This season on American Idol, the judges have insisted the women are where it's at. But the men are certainly more consistent. While half the women are jostling each other on the way out, almost none of the men were genuinely bad this week.

LEE DEWYZE -- Sang "Fireflies" by Owl City, the out of nowhere #1 hit. The nervousness was visible in his eyes, but Lee gave a decent, more forceful version of the song. He relaxed as he hit the final line and ended on a strong note. Randy bizarrely said it was a strange song choice. Why? Lee easily toughened it up. Kara even more bizarrely talked about how confident he looked when Lee didn't even look confident as she complimented him. Simon got it right when he said Lee could do better but it was fine. If Lee can get some swagger and really perform, he could shine.

ALEX LAMBERT -- Sang "Trouble" by Ray LaMontagne, which only hit #25 in the UK and never charted on the Hot 100 here but is quickly becoming an Idol favorite. They said last night that Katie Stevens has a radio voice, but surely it's James Morrison-soundalike Alex who has it. And he can hold a melody! He's still learning what to do with his voice and a lot more experience would help. When he sang the chorus, it sounded like, "...saved byyy ya woman." And if he's really in it to win it, he'll lose the mullet when he hits the Top 12.

TIM URBAN -- Sang the "Jeff Buckley" version of "Hallelujah." What? The guy who looked clueless two weeks ago tackling a standard performed by so many great contemporary artists, like Buckley and Rufus Wainwright and in a stunner, kd lang at the Olympics opening ceremony. (Click here to check out her performance at the NBC Olympics video website.) A disastrous idea. But he actually sort of pulled it off. Tim wisely avoided the acrobatics of Buckley et al, which are beyond him. And he sounded very tentative and a little lost when singing just the words "Hallelujah, hallelujah." But he was strong on the verses and acquitted himself nicely. Certainly the producers pulled out all the stops, giving him a big rotating camera motion and dreamy closeups so the closest contestant to Shaun Cassidy got his Tiger Beat due. Randy was right on target when he said it was pretty good. But Ellen and Kara and Simon raved as if it were the second coming. I have no idea what Simon means when he says it's a "reacting song." Anyone? When they pushed Tim to thank one of them in particular, I was almost willing him to say, "Most of all, I should thank Leonard Cohen, who wrote the song."

ANDREW GARCIA -- Sang Christina Aguilera's "Genie In A Bottle," her breakout #1 single. That follows his tackling of songs by Alicia Keys, Paula Abdul, and Adele. Instead of ignoring the advice to ape his success with "Straight Up," he continues to chase it, again with a Raul Midon-like acoustic guitar. (By the way, is the theme tonight guitars? It's starting to feel like the show was taped at a coffee house.) It was fine but generally unmemorable, which is almost worse than flopping outright.

CASEY JAMES -- Sang Keith Urban's Grammy-winning "You'll Think Of Me," one of 10 #1 country hits he's had to date. (That's one reason why he's #28 on Billboard's list of Top Moneymakers last year.) It's still guitar night, apparently, with Casey sitting down and delivering the strong simply and directly. This could get monotonous week after week but as the average age of Idol viewers creeps up (the median age of viewers is now in the 30s), artists like Casey and Crystal Bowersox are right in their sweet zone. I thought it was a very good performance by the judges found it safe.

AARON KELLY -- Sang Lonestar's "I'm Already There," another #1 hit on the country charts. No guitar! It almost seemed radical after five straight acoustic guitars. Aaron started off horribly, mumbling and swallowing the words til they were almost indecipherable. He got better, but the main problem was that he tried to turn a good country song into a big power ballad. Not that the song doesn't get grand, but it's a little more restrained than he wanted. He also bounced around in an awkward way, with his hands moving in a bit of a mechanical way. It wasn't awful, but the off and on vocals combined with the awkward posing wasn't great. However, he saved it with a big Idol note, the sort fans just love. And of course he's got the Justin Bieber audience all to himself (with Tim and Alex poaching off the more forward-thinking fans). Kara complained the song was crazy for him (a dad singing to his kids?) while Simon said her comment was rubbish and it was just a nice song and he did a fine job.

TODRICK HALL -- Sang Queen's #13 hit pop standard "Somebody To Love." First of all, Todrick looked absurd, with a military sort of jacket, goofy boots and sleeveless gloves. Good Lord. Especially when he was going for a gospel feel (a la George Michael), this was not a good outfit. Didn't anyone warn him off it? It's a shame because he looked foolish but gave one of his best performances yet. He built the song well, singing the first verse pretty straightforwardly before taking it to church and starting with some great runs. That's how you sing effectively in that faux gospel style. If you riff and run at the beginning, people don't have the melody to hold onto and know what you're actually riffing on. He wasn't great: the chorus was basically dull; it was the verses where he really grooved. On the other hand, he had a big Idol note to wow the audience and hopefully stay alive. But that outfit may have killed him.

MICHAEL LYNCHE -- Sang "This Woman's Work," a #2 Adult Contemporary hit from his album Now, one of the best of the decade. I love Maxwell, but thought this was a bad choice. "This Woman's Work" is a mood piece and doesn't have a strong hook that people unfamiliar with it can latch onto. But Michael did a good performance that I think broadened his appeal beyond just entertainer. Now he seems like he could be an artist. Nonetheless, I didn't expect Kara to burst into tears.

So performance-wise, no one was really bad, though Aaron came close to derailing. Todrick definitely had the only goofy outfit, which sadly could make fans of his reluctant to vote. I think the voting will be very very close. Whoever goes, it'll seem pretty random to me. However, I think Andrew Garcia went the distaff route once too often and didn't do enough with the song he did. But who will join him? I think Aaron gave the weakest performance but Todrick looked ridiculous and might go. (Am I making too much of it?) Throw in Alex and you've got your bottom four.

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