I raked most of the male cast of "American Idol" over the coals yesterday for tone-deaf song selections, but the second night made me suspect that the blame needed to placed elsewhere. We don't always get a clear picture of what goes on behind the scenes at "Idol" -- check that, we never do -- and sometimes the impression is given that the competitors have a lot more free choice when it comes to songs than the case may really be. I don't think there's any other way to explain the strange repetition of unfamiliar numbers like "More Today Than Yesterday" (mangled on Tuesday by Chikezie, managed rather nicely tonight by Alaina Whitaker) or "Tobacco Road" (this season tried by Syesha Mercado, last season the final hurrah of Phil Stacey) than that the "Idol" parent company bought a bunch of charts from some publishing behemoth or another and exec producer Nigel Lythgoe gets a nickel every time an "Idol" singer belts one out. That's lame.

I don't think there's a question any longer that this group of 24 is better than last year's. However, the possibility is there for the final 12 to be just as bad as Season 6's, if the voters exhibit the same questionable taste they have so often in the past. Here's an interesting bit of hearsay that may or may not be of use. I met a standup comedian moonlighting as a bar trivia host in Boulder who had auditioned this year in Omaha. He said that there were a ton of very good singers turned away because after a certain point the low-level producers who thin out the herd for Randy, Paula, and Simon figured they had enough actual talented people and needed to fulfill the quota for freakshow types. This isn't so good -- why sacrifice the quality of the last three months of the show for the sake of the first few weeks? It might be time next year to consider taking the auditions a little more seriously. All of Ryan Seacrest's propaganda to the contrary, there are definitely some folks of both genders in the final 24 who have absolutely no business being there. And again there are a lot of Brandon Rogers, David Hernandez types who are completely inoffensive and capable singers but have no chance whatsoever to win the thing... more care needs to be taken in finding potentials who have talent and personality, because this two groups of half-and-half thing makes for very tedious two-hour telecasts.

Kristy Lee Cook Kelly Clarkson aside, is it always the rule that contestants with bland names turn out to be bland singers as well? Cook and Amy Davis offer further evidence that this is so. "Rescue Me" was a foolish choice for the thoroughly Wonderbread Kristy Lee, and she proved that it's possible to sing a song with few pitch mistakes and still have it sound dreadful -- she simply had no force or distinctiveness at all. It seems obvious to me and the judges that the way Cook could get someplace in the competition is by going country -- that would take a lot of the pressure to belt off of her voice, and she's absolutely got the figure for it. There's no way she'll take the hint, though. Deer in the headlights. I think the extremely contoured shirt she wore to Elevator of Death day will keep her alive until they stop re-running highlights of it. Of course if she wises up and starts going to the Daisy Duke look every week, she could go to the final. It's worth noting that while Seacrest said that many of the contestants were suffering from the flu this week, Cook was the only one he singled out by name. That gets her sympathy votes, but I don't think she'll need them. 6

Joanne Borgella Borgella has a problem that I don't think there's anything she can really do about, and it disappoints me because I think she has a different style that could develop if given the chance. Borgella is a plus-sized model -- and that's not me editorializing, that's actually her job -- and she really is a lovely, well-proportioned, heavier gal. She doesn't sound like it, though. She has a nicely breath-controlled wisp of a voice that just doesn't seem like it should be coming out of someone who is going to remind most people of LaKisha Jones. I think that disconnect is going to keep her from building a following, since the female vote on "Idol" tends to split between the sexier girls and the ones with huge, undeniable force-of-nature voices. Borgella isn't in either camp and that's kind of what I like about her. It's also probably enough to doom her, that and a take on "I Say a Little Prayer for You" that didn't gel. Borgella moves confidently, but her voice sounded overpowered by the band at points (she of all the females should have selected a ballad) and almost everybody else had more personality onstage and a meatier backstory. Sorry, Joanne. Might have been able to make a case for you last year. 6

Alaina Whitaker Sometimes, you don't need to hear them sing, you can just look at them and you know they're not serious. And sometimes, you think that, and you're really embarrassingly wrong. Whitaker looks unassuming and is only sixteen; from her audition footage I couldn't see what the judges saw in her other than her youthfulness and the just-perfect little gap between her front teeth. Whitaker's "More Today Than Tomorrow" was a revelation; you could actually see her gaining confidence as the song picked up steam. Whitaker, skin tone aside, has a lot in common with Jordin Sparks -- like Sparks, if she can avoid a major misstep she has enough appeal to overcome the fact that there are better singers in the field. Her fate is in her hands -- if she continues to grow in confidence, that might not ever matter. 9

Amanda Overmyer Very interesting! While Overmyer struck me as overrated in the auditions, her voice a weapon with no practicable uses due to its essential unpredictability, she more than anyone else sounded like a new woman with the muscle of the expanded band behind her. Cannily, Overmyer shared the stage with a raging, almost metal guitar lead that was the rowdiest thing anyone pulled out in two days and did the most to modernize the 60's theme in the way the judges were pleading for both nights. Being a rock singer isn't about being the biggest badass in the land always -- David Bowie and Ozzy always knew when to let their lead guitarists take the lead, and how to take credit for it too. Overmyer deserves all the credit in the world for taking what seems like the biggest leap, even though she was only doing what it seems obvious all the contestants ought to do -- listening to the judges. She didn't scream the whole way through, she took an entirely unexpected approach to a scatting section in the middle (Scat and metal? Sure, why not, works for Korn), and displayed stage presence without spazzing out. She is absolutely the best contestant among the women as far as knowing her identity and playing to it. Whether you can build a big enough consensus of fan votes to win as a hard rocker (it hasn't happened yet) is another issue. 10

Amy Davis First of all, Davis's parents already had custom-made shirts with her face on them when she came out of the Elevator of Death. That's creepy. Canny branding move on the part of Mom and Dad, but creepy nonetheless. If Davis could sing in the very least she'd have a case for herself, but there seems to be a certain point past which even "Idol" voters can spot a poseur. By and large, if you're good enough to have made it to Hollywood and beyond, you're going to be a pretty good singer. One upshot of this is that when "Idol" performances go sour, it's mostly a string of sharp notes or a string of flats -- not both. Davis almost hit for the cycle, stringing scores of both together and throwing in some meter mistakes. All she needed to do was forget a lyric and her fate would have been sealed. As it stands her "Where the Boys Are" wasn't quite bad enough to trump the fact that Davis is one of the foxier girls still in the competition. Here's her path to an extended run: Play on the fact that she's older than a lot of the other really pretty girls, and slut it up pronto. Kady Malloy at 18 probably doesn't have the wardrobe options that Davis does at 25, but it's going to be one or the other of those two getting the hormone vote and I wouldn't discourage a flagrant open competition. I think Davis thinks that she is going country, only she doesn't in fact know how to do so. Simon does too. 4

Brooke White I had some affection for the perhaps too blonde White from the Hollywood show, when Simon needlessly harangued her for a minor hitch in her keyboard self-accompaniment. I suspect White may have some real original music inside of her somewhere, but "American Idol" is probably not the proper venue in which to develop it. Even if she wasn't too squeaky-clean for words, she has a voice that's friendly and quirky, but not overpowering, and the streets of Los Angeles flow thick with the blood of such female "American Idol" contestants. I had a terrible ominous feeling before White's turn Wednesday, but she acquitted herself about as well as could be expected -- she might benefit a lot from the fact that David Cook mangled the same tune, "Happy Together," the night before. White restored order, not rushing the song's fast verses, singing every word clearly, and turning on the charm during the softball choruses. Quite likable, but I feel without a drastic image makeover we've seen White's ceiling... she isn't terribly natural and seems unlikely to become so with Simon seemingly dead set on pursuing a comedy bit with her rather than offering any useful criticism. I would absolutely love to hear White sing a Liz Phair or Jenny Lewis song but that's never going to happen in a million years; as we've learned already Carole King is more her depth and a Carole King clone isn't winning a TV singing contest in 2008. But if she gets drummed out in three weeks and signs a record deal as a singer/songwriter I'd love to audition to play bass in her band. 8

Alexandréa Lushington Not "Alex-Andréa," mind you, but "Alexandréa" -- it has to all flow together, see. I like the name, and there's a lot more to like about Lushington, who has amazing personal dress style -- style counts on "Idol," especially in the ladies' bracket -- and was the only contestant to inject a lot of between-line chatter and audience-encouragement into her first performance, a bold and worthwhile choice. If anything Lushington could stand to turn her wattage down a little bit when it comes to singing -- she can belt, but she isn't the best belter in the race, and as Ramiele Malubay proved later, it's best to let the song do the work. If you save your biggest notes for when you really need them, the overall effect will be more impressive -- and it'll be a lot less hard on your vocal cords in the long run. Besides, if you murder every note every night for weeks upon end it leaves you with nowhere to go (which is what happened to LaKisha Jones and Melinda Doolittle last year). Lushington could win without a Howitzer, which means she should put it away until she really needs it. Her song choice was interesting and she handled its challenging changes competently. However, I think she was a bit hamstrung by the 60's theme and is going to hit us with her real style next time -- I don't know if I can hear her singing over a Timbaland beat yet, but I can definitely visualize the video. 8

Kady Malloy Malloy can't be discounted because she's 18 and she's a looker, but the judges hit the nail right on the head -- Malloy seems animated and interesting when she's mimicking other people, but she has no voice of her own. At all. Her "Groovy Kind of Love" was accurately sung and pleasantly presented, and it was also utterly irrelevant. Malloy has all the personality of a seat-filler. Once again, we had a cover of a 60's song that was even less timely in this day and age than a rehash of the original recording would have been. And what the hell was Malloy thinking with the drippy ballad arrangement? The judges asked her why she was so stiff and she said it was "a serious song." "Groovy Kind of Love?" Where do they find these kids? 7

Asia'h Epperson Epperson is the girl who went to her audition immediately after the death of her father, something that has only been rehashed about 14 times in the last two weeks and will give her an unnatural bounce that might end up costing someone more qualified, although I think either way Epperson is middle-of-the-pack. The vestigial "'h" in her name isn't as funky as Alexandréa's accent mark and Epperson (perhaps justifiably, she did just lose her dad) isn't as kinetic as Syesha Mercado. Maybe it's clumsy reasoning to assume that the three young black girls are going to cancel out each other's votes, but... to be fair, they are all kind of similar. Epperson did "Take Another Piece of My Heart," an odd choice (particularly given its obvious association with competitor/vocal Joplin doppelganger Amanda Overmyer) but one that she got over with a totally different but equally valid interpretation, more of a straight soul vocal. One key thing to watch about Epperson: She is capable of delivering perfect vocals, I feel, but definitely would rather experiment and take risks to put her own stamp on tunes. I think that's admirable and I think it's something voters respond to, if maybe only subconsciously. Also -- and this is a totally unquantifiable thing -- Epperson feels authentic to me; if we want to go ahead and view them as her immediate competition, Lushington and Mercado both seem to have more calculation to the way they present themselves. 8

Ramiele Malubay Speaking of cold calculation! Malubay nailed down her reputation as a pint-sized powerhouse who doesn't take any guff from anybody with her breakdown of her first audition: "They thought I was the little girl with the great big voice... and that's exactly what I wanted them to think," she revealed to the "Idol" cameras, tenting her fingers like Mr. Burns and cackling. The judges refused to take Ramiele seriously in the Hollywood rounds, and Malubay struck back with rare delicacy for a 20-year-old. She could have tried to blow the house the down and popped a blood vessel, but instead she sang her song with a seasoned pro's restraint, continuously building until surprise, there it was, maybe the best voice in the top 24. She may have to build more of a case that she's a star recording artist and not just a good singer -- others more talented have failed -- but she's off to the best start; she's the co-favorite with Overmyer as of now. I wonder though if most "American Idol" watchers will ever realize just how good she is; subtle mastery appeals to untrained ears far less than brute force. 10

Syesha Mercado The most energetic of the female field, Mercado has a vibe like one of those always-positive best friend characters from tween movies and TV... absolutely unsuitable for "Idol," of course, because the supportive best friend never gets the cute boy or wins the televised singing contest. She has a built-in fanbase, I'm sure, from the storyline which followed her during Hollywood week, when she lost her voice and communicated with adorable little signs instead of talking to rest up for her big audition, which to be fair she really did knock out of the park. Mercado lacked that urgency on Wednesday, and a dreadful song choice ("Tobacco Road") with an equally ill-chosen arrangement full of odd stops and starts sucked out more momentum still. One thing you must be aware of: While it seemed like a dippy Paula gag to point out that the spelling of her name has a "YES" hidden in it, do not disregard the subliminal effect this has on viewers when Syesha's name and hotline number appear on the screen. Once made aware of it, that "YES" was all I could see. I am confident "Idol" seasons have been won or lost over less. 7

Carly Smithson All of that buzz about these two foreign invaders, Smithson and Michael Johns... both of them given the choice first-studio-night finale spot... both huge disappointments. I have never seen what others see in Smithson and I thought her Wednesday performance was a huge drag, a chintzy, Disney-soundtrack ballad that just got tuneless and shouty at the end. The slow jam seemed like a misfire for the tattooed Smithson, who is turning out to be not really that much of anything -- not that Irish, not that rocking, not that good. She looked listless and clammy and I felt like neither of us could wait for it to be over. This is where it becomes terribly unfair how unbalanced the coverage of the final 24 is in the early weeks; Smithson probably already has a 10,000 strong MySpace fan club who were going to vote for her before she even sang anything. Here is what I think should be done: The "Idol" producers should completely throw out the current schedule and begin the season with the first live night -- then flashbacks can tell every contender's story at the same time. The currently useless results-nights shows could be filled with backstory... and, yeah, I guess, the truly-awful-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad audition footage everybody besides me loves so much. Would that be so hard?  6

OK, whom did we say yesterday? Luke Menard and Jason Yeager. For the girls, I'm going to say Joanne Borgella and Amy Davis.

Back from soundly beating me last year, the oracular 12-sided die says Jason Yeager and Robbie Carrico for the guys and Asia'h Epperson and Brooke White for the girls.