One of these days I'll post first so that some of my obervations can sound original, instead of parroting what everyone else has said already.
Yes, Smokey looked weird. His face had that same paralyzed look that Chris Reeve has, only Chris has an excuse.
Everyone develops a style or mannerism that people tend to remember them by. And the way Simon thinks, if Clay didn't make those facial expressions, he would say that Clay isn't expressive enough. It was refreshing to hear Clay do an upbeat song, although he scared me the way he started out. I thought he was going to turn Tell Her About It into a ballad for chrissakes!
I like Ruben too, but he's got his Barry White shtick. Josh is Garth Brooks, Kim C., Melissa Etheridge and Trenyce is Whitney. I haven't figured Carmen or Kimberly L. out yet.
Clay was the only one who went upbeat. Its Still Rock n' Roll is supposed to be upbeat, but Kim destroyed it. Where was Uptown Girl, Big Shot or Stiletto? Billy Joel is more than just ballads.
Btw, a little bit of personal trivia. Back when I was in high school, I had a really cool student teacher for English, who constantly talked about this band his brother and he was involved in. They were called the Hassles and were fronted by a keyboard player named William Joel. It wasn;t until a few years later when he started making it big, that realized that he was Billy Joel. I still have the Hassles Hour of the WOlf album and their single Country Boy.