Singer: Michael Lynche
Song: "This Is a Man's World"
Monkeys As Critics' Take: Mike Lynche benches 505. Yikes. I don't want to be the one telling Big Mike bad news. After coming out so spirited last week, but perhaps a bit silly, Mike's going for some soul and some style. He's spiffy, confident and in no way silly. Then again, Big Mike has chosen a song that's been arranged to include almost no singing. He sounds very solid, but it's nearly spoken word at several points. His performance is largely pacing back and forth to the microphone and throwing his arms in the air, but he does it with authority (or at least the authority of a man who can bench press 505). Finally, towards the end, there's a little singing involved. I'm still going to say that the degree of difficulty on this performance was virtually nil, but posturing and style are in evidence aplenty.
Randy, Ellen Kara and Simon Say: Ellen and Randy have changed places this week. Yo yo. Randy feels like this season is getting rolling now, because Randy gives Mike a standing ovation. For what?!? Ellen likes every song choice that Mike has made so far and she works in a punchline, warning the other men that they have to top Mike. Kara says Mike went from being a singer to being a potentially great artist and she's feeling this different. "It was like from being a pussycat to being a lion in one week," Simon raves, adding that it also didn't sound dated. And I'm going to suggest that the judges are grading on a heck of a curve tonight based on last week's suckitude and the lack of preparation, because Big Mike was fine, but he wasn't THAT good.