American Idol 12: Top 8 Studio Versions

.. and suddenly, they're down to 8. This week, the Final 8 tackled a fairly wide yet tired theme, Motor City - or as they say, Motown. Most of them delivered some good performances, but who had the best recording?

[REVIEW] American Idol 12: Top 8 Performances

RANDOM THOUGHTS: I really enjoyed Amber Holcomb and Janelle Arthur's studio recordings. Amber's effortless vocals were front and center here and her tone was just luscious and nuanced. As for Janelle, while I would've preferred the production to be just between her voice and the acoustic guitar - the production threw me off a bit - this was a very lovely, restrained yet intense version of the song. A little underwhelmed by Kree Harrison and I didn't really care for Angie Miller's faux rock arrangement of her Motown song. Lazaro Arbos was just, umm, mediocre at best.

Amber Holcomb: Lately
Angie Miller: Shop Around
Burnell Taylor: My Cherie Amour
Candice Glover: I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Devin Velez: The Track Of My Tears
Janelle Arthur: Keep Me Hangin' On
Kree Harrison: Don't Play That Song
Lazaro Arbos: For Once In My Life