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Subjective view from the West Coast, and my first of the season. It's been a good season so far.

To recap my values from prior years: Generally speaking, I credit singers who respect the song rather than show off their vocals; and performers who think through the songs or even rearrange them sensibly rather than rush through them. A great singer-performer respects the sing, rather than the other way around. The addition of musical instruments has been a major plus this season; musicianship counts. At almost all costs, avoid boredom. I'm willing to rank higher a technically weaker singer, based on these values. At a threshold level, however, contestants must have a threshold level of vocal skill - mostly vocal strength - to matter. Three or four of this year's final 12, in my opinion, do not meet the threshold. I'm also a sucker for attractive females (although as you'll see not afraid to rank them low), and for singers who try their hardest, even if they can't compete in the end (e.g., Gina Glocksen from last season). Character counts. I do not listen to much pop music (or like it), and acknowledge this. I am not a hard core rock and roller, either.

I also highly respect many of the opinions on this board from persons who pay attention and know more about music than do I (you know who you are). Tonight, I have not yet read what you have written to date; hence, my rankings are fresh, but unfortunately not informed by your good opinions.

This week's ranking definitely does not comport with my assessment for the overall season; there were, to my way of thinking, major surprises tonight. It's interesting that no one dared to touch the psychedelic or experimental side of the Beatles; probably the closest song to that category, "Across The Universe," was sung conservatively. Nothing from Sgt. Pepper, or Magical Mystery Tour, or the White Album. For the most point, the contestants saw the Beatles as the smiling mop-tops that their manager Brian Epstein always wanted them to be (thanks to the book The Worst Rock And Roll Records Of All Time for the metaphor).

*** OUTSTANDING TONIGHT ***

1. CHIKEZIE. I hated last week's Whitney Houston song from the band's first phony, sweetened note. I call that kind of sing "instant kill." I would not have been upset to not see him make it to the final 12 (although not if it meant letting lazy and cynical Danny Ortega slide through in his place). I did not expect what he brought tonight. He sang two distinct versions of the song - one semi-country, one rock - and performed both well, with great energy (at times, too much energy).

2. AMANDA. I am decidedly not a fan of Janis Joplin and do not think we need a Joplin clone. Again, I would not have been upset not to see her make it through. She does not score points on the cuteness scale (but does on the keeping it real scale - nurses are great.) Tonight, Amanda was relatively true to the song, and made it her own. She was a female Elvis, singing darn good rockabilly. I was also pleased that she actually seemed to enjoy herself a bit. Amanda strikes me as a serious adult, which I respect - she knows the stakes. She would have won the day for me if she had tried "Helter Skelter," but that would have been too much of a cliché, and after all Amanda is serious.

*** GOOD PERFORMANCES ***

3. DAVID COOK. He's been my favorite contestant to date, and to my way of thinking won last week. I was surprised that they gushed over his performance tonight, which I thought was fine but not revolutionary. Unlike several other singers (see Michael, Ramiele, Brooke), he had the sense to increase the volume and energy at the chorus, so as to build to a climax to the performance.

4. CARLY. So what if she had a record deal in the past? It was several years ago, before she was an adult, and she did not make a ripple. Today, in 2008, she is starting from scratch as much as anyone else. She works seven days a week at two real jobs, for goodness sake. I think she has the strongest voice, which cuts through crap music and supports good songs such as Lennon-McCartney catalog quite well.

*** BAIG GAP TO TECHNICALLY SOLID RENDITIONS ***

5. RAMIELE. I freely admit that I think she's adorable. She also scores in the tries her hardest category; it's amazing that such a tiny girl can produce that voice. (That being said, she loses points in the character side for pouting about Danny.) She was proficient but boring tonight, but not nearly as bad as the judges graded her. To my way of thinking, she was slightly better than the next contestant below who had the same basic "hit the notes well but played it straight" performance. To be certain, I did not think this was agreat performance, but she again showed a good voice

6. MICHAEL. I think Simon has been mostly correct about him this year, although I'd grade his overall performance this year slightly higher. Proficient but vanilla tonight; the song meant something to him, but perhaps too much.

*** TWO OVERRATED PLUS ONE OFF NIGHT ***

7. BROOKE. She's a breath of fresh air with her adult attitude and stubbornness - I like it that she will not be thrown off her game. This has served her well in the past, but I was astounded by the gushing over her tonight. I had thought that Simon would say what I was thinking: what we heard from Brooke today can be heard in dozens of hotel lounges every night. There was nothing special and while it was pure (for which Brooke gets credit), it was safe. Wow, playing a piano while singing "Let It Be" - what a surprise! The judges have jumped the shark on Brooke, and have been persuaded by her character to support almost anything she does. I freely admit that I am biased here: I am not a fan of "Let It Be," which I find banal and overwrought (sorry!). So, she was overrated tonight, but I am still a fan and I understand why she has support.

8. DAVID ARCHULETA. I know there are a lot of haters on this board about David A. I see this as reflexive "attack the best" phoniness. He has scored well in past weeks and it's not an act. He's 17, for goodness sake - 17 years olds do worry about homelessness and world peace, as they don't yet have a more nuanced (and more cynical) view of the world. Tonight, I admired David for admitting that he was not a fan of the Beatles. This makes sense because he is so young, and I'd wager that a few other youngsters were not Beatles fans but were too worried to admit it. Thus, I think David was at a disadvantage this week, akin to a Blake Lewis tackling Country week or a Bo Bice handling disco. (I was certain he'd try "Let It Be," based on his track record.) He coped the best he could, channeling the Beatles through Stevie Wonder. It failed, and failed completely, but at least the plan had a chance to succeed, unlike #12 on this list below. I admired David for not giving up on the performance when he started off so disastrously. Even on a bad night, a David Archuleta struggling to execute his plan is better than a Kristy Lee at the height of her powers.

9. JASON. I don't get him at all. He's clever, I'll grant you that. He does not have a sufficiently powerful voice, so he covers it up by playing and singing softly as if this was an artistic choice rather than all he can do given his fundamental vocal weakness. John Travolta "sang" like this, too, pre-Grease; pre-teens bought his records, but no one confused him with a competent vocalist. This was the second week in a row in which Jason's low-key slumber was overrated as genius. (All of this being said, I'd be interested to hear what the professional vocalists or vocal students on this board think of Jason's vocals. Is he a closet genius?)

*** GAP TO THE WEAK VOCALISTS ***

10. SYESHA. I would like to like her, because she's cute and seems a fundamentally decent person. I admired her final Hollywood performance, in which she summoned up all her waning vocal strength to nail a spot in the final 24. (If it was an act, it sure fooled me.) Unfortunately, the Hollywood pattern has been repeated. Perhaps it's the flu that is going around the West Coast (just awful!), but week in and week out, one can't be confident in her voice. She's like a pitcher with insufficient arm strength to consistently throw a 90 mile plus fastball; sooner or later, the struggle to pitch as hard as you can to get the fastball up to major league speed breaks you, unless you are a pitching genius. Syesha is not a singing genius; she goes through the songs by rote, by routine.

11. DAVID HERNANDEZ. Who? I've forgotten his performance already. To be fair, he was better in past weeks.

*** GAP TO "WHAT WAS THAT???" ***

12. KRISTY LEE. ??? If I may be blunt, her strongest talents are her breasts. She should not have made it to the final 24. That does not explain her bizarre performance tonight. Ryan (generally useless), for once, was right in that Simon had something to do with it. However, I would not blame him too much. Kristy Lee, not wanting to go the Haley Scarnato route to staying in the game (reducing the coverage of her clothes), glommed on to Simon's offhand comment about a country style. Simon was right, but Kristy Lee took it way too far. Actually, she did not take it far enough: that was nothing like any "country" music I have heard. She sang as fast and frantic as an urban rush hour. I thought it closer to punk (which I like) than to Nashville. What made the performance truly bizarre is that there were three performances going on, with no connection to each other: Kristy Lee's rat-a-tat vocals; half of the band, which was playing steady quarter notes with the string section as in "Eleanor Rigby"; and the other half of the band, which was playing country (did I hear a slide guitar?). It worked as abstract music, but not as a serious singing-with-the-band performance.

I think that KRISTY LEE is going, but another historical point you should know is: I'm almost always wrong in predicting the boots.

Peace.