about the guys, since the ladies seemed strongly on the Lily Allen/Duffy/Adele/Corinne Bailey Rae train.

That’s not a bad train to be on, considering that all of those are talented, quirky, inventive people. But it doesn’t matter how inventive the mold is – it’s still a mold. Because of some DVR issues, I missed the first three and a half singers, but have caught snippets of them on the Internet. I don’t think I got enough to completely  judge Paige Miles (although her snippet of “All Right Now” was not good), Ashley Rodriguez, and Janell Wheeler. I caught a bit of Lilly Scott, and she was pretty good – I really like her quirkiness, and think she knows who she is enough to not get caught in that confusing judge’s vortex (“Be who you are! Now be someone else! Wait! Why aren’t you being who you are?)

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