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"Ryan tells us that the atmosphere is &amp;quot;electric&amp;quot; as the Top 5 of American Idol season ten prepare to take the stage for &amp;#039;Now and Then&amp;#039; week. They&amp;#039;ll each be singing two tracks - a current song and one from the 1960s, and Sheryl Crow has joined Jimmy to help mentor them. All the studio performances are now available to download as individual tracks or as a compilation album on iTunes. Here&amp;#039;s what the judges said about the Top 5: James Durbin: &amp;#039;Closer To The Edge&amp;#039; - 30 Seconds To Mars  &amp;quot;I think you kicked that song&amp;#039;s ass!&amp;quot; says Steven. &amp;quot;Nice going. Beautiful.&amp;quot; He also loves the way James worked the audience, which Jennifer agrees with: &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re ready for stadiums!&amp;quot; She thinks that he&amp;#039;s been showing them how much he wants it over the past few weeks. &amp;quot;Grab it. Take it. It&amp;#039;s yours to take,&amp;quot; she adds. Randy thinks that 30 Seconds To Mars was a good choice for James because it shows who he is as an artist and puts him in the contemporary rock category.  Jacob Lusk: &amp;#039;No Air&amp;#039; - Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown  Jennifer says that his voice is one of the best that&amp;#039;s been on the show but she&amp;#039;s been struggling with what songs he would do as an artist, especially because his weekly choices are so varied. She says it&amp;#039;s important for him to pick songs that represent him as an artist. Randy, however, isn&amp;#039;t sure &amp;#039;No Air&amp;#039; is the right direction, particularly as it&amp;#039;s a duet song. &amp;quot;It was a little corny,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t see you as that kind of song. I see you as more of a Luther kid.&amp;quot; Steven says that he&amp;#039;s still waiting for Jacob to find his niche.  Lauren Alaina: &amp;#039;Flat On The Floor&amp;#039; - Carrie Underwood  Randy thinks this sort of Carrie Underwood track is the direction Lauren should be going in. &amp;quot;I love this fun, energetic side and you&amp;#039;re singing and still connecting with the audience,&amp;quot; he tells her. Steven agrees that she has found her niche and the &amp;quot;sky is the limit&amp;quot;, especially as she is only 16 years old. Jennifer agrees: &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s what we like to see. You ate that up. You want it.&amp;quot; She says that Lauren needs to give performances like that each week to rise to the top.  Scotty McCreery: &amp;#039;Gone&amp;#039; - Montgomery Gentry   Steven has to wait for the audience to stop cheering before he can offer his critique. &amp;quot;Up until now you&amp;#039;ve been a puritan but I swear to God, I saw you dance with the devil tonight. That&amp;#039;s a good thing for you. It showed a whole other side to you.&amp;quot; Jennifer says that she lost it because she was so excited at how he owned the stage and growled. &amp;quot;That is some American Idol stuff right there!&amp;quot; Randy felt like they were watching Scotty at a concert and says it doesn&amp;#039;t matter what age he is, he&amp;#039;s in it to win it.  Haley Reinhart: &amp;#039;You and I&amp;#039; - Lady GaGa  Haley gets an unreleased GaGa track for her current choice (read more about that here). Jennifer loves how she sounded, particularly at the end, but isn&amp;#039;t sure that doing an unreleased GaGa track was the best choice. She says Haley has to showcase herself to the fullest with songs people can connect to. Randy isn&amp;#039;t sure it&amp;#039;s that great of a song and Haley could have thought of other choices, adding that he thinks of her more as a Joss Stone-style artist. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s risky to do something that nobody is familiar with. You&amp;#039;re a great singer but I don&amp;#039;t know if this whole thing did you any favors.&amp;quot; Steven says that when someone can take a song they don&amp;#039;t know and make it work, it&amp;#039;s a beautiful thing.  James Durbin: &amp;#039;Without You&amp;#039; - Harry Nilsson  James delivers an emotional performance of &amp;#039;Without You&amp;#039;, breaking into tears at the end because he is missing his fiancee and son. It prompts Randy to call him a true performer and describe the moment as &amp;quot;emotionally perfect&amp;quot;, despite a few pitch problems. Steven agreed that the performance was pitchy in places but still beautiful, while Jennifer praises him for being a &amp;quot;true&amp;quot; artist.  Jacob Lusk: &amp;#039;Love Hurts&amp;#039; - Nazareth  Steven says that he&amp;#039;s a &amp;quot;sucker for passion&amp;quot; and he likes that Jacob got lost in the song. Jennifer says that everybody heard the &amp;quot;little bobble&amp;quot; he had in the middle but he brought the tricks out at the end. &amp;quot;When you hear that sort of vocal it takes you to another place,&amp;quot; she adds. Randy says that he didn&amp;#039;t personally feel the first song but Jacob has redeemed himself here. &amp;quot;That might have been the highest note ever sung on this stage. That was like Mariah Carey high! Very nice job.&amp;quot;  Lauren Alaina: &amp;#039;Unchained Melody&amp;#039; - Righteous Brothers  &amp;quot;There was nothing to judge there really. It was a beautiful song sang beautifully by you,&amp;quot; says Jennifer. Randy thinks it&amp;#039;s cool that she&amp;#039;s shown different sides to herself. &amp;quot;You can sing like a bird and you proved that tonight. You have your country thing but this other vibe too. A tender moment. Nice soul.&amp;quot; Steven says the song choice was perfect and he could listen to Lauren singing all night. &amp;quot;There is nothing to judge. You are just beautiful.&amp;quot;  Scotty McCreery: &amp;#039;Always on My Mind&amp;#039; - Elvis Presley   Jennifer says that Scotty has showed what a well-rounded artist he is tonight and it&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;amazing and beautiful&amp;quot; to watch. There is nothing awkward about you up there. Whether you are running or singing, you are so comfortable in your own skin. A true performer.&amp;quot; Randy says the judges call Scotty their &amp;quot;youngest veteran&amp;quot; and the mantra &amp;quot;if it ain&amp;#039;t broke, don&amp;#039;t fix it&amp;quot; applies to him. Steven says America loves his voice and he can&amp;#039;t pick the performance apart. &amp;quot;It was a beautiful rendition of that song.&amp;quot;  Haley Reinhart: &amp;#039;House of the Rising Sun&amp;#039; - The Animals  Randy says that it was the best performance of the night. &amp;quot;You have grown by leaps and bounds on this show. You have blossomed. You are so good now. That was amazing!&amp;quot; Steven says he can relate to her &amp;quot;sweet and sour and raspy&amp;quot; voice. Jennifer jokingly wonders if Haley came out angry at the panel for their previous comments, but says that &amp;quot;little emotion&amp;quot; at the beginning of the track really worked. &amp;quot;That song has never been sung like that before. Great job.&amp;quot; &amp;gt; Poll: Who should leave American Idol next? &amp;gt; American Idol pictures: The Top 5 Perform American Idol continues tonight at 8/7c on Fox when another contestant will be sent home, while Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull will perform and Lady Antebellum will also take to the stage All Images: Copyright: Fox/Michael Becker "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/american-idol/news/a317884/american-idol-recap-top-5-perform/>