Forget whether the “American Idol” contestants can get people to vote for them – I’m willing to give them a medal if they can make any sense out of the contradictory advice from the judging panel. In the beginning of last night’s Top 12 guys performance episode, Randy Jackson advised the singers to ”make sure you be true to yourself,” which they should follow….unless of course the judges decide they’re supposed to be someone else.

It’s maddening here in my living room , so I can’t imagine that it’s not worse for the contestants there at the microphone being picked apart in some cases not because they didn’t sing well, but because they didn’t turn out who the judges decided they were in earlier rounds. And I understand how knowing who you are makes you a more confident singer, but what if you decide you’re not who the judges have pigeonholed you as? And what happens when, during “Sing A Ukranian Folk Song” week or whatever, they go “You’re not a Ukranian folk singer. You’re a diva” and you’re like “But wasn’t that the challenge?”

Oh well. Overall, the guys were just as scattershot as the women were last night, with some moments of brilliance and at least one “Oh, no, don’t ever do that.” I’ll let you figure out who that is.

— Todrick Hall: Well, at least he can’t be accused of phoning it in. His New Jack Swing version of “Since You Been Gone” was oddly tuneless and ultimately wrongheaded, but at least, as Ellen pointed out, he’s a comfortable performer. He tried something and it didn’t work. At all. But, you know…trying.

— Aaron Kelly: I agreed with Simon that he’s got a nice voice that he seems unsure about, which to me makes him more like the best Rascal Flatts karaoke singer this side of the Coors Light sign than a real artist. Kara sees in the pop country lane. She says this now, but when he sticks to that lane too much they’ll tell him he’s safe. Don’t you feel like they’re setting these kids up for failure when they’ve already decided who they’re supposed to be in the first live show?

— Jermaine Sellers: Oh, I didn’t love that at all. The arrangement of “Get Here” was too short for there to be that sort of dramatic crescendo, so it was translated as just screamy. Pretty bad.

— Tim Urban: So this may have been the cruelest thing Simon ever said while being absolutely right, and it was this – Tim got into the competition because they bounced the guy who’d actually made it, and after his version of “Apologize,” Simon told him that the panel’s first instinct to bounce him had been correct. Ouch. Thanks for playing, kid. Don’t let the door hit your giant “Kick Me” sign on the way out!

— Joe Munoz- I disagree with Simon here – Joe’s “You and I Both” did show his star potential and his laid-back style. Thats a hard song to manage, and it was effortless. He’ll stick around.

— Tyler Grady : And here we go again with the advice that’s all over the place. During the early auditions, all they could gush about was how he was more ’70s than Bread doing an England Dan and John Ford Coley song at a Grand Funk Railroad concert. So he channels that in a predictable but solid “American Woman,” and they yell at him for being too 70s. And he sort of was, but that seems like who he is. Which they said they liked.

— Lee DeWyze: Don’t you listen to Randy and Kara…not that anyone usually should. You were mellow and confident, and smiling and warm. Simon is right – you’re a great singer and you seem to know what you’re doing.

— John Park: Not sure why he sang “God Bless The Child” in the style  of “Me and Mrs. Jones,” but it didn’t work.

— Michael Lynche: Yet another one I thought was better than the judges though.

— Alex Lambert: Great voice!

— Casey: When the judges stop with this lame and slightly gross “crush” Kara has on him, they’ll still have plenty to talk about because his actual singing, as in the reason that he entered this show, is great. Who does “Heaven” in 2010? Casey does! Well! And yes, Kara, he insists on wearing a shirt. Why doesn’t someone clue them in to how icky that all is?

— Andrew Garcia: See, I liked “Sugar, We’re Going Down.” Loved it. I think the song is gorgeous stripped down, and that he’s got a better voice that Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump. And Patrick Stump has one of the best voices in rock, so there you go.