I'm so happy "I'm alive" to hear David Cook sing

Tonight is Neil Diamond night and I really don't have any expectations - I don't have an opinion of his music one way or the other. I feel like he has some great songs and some not so great songs, and of course, tons of songs that I'm not familiar with, so I'm pretty open to tonight's show. What I'm not crazy about, though, is that this week starts the two songs per contestant thing. It makes the show drag on quite a bit, but I suppose it helps viewers to get a better idea of a contestant's consistency.

They're switching things up this week - the contestants will only be judged after they sing their second song, so the first half of the show will virtually just be performances with no commentary - from the judges, anyway.

Jason Castro is up first this week and he's singing "Forever in Blue Jeans" and "September Morn." How embarrassing - as he's singing his first song for Neil Diamond, he realizes that he doesn't know all the words, so he looks down at his sheet, where he has them written, only to find that it's the lyrics to his other song. Diamond says he thinks Jason will do great when he gets ont he stage, that he'll be more familiar with the songs, he'll feel a little more comfortable with them and he think he'll bring them both off very well.

Jason sings "Forever in Blue Jeans" first and it's a really catchy tune. Plus, he sounds pretty good, I think. He's playing his guitar and he seems pretty comfortable on stage. It doesn't seem like he's really into the music, though. It could be that Neil Diamond is just not his thing, who knows? But he seems a bit disconnected - kind of like he just wants it to be over.


Next up is David Cook, who is singing "I'm Alive" and "All I Really Need Is You." Diamond says David went to two songs that most people have never heard before and after David sings for him a little bit, Diamond tells him that he got goosebumps. He tells David that it's a good choice, a gutsy choice. He says that David has the right material, he's got the right attitude, he's got the right voice - that he'll do great, no doubt about it.

David sings "I'm Alive" and I have to say, this tune is pretty catchy, too. Maybe I'll become a Neil Diamond fan after tonight. The chorus of this song is very nice, it's one of those hooks that can get stuck in your head for hours. But, as usual, David does great - he sings well, he's got a great presence. It wasn't one of his wow performances, but it was terrific - I mean, he made me want to go to iTunes and download the whole song, and I think that says something.


Brooke White is next and she's singing "I'm a Believer" and "I Am, I Said." She plans to play the guitar with the first song and piano with the second. As she's singing "I Am, I Said" to Neil Diamond, one of the lyrics is "I'm New York City born and raised..." He stops her and says that he sings that line because he is New York City born and raised, but since she is from Arizona, that she should insert that into the song to make it her own. He adds in his interview that it's a difficult song to sing, to make genuine and she was able to do it, so he was very pleasantly surprised.

Well, I'm a huge fan of "I'm a Believer." It's a fantastic song and I brighten up every time I hear the Monkees sing it, but somehow, hearing Brooke sing it, it just seems silly. It almost comes off like she's trying to entertain a bunch of kids. I can't really explain what I mean, but it just seems wrong, hearing her sing this song - not to mention the fact that she's not singing it well. She starts off way too low for her range and she takes some liberties with the melody that don't really add anything to the song or performance. She ended stronger than she began, but overall, it was not good at all.