In which Matt grows increasingly tired of "American Idol"

I'm going to try to boil this one down a bit more than I have been, since the show's getting less and less interesting (and I'm hours behind the water cooler discussion curve anyway). British invasion week sounds interesting at least. So, how'd the would-be idols do this week?

Haley made a mistake by being "more aggressive," after a pretty sweet performance last week. She's back to her previous iffyness. Chris Richardson,who I've been down on, knocked out probably the best tune he's done so far. Stephanie? I was hoping she'd pick it up after last week, and she may have gone a little overboard. Still not as good as she was the first few weeks of the semifinals though.

(Side note: Product placement is lame.)

Blake picked one of my favorite old-school tunes, and I was really expecting him to screw it up. I was wrong again. He continues to show his voice transcends the beat box thing. Not going to say it was as good as the judges said, though. As for LaKisha, it's hard to keep the heat that she picked up early on in the season. Not a spectacular performance, but she doesn't need one to beat a lot of these people.

Phil, you suck. Jordin, meanwhile, beat the living crap out of everyone else. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

(Side note 2: Really, two hours of this show is unnecessary.)

Then there's Sanjaya, who did much better than he's ever done before. The gravely rocker voice works a lot better for him. Still not on par with everyone else, but he did just well enough to lose the vote support he's had from the let's-vote-for-the-worst crowd. Meanwhile, the sexy potential of Gina doing "Paint it Black" should be enough to push her through even though she didn't necessarily nail it. Chris Sligh, with another Zombies tune, and I don't think there's a better, cooler group for these guys to be picking from. Strong performance that may have put him in the running. Melinda probably should close the show every night. Even on an off night, she's better than everyone else. And this week was not an off night. Bit of a boring song, but she's the best.

(Side note 3 : Paula had some trouble talking all night, didn't she?)

Should go: Phil
Will go: Phil or Haley... sorry, I can't decide.