Wow, tonight most performances started off bad but then got better and better and built to a great ending.
I’m a little surprised they turned for Morgan. He was OK, but I’ve heard better gravely singers. I thought Patric from the previous episode was better.
Audra - I liked the nice bit of grit, and everything else about her voice. I knew she’d pick Blake.
ETA: Wrong thread.
I liked Audra McLauglin, “Angel from Montgomery” . very surprised she went with Blake. Usher could have helped her a lot more with R&B.
Stevie Jo, “There Goes My Baby” seems pretty inexperienced. I guess Usher thinks he can help the kid. I don’t expect Stevie Jo to get very far. Anything he learns from Usher will be a bonus.
Sam Behymer: “Royals” the children’s nanny. Hated that song. I think she can sing if she picks better material. I’m surprised anyone turned for that song. yuck
Shakira seems to have a weak team again. I’m not understanding her choices. Maybe she’ll surprise me.
March 3 Recap
March 4 recap
Song choice hurt him. That’s a dance song, and it doesn’t have any real dynamics for the singer. Plus, it’s old fogie music. But he sang really well, had excellent pitch and tone and control. I’m glad Shakira saw the underlying performance.
She was more sad at the thought of not being a musician rather than sad she might have to be a librarian, but it sure came off like “Oh noes, I might have to be sob a librarian.”
Again, song choice. She had a nice sound and performance.
“Ringer” in what way?
My only criticism is that he didn’t show much, if any, range. On the other hand, he seemed to be doing that on purpose, as opposed to not having any, so I think his future performances will be better.
Yeah, a lot of people would love to be a musician rather than hold down a 9 to 5 job, but the way she said it made it sound more like she hated the thought of being a librarian.
There was nothing I could fault her on. As I said before I usually can’t tell if someone has bad pitch, so that was possible, but none of the judges said anything about it. So I’m guessing it’s a case of, she gave a great performance, but they were looking for excellent.
Oh, I’m being a little sarcastic. I just mean that with her experience with Celine Dion and having a singing career before stopping to raise a family, she has a lot of knowledge and experience over the other contestants.
This was about Alison - “Where the Boys Are”. I just watched it again. Blake told her to work on her pitch before she tries out again. I didn’t hear the pitch issues, but it sounds like he did.
About Sisaundra. It was so weird that Adam and Usher were both critical of her. They’ve both been very critical of contestants this season without explaining more. I’m finding it annoying. If they have a specific criticism, that’s helpful because the artist can change. But for them to say that “there’s room for improvement” or “that’s not your best” doesn’t say anything. It’s just critical without any point.
I watched Sisaundra’s interview on Hulu. She said that she picked Blake because she hasn’t had a chance to explore the country genre, so she wanted to learn more from Blake. Shakira mentioned that she didn’t understand the Sisaundra/Blake connection. I don’t get the sense that Sisaundra is there to prove something. She said that she just wants to listen and learn more. I’m liking her a lot. I’m cheering for her and Christina Grimmie so far this season.
I’m cheering for Blake this season. I don’t understand Shakira’s picks very much, so it’s hard to cheer for her. Adam has gotten most of the talent in past seasons and squandered them all, leaving careers strewn about. I hope that doesn’t happen this season. I don’t like Usher’s coaching, so I can’t cheer for him. So that leaves Blake. I find myself cheering for him winning the 4 chair turns. I’m glad that Sisaundra and Audra went with him.
There was one guy who picked Usher knowing his style is very authoritarian and liked it. It was that guy who played baseball and tore his ACL. He said that Usher was like his baseball coach, and he liked to be coached up, so he picked Usher. At least he went into it knowing what he was getting.
When you’re sending them home without a chair turn, it’s useful to give them something specific to work on for improvement to come back. When you’re trying to win a chair turn battle, the specific points are less important because you hope to win them over and make those suggestions directly as coaching. Mentioning there are problems is acknowledging there is room for improvement, which is of course accurate, but also is a strategy to tell the person you see their weakness but want to help them and know how to make them better, as opposed to thinking they’re perfect when even they know they aren’t.
Adam has won some turns by being honest that there were issues but there was some underlying goodness there he can work with. As opposed to buttering them up.
I really didn’t understand Sisaundra’s choice, either. I mean, Blake has had success with different genre musicians, so it’s not like he can only do country, but it just seemed out of left field.
It’s early and hard to keep them all straight.
What I find strange is when judges turn for the first note. There’s so much more song to go, why are they assuming that the rest of the song will be as great? If you push the button within 1 to 2 seconds that leaves 88 to 89 seconds where you could regret your button push.
That’s what annoys me about that strategy. It seems to work. IMO, it messes people up. When Adam says that there’s room for improvement or that it’s still not that good, all he means is that he doesn’t like it. For example, James Irwin. James was a 4 chair turn from no turns the previous season. Everyone said nice things to James except Adam who said that the emotion wasn’t there at the end. James picked him, thinking that Adam would help him improve. But that’s not what happened. It just meant that James got washed out, although I think he made it to the battles.
Adam told Cassidy Pope that he didn’t like her either. Luckily, she was smart enough to go with someone else, and Adam had to eat his words by the end.
If a coach doesn’t like you and can’t identify why, they’re probably just saying they don’t like you. Contestants who go on to pick them, thinking that the coach knows how to improve them, are generally not doing themselves a favor, IMO.
That’s the other side of the coin. It was supposed to work that the coaches who turn first are seen to be the ones who recognize the talent earliest and people should pick them on that basis. It worked that way in the first few seasons, but it’s not working that way as the seasons wear on. Now people like that worship pastor who picked Usher who was the very last chair to turn, picked him because Usher pretended that he was listening for something specific and waited to hear it.
I’m not liking that negativity and critical attitudes are becoming winning strategies for some of the coaches. I liked that the show was about creating a positive atmosphere for the contestants. It was the show’s main attractive feature for me.
Sorry, could you please rephrase that? I don’t understand what that means.
What I hate is when someone is chosen as cannon fodder. The first clue is a judge who tuned his or her chair but seems unenthusiastic when trying to get the contestant to join. The second and most blatant clue is when X and Y are pared for a battle round. Let’s say X is country and Y is rock. The judge gives them a country song, and then afterwards says something like, “I expected X to nail this song, but you surprised me. I really didn’t expect you to do that well.”
Sorry, that was a horrible sentence. I was hoping that people would get it from context, but that was a stretch, so let’s try again.
I was trying to say that Biff Gore went with Usher on a 4 chair turn. Biff was the worship pastor. All of the other coaches had turned earlier. Usher waited until the last second to turn. When Usher turned, he told Biff that he waited to hear something that he wanted to hear. In an interview on Hulu, Biff mentioned that he picked Usher because he felt that Usher heard something in the performance that he could teach to Biff, so Biff felt that Usher would be a good coach because he thought that Usher knew things to suggest.
I disagree with Biff. I think that when coaches are negative like that, they’re generally just not liking something about the performer and like you said, they sometimes use the contestant as cannon fodder later. I’ve seen that happen often, ISTM.
On a completely different note, I really liked Stevie Jo’s performance of “There Goes My Baby” by Usher. I could watch that over and over. I like Usher as a performer and love that song. I like Usher quite a bit less as a coach. But I hope Stevie Jo does well. He did a great job on that song.
OK, I understand now.
As for Usher, I’m afraid I’ve only heard two songs from him. “DJ Got us Falling in Love Again” and “Scream”. I’ve heard a lot more songs from Maroon 5 than from any of the other judges.
3/10/14
Kat -“Gold Dust Woman” - Wow, the judges are starting to get picky. I liked her performance, but she did sound a little country-ish, so I totally understand where Usher was coming from.
Gambi - “The A Team” - Personally I didn’t like my style, but I figured the judges would feel differently and he’d get at least one turn. I was surprised Adam wants a contestant to do it all at the beginning. I thought that’s what the coaching was for.
Paula - “The Way” - Not my kind of music, but still a good singer. Shakira sounded very sincere to me. Blake seeing a victory sounded like BS to me.
Jake - “When I Was Your Man” - Seemed to have control issues. Maybe nerves. I was worried about him picking Adam. Usher matches him in style, but will his coaching style work?
Luke - “Radioactive” - Very strange vocal style.
RIA - “Cups” - Not a great song choice but I liked the gravel in her voice. I thought Blake was a strange choice.
Cieera - “Crazy” - I wish she could notes longer but otherwise a great performance.
Tyler - “I Wish” - I though his performance was just OK.
Alaska & Madi - “Barton Hollow”- Great performance.
Ddendyl - “Stand by Me” - I’d like it better without the “quirk”.
Josh - “One More Try” - I had mixed feelings. I agreed with Shakira that his voice needs nurturing.
3/11/14
Joe - “Love and Happiness” - Never hearing the song before, I didn’t realize he was behind the music, so I really liked his performance.
Kaleigh - “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” - I personally didn’t care for her voice but I figured she’d get a chair turn. I was surprised that she went with Blake over Adam.
Brittnee - “Skyscraper” - I never cared for the original version, but I loved hers.
Beau - “You Are The Best Thing” - I thought he had a bad start, but got better as he sang. However I could tell he wouldn’t get good enough for a chair turn.
Lindsay - “Even If It Breaks Your Heart” - I loved her range and overall performance.
Caleb -“Groove Me” - If I had a great voice and went on the show I’d almost definitely choke if a chair turned around. I’m a little surprised it doesn’t happen more often.
Yes, I agree. Just because they come out with the first three notes spot on pitch and power, doesn’t mean they’re going to hold up. Sometimes (Adam, I’m looking at you) I think they peg on a different style or tone and jump, not looking at the overall performance.
I can give Usher crap for waiting for the last possible second for no reason (and Shakira did a sneak in at the very last second, but her’s was more genuine), but at least that gives him the ability to evaluate a reasonable sample of the performance, and not just two notes.
But I don’t think that is the coaches’ fault. We can hear there are problems - waivery pitch or breathy or just a little off - he’s not telling them something they don’t already realize. The idea is to acknowledge the challenges and then still seem positive and eager to coach them over the problems rather than hang on the problems. And if they only get a 1 chair turn on that kind of vibe, they’ll gladly accept it.
But you are correct in that the Auditions the coaches have to go out and try their hardest to select the best singers they can get, or people that are rough but have some unique talent to catch interest. Then they turn around and do the Battles and the Knockouts where they have to whittle their own teams down. That’s kinda sucky from both perspectives - the competitors that just got told how awesome they are and how hard the coaches want to fight for them only to then be told “I’m sorry, you’re going home;” and the coaches who have to find a way to sort their many picks into pairs and then pick between the members, and feel like there’s talent that they have to let down.
I suppose that’s fair. If they can’t articulate a specific reason, then perhaps they just aren’t as enthused as they thought they were.
But they are focusing on the positive, by acknowledging what needs work and showing they know how to evaluate the singer to make them better.
“You sound great just the way you are, there’s really nothing that I can offer you as a singer. But sure, pick me, be on my team, and I’ll focus on coaching the others, and then ride your skill as far as I can.”
I don’t know that anyone is deliberately chosen as cannon fodder. I think the coaches pick a few in the middle where they recognize it isn’t perfection but maybe the person just needs some guidance to bring out the greatness. They’re playing the risk card. Nobody knows who the winner is going to be from the Blind Auditions. We’ve seen great singers go down well before the final rounds. Cassidy Pope is a perfect example of somebody who didn’t shine (that we could see) early but went on to win. That’s where the risk comes in. Is there something there you can draw out that needs some guidance, or is that competitor going to struggle to improve even with your help?
But there do appear to be cases where, once the teams are full and the Battle Round sorting begins, some of the coaches make some one-sided pairings. Cee Lo really comes to mind here - I think he was the worst offender in the “Wow, I totally expected the other person to beat you, but somehow you put up a better fight than I expected” category. With the others, there’s an element of “that person is tough” rather than “you’re just not that good”.
But think what you would do. You have, what, 16 people to put into pairs, so that they share a song. You have to sort your people by some process to figure out who is going on and who is going home. And you can try picking similar styles together, like “you’re my two country folks, so I put you against each other” or “you’re my to pop princesses, so I put you against each other” or whatever. But sometimes you end up with some oddballs that don’t really have any good pairing, just they’re what’s left over.
Well, that song is a bit southern rock, and yeah, I heard a little vibe from her roots.
I’m not a Stevie Nicks fan, and so I’ve never really listened to that song. It is better than I thought. I really liked her performance. It started well, then kept getting better. I’m definitely rooting for her. She’s an early fave for sure.
As for last night’s show, I had a “cannon fodder” vibe to most of the performances. Not that the coaches were thinking that, just that I didn’t think they were as stunning as some of the others. Caleb did well.
I also pegged Beau wasn’t going to get a turn. By the last night, the last two coaches only have one pick each, they’re going to be picky. They need something to wow them, something that demands they get picked. Beau just missed his opportunity to do anything that popped.
Battle rounds pt 1
With the exception of Jake vs Steve my preferences for who was better were the same as the judges.
Biff vs T.J. “Ain’t to Proud to Beg” - I preferred T.J.'s smoother voice Biff’s, but my wife thought Biff was more passionate, so it’s pretty cool that they’re both going on.
Jake vs Lexi “It Goes Like This” - I liked them both, but I liked Jake just a tad bit better.
Dani vs Deshawn “My Kind of Love” - Both were good but I slightly preferred Dani. I was surprised when Deshawn wasn’t stolen.
Kat vs Patric “Whenever I call You Friend” - To me Kat was head and shoulders above Patric, who I didn’t really care for. For one thing he wasn’t very consistent. I was surprised Patric was stolen.
Paula vs Sisaundra “Do What You Want” - I couldn’t pick who I thought was better, but I had a tiny hunch Blake would stick with Sisaundra.
Jake vs Steve “Higher Love” - In the rehearsals I preferred Steve, although I didn’t care for the way he pronounced “love”. But in the actual battle round I thought Jake did better. I’m glad he got stolen.
First pairing, TJ vs Biff: musically, I had a hard time telling them apart. They were both good. I think performance there were a couple things that bugged me about Biff. First, in the first transition when he’s singing and TJ steps in, the look on his face was … I don’t know if he was going for a theatrical play, but it just felt like he wasn’t prepared for the staging. Then, when he said “by my side”, he seemed to be pointing at his ass. And toward the end he seemed to be more focused on TJ than the audience. To me, it felt like in attitude Biff was conceding the show to TJ.
Jake vs Lexi: Jake has mumbling issues, but also his tone right at the start was a little flat. I didn’t catch lyric issues, but I don’t know that song, so I’ll trust Blake on that. I think they both had pitch issues to me, but Jake was the more solid performer. I liked the way they staged it, singing to each other. That really came across well.
I also liked how Jake went up to Lexi afterwards to comfort her on her loss. Real class there.
Dani vs Deshawn: both sang well, but there’s something about Deshawn’s tone that annoys me. It’s got an odd quality I can’t describe. It sounded like from what Usher and Blake were saying that one of them was going to steal, and Usher looked like he was really tempted, but then they didn’t.
Kat vs Patrick: Man, I think Adam screwed up here. Not on his pick, but on the pairing. First, when these two were paired up, I immediately thought: this is going to hurt. They were good stylistically to pair, but two of his best against each other means he loses one of his best. Erk.
Second, this song did not seem balanced. It feels like Patrick has more lines, all the verses, and Kat only gets some accents and the chorus. It just feels like Patrick gets more time and more opportunity to shine. That’s not good. I came in wanting Kat to win, but on the performance there was more of Patrick on display. Also, this song starts out weird. I don’t know the song, it has an odd rhythm structure.
In the end, Adam kept Kat, which I applaud. Patrick’s got a good voice and good sound, but I came in from the blinds with a preference for Kat. She hit everything she was given. Patrick being stolen does not surprise me. He’ll go far.
Paula and Sisaundra: two powerhouses belting it out. Paula worked hard to make it a match, but the pocket issues Blake mentions jumped out at me. I think Sisaundra picked the moment for the hold note and I think she was the stronger singer.
I’m glad Blake went experience this time. In the past, he’s picked young girls who he has more room to influence over an experience person.
Jake vs Stevie: First off, I get a vibe off Stevie like Jonny Gray from last season, which is not a good thing in my book. Second, I’m not as sold on the performance as the judges. I think Jake was better, especially given that this is only his second public performance - I agree with Blake on that.
Adam worked hard to sell his steal on that. Basically, his passion won over.
I’m very familiar with the song and when they sang it, it left me craving the original version. The original doesn’t start out weird and I’ve never thought it had add rhythm. That’s probably due to cutting down the song to 90 seconds and slightly changing it to match the style in which it was sung by the contestants.
Usually I’ll try to judge a performance based solely on an artists performance, but in this case I just couldn’t escape how, in my opinion, inferior their version was.
Tonight’s pairings…
Clarissa vs Jeremy: I heard a lot of issues. What immediately jumped out at me was both artists were just behind the pocket, as the coaches say - just behind the beat. It sounded like both of them, even though Blake only commented on Jeremy. Second, I heard pitch issues out of both. But what killed me was Clarissa’s style intonations.
I guess Shakira is hoping she can rein those in. I probably would have given the edge to Jeremy, but agree he wasn’t quite good enough to steal. I noticed the judges didn’t look super happy, but just contemplative, during their performance.
Delvin vs Caleb: Ack, I hate this song. Or rather, it comes on and I immediately change the station. I don’t care for the sound, and here’s a hint: if you have to tell people to tell people you’re the man, you’re not the man. Plus, I keep hearing “You can tell everybody, this is your song.” Anyway, given that, and that Adam’s coach is the guy who sings that song, I appreciated the way they attacked the issues the two competitors were having. As far as the singing, I agree that Caleb needs maturing, I think Delvin out sung him all across the board. I wasn’t thrilled with the performance, but that would have been my choice out of what we got.
Next came the string of montage that we didn’t see. Can’t really comment on that.
Final performance of the night
Melissa vs Brittnee: two powerhouse ladies who both sang well. That was a good matchup. I really couldn’t call a winner there.
Clarissa vs Jeremy “Cold as Ice” - In the rehersals Ithought Clarissa’s voice was too low and wavy and she held her notes too long. In the battle round I thought she fixed the first two problems, but she still held on to the notes too long so I prefered Jeremy.
Caleb vs Delvin “The Man” - I’ve never heard the song before - I liked Delvin’s deeper and smoother voice. Caleb to me sounded like a poor man’s Jason Mraz.
Preach it brother. I’m guessing that part was, sampled is the best way to phrase it I can think of.
Speaking of sampling, the background music to “Give it to me Right” sounded like it was sampled, or at least inspired from, the 60’s song Time of the Season.
I’m forgetting which is which, but at first I preferred, I think it was Melissa (the one who started the song), but at the end I couldn’t pick.