Their disco fever is low-grade at best

What is disco? The term is still one of the most misunderstood in the musical lexicon. Is it the source of all bad fashion? A lounge-worthy soundtrack for swinging lovers? A category almost exclusively occupied by Donna Summer and the Bee Gees? This week’s “American Idol” battle round implied all of the above, while doing nothing to illuminate this wonderful, misunderstood pop era.

Instead of reveling in disco’s lush, open field of sultry rhythms and sweeping melodic lines, the Top 7 took it to Vegas, the rock arena and other ill-advised “creative” corners, with hackneyed arrangements and awkward performances that suggested the whole crew had already busted into the Tab Energy Drink cooler backstage. Those who adhered to the style at all stumbled trying to hit its turns, and even those who sang well seemed strangely immune to the joy that had once helped millions find heaven on the dance floor.

Perhaps I am being too harsh. There were high points, none wholly unexpected. Adam Lambert knows by now that “Idol” voters who find his rock side too freaky melt under the electric torch of his ballads; transforming the Gibb brothers-written Yvonne Elliman hit “If I Can’t Have You” into a Piaf-worthy cri de couer, he was just playing to the crowd. Kris Allen made Summer’s ode to working girls, “She Works Hard for the Money,” sound like that song Carlos Santana did with Wyclef Jean -- but such clever switches have become his trademark.

And Allison Iraheta, looking outrageously great, lent a goth-metal twist to another Summer song, “Hot Stuff.” Fine. But she could have unearthed her inner Deborah Harry, already so near the surface, with “Heart of Glass.” And the thought of what Lambert could have done with Sylvester’s prideful anthem “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” -- that missed chance breaks my heart.

With one exception, it’s hardly worth mentioning the night’s other strivers. Lil Rounds and Matt Giraud seemed resigned to the chopping block; Anoop Desai, still in full “Date Me” mode, got a little too casual with his bravado while turning yet another Summer tune, “Dim All the Lights,” into a homage to Brian McKnight. Danny Gokey does deserve credit for a spirited and accurate vocal on “September,” an Earth, Wind and Fire song with a typically serpentine melody. But that hoofing! Never has the specter of Taylor Hicks loomed so large.

Ultimately, the problem wasn’t with the singers; it was a larger one, embedded in the “Idol” formula. Despite its Velveeta reputation, disco actually vastly expanded pop’s parameters, uniting funk beats and rock guitars, synthesizer swirls and gospel vocals, the sexual fantasies of libertine Italian producers and the liberating wails of black American divas. Oh, and ABBA!

The musical range “Idol” traverses is tiny by comparison. It’s basically crossover pop played by a competent studio band steeped in the grand inflections of Celine Dion, Bryan Adams and other blockbuster stars. It’s nearly impossible for an “Idol” competitor to transcend the limits of the show’s formulas (though Lambert keeps pushing). Disco might not have seemed the likeliest arena in which these deficiencies would be exposed, but all it would take is one time-machine trip back to one of the great hedonistic dance floors of the 1970s to remind a music lover how much more expansive music seemed then. Still, the thought of Simon doing the bump? I think I’d rather suffer through Whitney week.

--

ann.powers@latimes.com