I think Shakira wasted an opportunity with Shawna. We know she can sing Janis; the question is whether she can sing anything else. Blake put his young country girls in a battle with an uptempo song because, as he said, I know they can sing ballads, but can they do this?
That said, give Shakira over mean girl Christina any day of the week, and twice on Sundays.
Was every singer eligible for stealing? There were a quite a few that Carson didn’t say “you can steal if you want”. Those just walked off the stage like there was no chance they’d get taken.
I liked most of Shakira choices. Except for Monique and Luke. Every coach raved at how good Luke was. I was floored that Shakira picked Monique instead. I know Shakira likes Hispanic singers but Luke was so much better. I’m glad Blake stole him.
I’m pretty sure Shakira’s entire team is Hispanic? That’s ok. But I prefer teams with more variety. Adam has a good team this time with lots of different styles. Blake went a little too country. I’m not completely sure what style Usher went for. R&B? Pop? I’m not sure what style he’s even coaching.
So agreed with this. She’s one of my favorites, along with Danielle Bradbery. I can’t even explain why I like either of them, but I do. Danielle goes against who I usually like, but for some reason, I really like her voice. She just makes me smile.
Usher is starting to remind me of Christina a tiny bit. He’s waiting to the last minute to steal, letting the contestants sweat it out so he can play out the drama. Then he laughs about how they’ll appreciate it more later if they had to feel the defeat longer. At least he’s not mean about his comments, but I can see why some of the contestants wouldn’t pick him as their first choice if they had another option.
I’ll take back what I said about Usher being a bad coach though. The contestants on his team this week were much better. Several people were enthusiastic about his coaching, especially Orlando and Jessica.
I was surprised that Usher picked VEDO although I think he did better. I just thought he would pick Jessica because of all the build-up she got in the blinds.
I’ve been watching all the interviews after the show on Hulu. It looks like all the battling contestants have all become really close. They all have nice things to say about each other. Many of them are holding hands in the interviews.
Patrick Dodd said that Adam told him that he would work with him in a backstage conversation right after he lost. Trevor Davis said that Blake whispered to him after his loss that Blake would email his phone number to Trevor so they could talk. So it looks like Adam and Blake are helping some of the contestants even after their loss.
I observed that as well. I am guessing that they fudged the contest order, and that the big final match where Usher used his last steal was not the last match of the day. I can’t be sure about that, but it seems awfully convenient that the last match was the last steal.
I see his point that if they think they’re gone, then get a reprieve, it really brings it home that they can be gone.
The coaches from this show have shown the tendency to take interest in their proteges beyond the show.
Knockout Rounds night 1 - Adam and Shakira
Some good performances.
Adam made a weird call pairing country singer Amber Carrington against duo Midas Whale. Amber took Avril Lavigne’s “I’m With You” and gave a stirring country rendition. Midas Whale got creative with Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground”. While Midas Whale are creative and did a pretty good job, Amber knocked it out of the park.
Then Adam paired rocker Amy Whitcomb against coffeehouse singer Caroline Glaser. Poor Amy was one of the singers montaged on both blind auditions and Battle rounds. I got a strong Cassadee Pope vibe off her (winner from last season, same thing with the montages, same out of nowhere power and indie rocker style). Amy gave us “House of the Rising Sun”, where she started off more quiet and then finished off with a laser-powered finale. Caroline was on stage and when Amy’s finale hit, she was flabbergasted. You could practically see her saying “oh shit, I’m fucked”. Yet she then had to perform “Little Talks” from “Of Monsters and Men”. She had the quirky voice to sound like the original. In the end, Adam fucked up this call. He picked Caroline Glaser. They said Amy struggled a little at the beginning in the quiet parts while Caroline was a more steady performance through, but I disagree. There were some tiny nuances in Amy’s beginning that weren’t very bad, and I thought Caroline hit a couple of flat parts. I think Adam really missed out on an opportunity here to go for the quirky voice. Oh well.
Judith Hill came out with Willie Nelsons “Always on My Mind” and gave a soulful and powerful version that really connected. She was up against Orlando Dixon, who gave us “All My Life” by K-Ci and Jo-Jo. His performance may have been good or bad, it was kinda hard to tell - the background was overwhelming and I couldn’t really hear his performance. Plus, stylistically I wouldn’t connect with that song. But Judith wasn’t wearing shoes tonight, those were stilts. I’ve seen strippers in lower heels.
Adam’s final pair was country dude Warren Stone with “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight” (Cutting Crew) up against power vocalist Sarah Simmons with “Wild Horses” (The Rolling Stones). Warren countried the song, and gave a heartfelt rendition. I was pretty impressed. But then Sarah sang and showed why she turned 4 chairs at the blind auditions. Even Blake had to give it to the non-country performer.
Shakira’s first pair was Garrett Garner (lipring dude) with “Too Close” (Alex Clare) against Tawnya Reynolds with “Hell on Heels” (Miranda Lambert). Both had good performances. Garrett’s rendition was inspired by Melanie Martinez from last season, and both have performed versions of the song I enjoy. Try as I might, there’s something about Alex Clare’s version that annoys me. Tawnya had a pretty good performance, with her signature yodels. Blake commented that they might have been a tad overdone and stolen from the notes of the melody, but Shakira shot him down and said that was her direction to Tawnya on how to emphasize them. But despite that, Shakira gave the win to Garrett.
Second set was Kris Thomas (the high-voiced dude) with “What a Wonderful World” against Mary Miranda (cuban singer) with “Every Breath You Take”. Kris had a different take on the song, throwing in flashes between falsetto and not. I actually wasn’t sure a couple of his choices worked, but Usher was impressed. Mary took her song as the love song many people think it is and played with the melody a bit. She had some wonderful power. I couldn’t call this one but Shakira picked Kris.
Third round was Karina Iglesias doing “Are You Gonna Go My Way” (Lenny Kravitz) up against Monique Abbadie doing “The Power of Love” (Celine Dion). Celine is a hard one to live up to. Karina had a rocking tune that was a lot of fun, but the music overwhelmed her voice to me a bit (that happens frequently on this show on rock tunes) and didn’t really showcase her vocals. Monique had a pretty powerful rendition that seemed pretty good to me, but the coaches said she had a few pitch points. Ultimately Shakira went with Karina on the grounds from previous performances she thinks there’s more to work with there.
Shakira’s fourth pair was Sasha Allen with “At Last” (Etta James) against Shawna P with “Maybe I’m Amazed” (Paul McCartney). Sasha looked stunning and had an excellent song to show off her range, pitch, and power. Shawna took some good direction and avoided the more obvious choices in her song, and I enjoyed it. The coaches really dug this competition. It was incredibly close, but Sasha gave Shakira goosebumps, so that got her the win. I think it was the right call.
Tomorrow night is the 2 hour round two of Knockouts, with Usher and Blake. Despite how the ad pitched it, it isn’t Usher versus Blake. Their competitors are competing against their own teammates, and the coaches vote their own team members to stay and leave.
I have to respectfully disagree. I liked Midas Whale (took me till yesterday to get, might as well :smack:) a little bit better because of how upbeat and lively their performance was.
This is just personal preference, but Caroline has the kind of voice that I hate. There was someone with a voice just like hers one or two seasons ago the Cee-lo picked and I didn’t like it either. Anyway, I think Amy’s performance was great and she should have won.
I thought Judith really got into the song. She was smooth and soulful. Orlando, in my opinion, started and ended kind of cookie-cutter-ish. In other words, nothing unique or original, although he was fine in the middle, but as you said, the background vocals were overwhelming. I liked Judith a lot better.
Sorry, but I thought Warren’s rendition made the song sound boring. And frankly, I wasn’t too impressed by Sarah either, but comparatively speaking I thought she did a better job than Warren.
I liked both of them, but I thought that Tawnya did slightly better. And I think Blake was the only one bothered by the youdels. Although being the only country artist judge, maybe he had a point, but they didn’t bother me at all.
I thought that Kris’s performance was better. In my opinion, Mary was just, OK.
I couldn’t point out anybody’s pitch problems to save my life, but I did notice that Monique flubbed her attempt on the last note. But still I really liked her performance. Karina on the other hand… In my opinion she showed no range. The whole thing felt kind of flat to me.
Sasha was wonderful. Her performance was lovely and moving. Shawna was good on the lower notes but couldn’t hold a higher note to save her life.
And I can’t remember who Shakira told to add vibrato if you can’t hold a note and it will make it seem more solid. But what the hell? Everybody knows that most times a vibrato is an attempt to hide the fact that you can’t hold a note. It’s like telling a bald man to do a comb over. You’re not fooling anyone.
Second round of Knockouts, another fun night.
Usher is up first with Josiah Hawley singing “Back to Black” (Amy Winehouse) up against Jess Kellner with “You Give Me Something” (James Morrison). Josiah has always been kinda meh to me, he doesn’t really excite me except for he is from my hometown, but otherwise I’m not thrilled, even when I called him winner. I felt like his music overwhelmed his volume, and I just wasn’t excited. Jess came out with feeling and power, with a minor pitch issue at the beginning but then came on better. I would have called it for Jess, and don’t see what Usher sees in Josiah.
Usher then had Audrey Karrasch singing “Out of Love” (?) against Michelle Chamuel doing “Raise Your Glass” (Pink). Audrey struggled with her lower register and trying to find the pitch. Michelle was all over that. Blake had the funniest line, she came out like someone backstage just told her she won the lottery, and she’s figuring out how to spend it. She was awesome, lots of energy, and yet kept the song strong and on tempo and on pitch without running out of breath. That song really showed her style and attitude. No contest.
Then was C. Perkins singing “She Ain’t You” (Chris Brown) against Vedo doing “Everything I Do I Do It For You” (Bryan Adams). C. was okay, got the audience moving, but didn’t have much range and frankly that style and song were meh to me. Vedo was more up my alley, and he really felt the song and brought the emotion through and hit all the notes, plus that big note at the end that he held - blew that one away.
Finally Usher had Cathia singing “Mr Know It All” (Kelly Clarkson) up against Ryan Innes with “I Don’t Wanna Be” (Gavin DeGraw). Bad call, Usher - these two is a lose for you. I thought Cathia was better than Mary so I was happy she was stolen and glad to see her here. She had the notes and the range and the power and that beautiful little high bit she popped out, and Usher got her to bring out the attitude for the song. Stellar performance. Ryan did pretty good with the song, but struggled with a few notes. He has a great sound, but didn’t win this round - as the coaches all agreed, on this performance Cathia won.
Blake meanwhile started with Savannah Berry singing “As Long As You Love Me” (the Beibster) dueling against Justin Rivers with “The Climb” (Miley Cyrus). Savannah impressed me in prior rounds, but this time she seemed outdone by the music and just not right with the pitch. Meanwhile Justin really connected with his song and had a superb voice. Winner Justin.
Next Blake put Holly Tucker with “Live Like You Were Dying” (Tim McGraw) up against Luke Edgemon doing “Teenage Dream” (Katy Perry). Holly did really well. Luke shook it up and made it his, but ultimately just didn’t have the energy and emotion of Holly.
Then Blake pitted teen phenom Danielle Bradbury and “Jesus Take the Wheel” against Taylor Beckham and “Russian Roulette” (Rihanna). Crap, Danielle had to go and sing that song and make me listen to it. Her performance was superb, her notes effortless and her power and range spectacular. But dammit not that fucking song. Sigh. Poor Taylor. Her lower register just didn’t work for her, she was struggling to get the air at that tone, and it missed pitch a bit. When she went higher she was great, but not enough to measure up to Danielle. Frowny face but right call. Danielle is poised to win if she doesn’t freak out.
The Blake had Grace Askew and “I Can’t Stand the Rain” (Ann Peebles?) versus The Swon Brothers and “Drift Away” (Dobie Gray/Uncle Kracker). Grace is unique in this competition with her style and voice, but I don’t know that song and am not really fond of the style. The Swon Brothers had very good tone and energy and really hit the song. I think this really just came down to coach’s choice over performance. What seemed to turn the vote was Grace’s lack of nailing down any version. Blake complained that every performance she did was different, so he never knew what to expect. And that can hurt if you don’t go into the performance knowing what you intend to do with the notes.
Finally set for the live shows next week.
Thanks for tonight’s recap. Once again I slept through prime time.
I have got to get a DVR.
I’m watching on the West Coast and Perkins and Vedo are about to start.
I have to say, for a few of the artists, it seems the mic volume needed to be turned up.
Also, Country music and Pink songs seem to be very popular this season.
And finally, the music to Luke’s version of “Teenage Dream” sounded like 70’s porno.
Agreed.
There are more Country artists this season. And Pink has popular songs for Indie rocker chicks.
I watched the “Road To” show last night. Recap rundown. Got to see a snippet of Michelle Chamuel’s Battle Round, which is more than we saw before. Yes, she impressed.
I had the “Road To” on, but unfortunately I didn’t pay much attention to it. I’m really looking forward to the live rounds.
I’ve been watching the faces of the coaches as they watch the contestants because I’ve been finding them entertaining, and I’m watching the clips on Hulu instead of watching the whole show.
When Blake thinks someone is good, he bobs his head and smiles. When Adam thinks someone is good, he squints and stares. When Usher thinks someone is good, he smiles to the point you can see his dimples and looks like the cat that swallowed the canary. When Shakira thinks someone is good, she mouths wow! or a similar exclamation.
If Blakes frowns or looks confused, that contestant is done for him. That generally means he’ll say the person is pitchy, which is the kiss of death in his language. If Adam doesn’t like someone, he sometimes, but not always, stares out into space like he just went catatonic. If Usher doesn’t like someone, he’ll either frown or sit back in his chair and try to look neutral. Shakira will look worried (for the contestant) if she thinks someone is doing poorly.
I think the coaches are doing a better job this season. This season they’re giving the contestants a little more freedom and letting them be themselves. The past few seasons it seemed that sometimes the coaches would try to mold some of them into something they didn’t want to be.
I also enjoy trying to read the coaches from their reactions.
I don’t recall there being any really bad matchups this season, like that one time a rapper and a country duo were paired to sing a rock song.
There have been a couple matches that favored one or the other competitors for various reasons.
This time all the coaches let their competitors pick the songs for the Knockouts. We will see if that continues during the live shows. In the past we have seen some rounds where the coaches picked songs for their competitors and maybe didn’t get what the competitor wanted or was comfortable with. Some of that might be not getting a good read on the competitors, a few cases where the competitor didn’t really have a clear idea what they wanted to do.
That’s what I’m talking about with regards to giving them more freedom and not trying so hard to mold them (the competitors) into what they (the judges) want them to be.
I know, my point was that we will see if that trend continues.
I can definitely see why they might pick the trends we’ve seen so far.
First round is auditions - contestant has to choose own song.
Second round is Battles, coaches have to choose song.
Third round is Knockouts. The purpose for Knockouts is to pit the competitors in their best performance directly against another. So it would make a lot of sense to let the competitors pick their own songs for this. It is their turn to shine on their own again. The coaches choice comes in which competitors to pair for the round. You see, they spend the week or whatever helping each one come up with their best shot, then make their pairings based on whatever whimsy they have, but typically pairing similarities of some sort in their own mind. Of course, some of those similarities are obvious (two young latina pop stars, two country dudes) and some similarities are more exotic. Or you pair up all the similarities and the last two are left over.
Anyway, now it’s time for the Live Shows. Because the Live Shows are no longer judged by the coaches, the coaches no longer control who stays and who goes. So now their influence is felt in the song choices and the shaping of the performances. So we may see coaches selecting songs for their competitors, helping shape how to make the performances different and stand out.
I don’t recall a lot of specifics from previous seasons on which coaches selected which songs for which competitors. I vaguely recall Blake picking songs for Jermaine Paul, but I also don’t recall Jermaine being particularly solid on what he wanted to do. Same thing for Christina and Chris Mann. Chris just knew he wanted to do pop instead of opera, he asked the coaches what they would see him doing. That said to me he didn’t know what kind of artist he wanted to be.
The worst song choice I recall was Cee Lo having the Thompsons Sisters sing “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” back in season 1. I don’t know who picked that song, but I doubt that the girls were desperate to perform that song. It was a weird antiquated selection that didn’t gel with the audience for obvious reasons having nothing to do with the girls’ signing ability or appearance. And consequently they were eliminated.
Certainly letting the contestants pick is the best way to let their personal style come through, especially if they have a solid handle on who they want to be artistically. Dia Frampton and Melanie Martinez particularly come to mind in that regard.
It should be a collaborative effort, with the coach suggesting ideas on songs that will reach the audience and show ability, with the artist picking what they want. But each selection is an individual arrangement between different personality types, so who knows.
My memory is crap, and I’m also bad with names, but I remember a Latino on Cee-Lo’s team one season who wanted to do rock, but Cee-Lo picked Latin pop music for him to do instead. The singer really wasn’t feeling it and got sent home.
West coast - Cáthia’s performance of “I Have Nothing” just finished up.
I guess you have to be a professional singer to see what she did wrong, because I thought she had the best performance so far. I LOVED it.
I don’t get why they put some artists on a pedestal. They should make a list of these artists and then warn their contestants that if they pick any of those songs then all the judges will slam them.
I make liberal use of the internet. Google, wikipedia, the WetPaint articles, etc. I don’t recall all these names on my own.
Now that you mention it, sounds familiar. Diego Val, the dude with no socks? South American not that up on US pop music.
Agreed - rundown in a moment.
Yeah, Shakira’s comment about her taking on a Whitney Houston song was very Christina. Sure, some of the artists are cherished voices who were superb at their craft, and sure that means anyone trying to sing those songs to match is taking on a heavy load, but there’s no reason to slam choosing the attempt - especially when the competitor pulled it off so well.
I don’t get it, what performances were they watching, because I thought Cathia’s performance was superb. I didn’t spot a thing wrong. Whereas they were lauding all over Sarah Simmons, who I honestly thought didn’t do that great. This was actually her worst performance. She missed some notes, and I didn’t like several of her note choices. She did have her characteristic etherialness going on, but then it seemed to me that Amber and Caroline also pulled out etherial tones on these performances, and were better.
Amber started the night off strong. It’s hard to be first and be remembered at the end of the night, but she had a really good performance.
They said Josiah had his best performance of the show so far. Well perhaps, but that is only comparing to his other uninspired performances. He started shaky, finally warmed up to the song by the end, but wasn’t particularly impressive.
Vedo impressed me. Doing “Against All Odds” seemed an unlikely choice of song style for him, but I thought he came through and delivered pretty well.
Caroline Graser’s performance was pretty good, though a few of her words fell off, but the performance as a whole was fun.
But the breakout of the night to me was Michelle Chamuel - she had me on the verge of tears. If I wanted to nitpick, she almost fell out on quiet spots, but the connection and emotion of the song was supreme and she sold me for the night.
Judith Hill had a great finish for the night.
I’d rank Usher’s team
Michelle > Cathia > Vedo > Josiah
and Adam’s team
Amber = Judith > Caroline > Sarah
And for grins I run the performances together
Michelle > Cathia > Amber = Judith > Caroline > Vedo > Sarah > Josiah
I suspect Josiah will score higher from audience votes than I rate him. I’m hoping the audience keeps Michelle and Cathia and Usher has to pick between Vedo and Josiah. I don’t know which way Usher would vote in that case.
I don’t think I can outguess the crowd on Adam’s ladies. And Adam’s pick is going to come down to who he has to choose from. I think he’ll rate them Sarah > Amber > Judith > Caroline, but honestly that’s a wild guess.
I did enjoy the group performances tonight. Adam’s ladies sounded great together. I even listed to Adam and Usher perform together.
Tonight we get Shakira and Blake’s teams, and tomorrow results on both nights.
Irishman, so glad to find someone else who doesn’t see what’s so great about Sarah. She’s not bad or anything, but the coaches are falling all over themselves about her. I don’t like some of her choices. I do get that she has some beautiful notes in spots.
I can’t stand Josiah Hawley. He was less insufferable in the live round than in the previous rounds, but he poses as he sings like he’s modeling for the song. It comes off as disingenuous. Shakira said that he was the most genuine for the live rounds, but that’s not saying much. He’s been awful up until now. His singing has gotten better after Usher’s coaching though.
I love Michelle Chamuel. I loved her from the blinds. I wish they had shown her battles. Pharrell seems to have said some nice things to her or about her. I teared up during her intro also. She has such a great attitude and willingness. It was so fun to watch she and Usher doing pushups, and then her getting up to sing. I think she impressed him with that.
I agree that Amber did great. She really was a surprise. I didn’t like her at the beginning. I can’t put my finger on why. I don’t think she deserved the win over Sasha, but that all worked out in the end.
I don’t think VEDO did that well on his song. It was a little surprising that he’d never heard of it. I like his personality, but I don’t think he did great on the song. That’s where song choice could have made a big difference. That wasn’t his forte.
I agree with Shakira that it wasn’t a great choice of song for Cathia. I don’t think Cathia is that good, so picking a tough song like that didn’t make her shine. Usher said there were other reasons for her not shining, but she was handicapped by the song too. Her singing voice is better than her speaking voice, which has a whine to it sometimes. I’ll admit, that makes me like her less. And also that she was complaining about how her battle round partner threw her off.
I really liked Judith’s performance, but I’m wondering how much of the coaches’ gushing about her will play against her with the audience vote. Playing with the audience is fun for the coaches to watch, but just as fun for the audience? It could depend on the audience, I guess.
I don’t care for Caroline’s style. She reminds me of Melanie Martinez in that way. I like Caroline’s personality a lot more, so it bugs me less. And Caroline is more on-key than Melanie, so that helps a lot. It used to grate on me that Melanie was off-key for most of the song, but people liked her inventive style so they overlooked it.
Watching Usher and Adam perform together, it was clear to me how much more of a performer Usher is. Adam looked so stiff and unhappy while Usher was relaxed and singing great. Before the show, I didn’t know much about either of them. I really like Adam on the show, but it really shows how great of an entertainer Usher is.
I’m still ambivalent on Usher’s coaching. While I’m watching the clips before the performance, I think that Usher’s innovative coaching techniques are great, and the contestants seem to be learning a lot. I think that’s great, but I’m still not sure that he’s showcasing the contestants’ best talent when it’s needed the most–on the show. I think it’s awesome that he’s helping the careers of all those people and probably helped launch some careers. But I don’t know that works for the show’s time frame. For instance, taking the people to a kickboxing place is great, but no one is going to be helped in one month to be their best on the show. Getting into great physical shape is a long-term thing. In contrast, Adam took his team to a place to find costumes. That is something that will show up for the show.