The Voice - Season 7

Cafe Society
61

Allision, “Sin Wagon” vs Taylor, “Landslide” - I’m less familiar with Allison’s song, and to me it felt like she wasn’t enunciating that well. She did have a comfort and ease with the stage. Taylor did a more subdued song, but she really connected emotionally, and it showed. Taylor was my pick.

Ryan, “Miss Independent” vs Beth, “Too Little Too Late” - I was waiting for Ryan to sing Kelly Clarkson’s song. Ryan was smooth and easy, but something in his tone sounded like a little boy. I also don’t care as much for the song style. I thought Beth nailed it, and I’m disappointed she wasn’t picked.

Jean, “Chandelier” vs Menlik, “Could You Be Loved?” - Not a tough decision at all, one of the easiest decisions we’ve ever seen. First off, I don’t care for reggae, so I know it colors my opinion, but Menlik sounded more like he was shouting than singing, and I just didn’t care for it at all. Whereas with Jean, she was a real artist with that rendition of the song, starting soft through the first chorus, then belting it. And look at the difference a season makes. When Adam picked it last season, it wasn’t on the radio yet and came off as kind of strange. But now it’s all over the radio, and pretty much expect someone to do it. Anyway, I definitely picked Jean.

Blessing, “Your Body’s a Wonderland” vs Chris, “(Sitting on) The Dock of the Bay” - I’ve just not been as impressed with Blessing as the judges. I didn’t like that arrangement, and I didn’t care for his yelling in the song. Chris has issues, but overall it was enjoyable, so I pick Chris.

And Blessing Offer’s name always makes me think of Terry Pratchett’s character from Diskworld, Constable Visit-The-Infidel-With-Explanatory-Pamphlets.

Grant, “Apologize” vs Reagan, “Hit 'em Up Style” - I had to look up the lyrics to Reagan’s song. It’s got a weird rhythm. She was in the pocket and on the rhythm, but a little breathy in places. But she had good tone and some excellent flourishes. Grant has a nice tone, but he’s young and needs development. Not a bad performance, but she’s further along and ready now. Plus, her command of the stage is excellent.

Anita, “Rude” vs Craig, “Can’t You See” - Anita’s reggae, so that’s a strike. That was an odd song choice, just because of the role reversal it doesn’t work well. But getting past that, she had good energy and character for the performance. Though I also thought she was falling out of the pocket a bit. Craig has a solid delivery. Some of his efforts to loosen up on stage and dance around looked uncomfortable for him. Overall, I liked his performance better, and it probably worked out best for both of them with him going back to Blake’s team.

Yeah, but everyone overdoes saying “I’ve gotta go with my gut on this one”. Pharrell’s trying hard not to offend.

Yeah.

Yeah, I was expecting him to have actually cut his hair off. Oh well.

62

The first of the live rounds. Before I show how I personally ranked the performances, two things. First, there’s too much country going on. Second, I think the contestants should be picking their own songs. Anyway, here’s how I ranked the performances.

  1. Matt McAndrew “God Only Knows” - I loved his singing and I loved his range.

  2. Mia Pfirrman “Young & Beautiful” - I wish she would have gone a little softer and higher in parts, but I still really liked the performance.
    Tied with Damien “I’m Not the Only One” - I thought he had a bad start, but it quickly got better and I really liked the rest of the performance.

  3. Reagan James “Try” - A bit breathy in parts, but good otherwise.

  4. Taylor Brashears “Long Time Gone” - Really good, but her mic needed to be turned up.

  5. Taylor Phelan “Cool Kids” - I love the original version of this song. I thought Taylor had too much pop and should have rocked it up a tad.

  6. Craig Wayne Boyd “Some Kind of Wonderful” - It was OK.

  7. James David Carver “Two of a Kind” - Also just OK.

  8. Chris Jamison “Don’t” - In my opinion it was mediocre.

  9. Jessie Pitts “Holding Out for a Hero” - I couldn’t judge this performance objectively. To me she crapped on one of my favorite songs. I know it’s not logical, but that’s what I felt.

63

Five of the 10 performances were Blake’s team. I know, he said Jessie wasn’t a country artist, but that version had a lot of country color to it.

It’s always a trade off between the contestants choosing the songs they want to do, and the coaches selecting songs for them. The advantage for coaches picking is to push them in a different direction than they’d take, like making Damien do something contemporary. The disadvantage is pushing them too far out of their zone to function, or picking too risky a song that doesn’t get the audience right.

My review:

Damien, “I’m Not the Only One” - I thought this was the best performance of the night. He was soft and yet had power, he connected emotionally. Great.

Craig Wayne Boyd, “Some Kind of Wonderful” - It was pretty good. There was a bit much in his opening, but generally this was entertaining.

Taylor Phelan, “Cool Kids” - I thought he sounded pretty good, and this song worked for his voice.

Mia Pfirrman, “Young & Beautiful” - Not a song that connected with me, but she did pretty good. Especially towards the end.

Reagan James, “Try” - I agree about being breathy, but still good. Hers was the first of the night that I liked.

Matt McAndrew, “God Only Knows” - I didn’t care for this song. He sang very well, but this is death by song choice. Adam and his “risky” songs. Maybe America will like it better.

Jessie Pitts, “Holding Out for a Hero” - Very hard to recognize the tune with this version. I’m a bit torn because the original is catchy, but she made it a different song. Points for that, and she did the best I’ve heard her sound.

James David Carver, “Two of a Kind” - I think he gave a good performance in a traditional country sound. Not something I care for, but he did well.

Taylor Brashears, “Long Time Gone” - Same as with James David, traditional country song stylings. I wasn’t wowed, but she did okay.

Chris Jamison, “Don’t” - Tough pacing with the lyrics. I think he kept up, got a bit breathy and a bit pitchy. He had good energy and stage presence, but the singing was not exceptional. I don’t care for the song either.

Team Adam:

Damien, Taylor, Mia, Matt, Chris

What sucks is we have to lose two of these - I like 4 of the 5. On these performances, I put them in that order, but I hope for Matt to move forward. I want Damien, Matt, Taylor. I don’t know what America’s gonna do. I think Damien will be in, but don’t know who out of Taylor, Mia, and Matt will make it. Chris could get the girl vote, but I hope he’s done.

Team Blake:

Craig, Reagan, Jessie, James David, Taylor

That’s how I rank these performances to my taste. Craig got a lot of applause at the end, so I think he’ll be one of the two America picks. After that… I’d like Reagan to be in the mix. Not much caring on the others. Taylor’s good, just not what I like is music.

64

See, that’s just it. I don’t like the coaches being able to take risks with their contestants, because it’s not the coaches who are eliminated if they choose the wrong song (unless it’s their last contestant of course.)

11/11

Wow, tonight was so much better than yesterday, in my opinion. Edit: And crap, I forgot to vote yesterday.

Jean Kelly “Piano in the Dark” - Gwen said it was an 80’s song? Never heard it. And playing piano in the dark is dumb lyrics. Anyway, I thought that Jean did an awesome job singing it.

Elyjuh Rene “Latch” - That was really good. For an R&B pop singer. Or whatever style that music was.

Sugar Joans “I Say A Little Prayer” - I don’t remember liking her that much in the previous rounds, but I really enjoyed her performance here.

Bryana Salaz “Amnesia” - Really good emotion. Unfortunately she sounded just a tad too teeny-bopper for me. Yeah I know, she’s 17 and she can’t help it.

DaNica Shirey “Help Me” - I love the original version, but I think she did the song justice.

Luke Wade “Let’s Get it On” - Unfortunately the best way I can articulate my feelings is, he did pretty good.

Ryan Sill “I Did it All” - The judges loved him, but I didn’t think his performance was that great. However, I see potential and I think he can do a lot better.

Taylor John Williams “Stuck in the Middle With You” - I think he did a fairly good job, however I feel that there were parts of the song he had a hard time with so he tried to cover it up.

Ricky Manning “Lay Me Down” - Not too bad. I do admit though, I might be marking him low because of prejudice against his soul style, or whatever style it was that he sang.

Anita Antoinette “All About That Base” - A song I don’t like in a musical style I don’t like. Yeah, for the third or fourth time I’m letting prejudice color my judgement. :frowning:

65

I started channel surfing during Tuesdays show. I just don’t like Gwen and in some cases, Pharrell’s arrangements. They throw in too many gimmicks. Elaborate runs, changing the phrasing, and the song is nearly unrecognizable. Gwen’s teams bugged me the most. Pharrell’s experience as a producer was pretty obvious. Several of his team’s songs were noticeably better than the typical Voice arrangement.

66

Crap, in Oregon they’re showing the Blazer’s game. I really hope tonight is just the results because I don’t mind missing that. I mean, I can Google who’s going on and I don’t really care about any singing. I only pay attention to the contestants singing in hopes of moving on.

67

America got it right. What’s with the coaches?!

Team Blake: American picked Craig and Regan. Blake picked Jessie. I read that Blake’s pick is based on iTunes, but she clearly is the weakest of the three remaining, and he pretty much said as much. There’s no way that she could compete with Taylor on straight up singing. I can see why he did it, but I think it’s a mistake. I think Taylor might have gone further, especially with Blake’s country fan base. My new favorite is Craig. I’m liking him more and more. He’s one of the only people who is singing a straight-up song this season and I appreciate that. Everyone else is making their song unrecognizable. I’m hoping that Regan goes a lot farther also.

Team Pharrell: America picked Luke and DaNica. Pharrell picked Sugar. Whew! At least he didn’t pick Elyjuh. I’m tired of hearing about Elyjuh’s potential. I’m just not seeing it, so I’m glad I don’t have to hear about it anymore. I’m cheering for Luke on Pharrell’s team.

Team Gwen: America picked Taylor and Anita. Gwen picked Ryan. That was so weird. I don’t even remember what song Ryan did. He’s either so vanilla or so bad that I blanked it. Either way, I think Bryanna or Ricky would have been better choices because at least I remember them. My favorite on team Gwen is Anita, although that’s not saying a whole lot. Team Gwen is pretty weak.

Team Adam: America picked Damien and Matt. Adam picked Chris. I really liked Damien in the season opener. But I like him less with every performance. He doesn’t seem to be getting better. He’s sort of like Elyjuh to me. Adam keeps saving him because he has potential. I don’t think he won the battle over Toia. I was shocked at the Chris pick because I was sure that Adam would save Mia. She’s another one that I didn’t care for so I was pleasantly surprised by Adam’s pick. I like Matt and Chris pretty equally on team Adam, but they’re pretty far down the list.

For the most part, I agreed with America’s picks. I was shocked by each of the coach’s pick. For Adam and Pharrell, I was pleasantly surprised. For Gwen and Blake, I doubt their pick will last long.

I wish that once they went live that America got to pick the 12 from the pool of 20 without regard to the coaches. America just blows out the coach’s picks that they wouldn’t pick anyway, and it means that some good singers get taken out because there isn’t room for ones they would have saved.

68

Thanks Heffalump and Roo.

Uhm, and I misremembering, or is this the quickest we’ve gone to the top 12? I’m guessing this is how they always do it, but eliminating 7 on each team in one night seems like a lot.

Anyway, of the remaining singers, my favorites are on Pharrell’s and Adam’s teams.

69

:confused: You lost me. They eliminated 2 on each team tonight. There were 5 on each team at the start of lives. America saved 2 and coach saved one. There’s 3 left on each team for a total of 12. Each team lost 2 for a total of 8 eliminated tonight. That’s how it’s been each season, IIRC.

If memory serves, last season, the coach picked the 2 leaving, I think, so there were only 12 at the beginning of lives. They went back to the old format this season. I think it was nerve-racking for the coaches to get rid of 2 contestants without even knowing what America thought. At least the coach is saving 1 this season instead of eliminating 2 like last season.

70

Catching up late on all this.

True, but the show is set up with the coaches competing as well as the individual competitors competing, so it makes sense there is an amount of internal team competition, where the coach tries to guide the result they want. Finding the right balance is the trick. It is nerve wracking for the coaches to take time building up the competitors to then have to let them go. That’s one big reason to the shift where live shows are open elimination.

And sometimes those risks pay off, like Cassidy Pope.

Agreed.

I remember and like the song. I liked Jean’s version. I thought she did well, but when the coaches started ragging on her dramatics, I winced - that doesn’t bode well for her staying around.

I don’t get what the coaches were going on and on about. Maybe it was the song style and arrangement, but I didn’t care for the slow part, and the up tempo part was too short. His was the one I enjoyed least, not that he’s a bad singer, just that song and arrangement didn’t work for me.

I liked it, too.

Great, I loved it.

Unusual song I don’t know. She just glided through that song. Lovely.

Pretty good is right.

Okay, not exceptional.

I really liked what he did, his taking it to make it fit his style. I thought it was great.

Ricky’s the one that surprised me and has improved a lot, and I can’t help rooting for him.

Her best performance, not being in reggae. They made me pay attention to the song, so the message of the song is good, with the chorus being a metaphor. Okay, not as bad a song as I thought. And she has a better voice than the original. But she kept dropping the word “treble” - “all about that base, about that base, no…” TREBLE! No TREBLE!

For what ever reason, they’ve emphasized his tweaking of the arrangements - maybe that reflects what he’s doing differently. I agree that some of his changes are improvements.

I’m happy with Craig and Regan. On the others, I didn’t have a strong opinion. I thought Blake might go with Taylor for her country sound, but also thought he might go with Jessie because of her voice stylings. So not surprised, and not upset.

I suspected America would pick Luke, glad they picked Danica. I was hoping for Jean, but didn’t expect it. I kinda suspected Elyjuh as well, so I’m glad he went with Sugar. Maybe this performance marks a move for her to betterness.

Taylor John, great, Anita, crap. Then Gwen picked Ryan over Ricky and Bryana. Meh. I liked either of the others better. Ryan’s the one that sounds teeny-bopper to me.

Dammit, Adam, the one out of your list I didn’t care for. Damien had a great performance and I think can win, and I didn’t care for that song but like Matt and think he can win, too. But I liked both Mia and Taylor, so knew I was losing at least one favorite. But no, Adam knocked out both. For Chris. I guess he did fine with a song and style I don’t care for. Good stage work, but meh.

I think the top contenders are Danica, Taylor John, Damien, and Matt.

71

Never-mind. My memory is just way off I guess.

72

Yikes! Luke Wade just lost the song. I’ve never seen that before. There have been people who forgot a word or two, but he just stopped and basically started over. He seemed OK with it until Adam stepped in and talked over him, then he looked really unhappy. I wonder if America will punish him in the voting for starting the song over. I wish that Adam had let him finish talking. Then at least we’d know what was going on with him and not take it from Adam.

73

Carson was talking over him too and that annoyed me.

This time instead of ranking them I’ll just list them in order and give my opinions on their performances.

Sugar Joans “Take Me to the River” - She was confident, at ease, and really seamed to enjoy herself.

Ryan Sill “Ordinary World” - I thought it was a bad song choice. I can’t help but compare to the original and I don’t think he measured up to Simon Le Bon’s singing.

Jessie Pitts “Don’t You Worry Child” - She kind of had an Ellie Goulding vibe going on.

Damien “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” - He really got into the song. I do wish though that it was more flowing instead of the start-stop style he kind of did.

DaNica Shirey “Creap” - Amusing, kind of comical arrangement. However, despite that, she did sing really well.

Taylor John Williams “If” - He connected with the song and made it his own.

Regan James “It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over” - Like Sugar, she had a good voice, good stage presence, good confidence.

Luke Wade “Thinking Out Loud” - Nice Recovery.

Matt McAndrew “Take Me To Church” - He became a rock star on stage.

Craig Wayne Boyd “You Look So Good in Love” - Good singing and he really knew how to play to the audience. Although he should have single out another girl or two.

Chris Jamison “Jealous” - I never heard the original so I can’t compare, but I thought he did a great job.

Anita Antoinette “Redemption Song” - She really emotionally connected to the song which meant she gave a good performance.

Going through to the top 10, I wouldn’t be sad if Jessie Pitts and Luke Wade went home.

74

He said he came in a couple bars early. So he just paused and restarted the line he was on on beat. I wonder if he could hear the music - he does have an earpiece, so I would think so. Just oopsed it. Good recovery - about the only thing you can do.

My comments: First off, fucking gospel music. Crap. I’m going to have to separate my enjoyment from how I think they performed.

Sugar Joans, “Take Me to the River” - Not bad. She got a bit screamy at the end.

Ryan Sill, “Ordinary World” - I like the song, he did okay, but something in his tone is a bit boyish and it just isn’t pleasing to me. Still, it was a decent performance, and overall better ranking than the gospel shit.

Jessie Pitts, “Don’t You Worry Child” - I don’t care for her lilts, she was a bit breathy in parts, and it sounded pitchy and like she went low on some of the higher notes. Just didn’t work for me on about any level. Worst of the night for me.

Damien, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” - Song lyric crap, but he gave a good performance.

DaNica Shirey, “Creep” - Different arrangement and definitely an unexpected choice for her. Overall I liked it, but she took a few liberties with the melody, changing up notes.

Taylor John Williams, “If” - I think probably the best of the night. Straight up rendition that worked for him.

Regan James, “It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over” - her lilts and tone are off-putting. Wasn’t horrible.

Luke Wade, “Thinking Out Loud” - I just don’t care for his voice. Yeah, it’s unique, it’s signature, it’s still annoying. I’d put him in second bottom.

Matt McAndrew, “Take Me To Church” - He really delivered on this song. I didn’t get what the coaches were saying about his mike being down. Maybe the in house balance is different than the air balance? But Gwen saying this was really his song, his kind of song. No, give him some real rock to sing.

Craig Wayne Boyd, “You Look So Good in Love” - Definitely country authentic, but at least it wasn’t gospel. Great performance.

Chris Jamison, “Jealous” - His best performance. Definitely a good fit for him.

Anita Antoinette, “Redemption Song” - Strong performance, the reggae sound wasn’t bad, the slow song worked. She really felt it. Despite the theme, one of the better performances of the night.

75

I’m hoping that Luke doesn’t get ousted for his mistake. Both of you posting in the thread have him as one of the bottom 2 to get ousted. Would it be the same without the initial mistake?

Because it was so dramatic, I don’t know for sure if I would have thought him the second worst without the mistake, so I’m hoping he gets a second chance. That said, besides Jessie, who I am OK with going, I’m not sure who else should go. I’m going to go with Ryan.

Sugar - she’s OK. I agree with Irishman that she got screamy/screechy at the end.

Ryan - he’s OK. I think he’s still in it because Gwen likes his attitude, but the audience doesn’t really see that so much. His singing is just OK. Those high notes seemed off-key to me, but I don’t know the song or what he was trying to hit, but they didn’t sound great to me.

Jessie - I’m not liking her. She sounds off-key a lot. She’s beginning to remind me of Melanie or those others who are “indie” music, meaning they change the melody so much but I can’t tell if that’s because it sounds better or because they can’t sing it. Since it doesn’t sound better to me, I figure it’s because they can’t sing it.

Damien - For me, he lacks something. His singing is fine. But there’s no charisma.

DaNica - Interesting song choice. She’s another one who sings great, but for me, doesn’t strike a chord.

Taylor - I agree with Irishman that he did really well. People singing straight up is really rare lately, and I’m liking that.

Reagan - she was OK. I like her, but this song didn’t wow me.

Matt - yeah, that was pretty nice. He did a great job both showing another side of him and putting some theatrics in the song. He hadn’t done that before, so it was a good showing for him.

Craig - my new favorite. I’m liking him more and more. I’m liking that he’s doing straight up singing. I’m liking the connection he has with the audience. I’m mostly liking that he looks so happy and excited about his performances.

Chris - seems to be getting better. This was a pretty good performance. I liked it.

Anita - she’s been a bit of an enigma for me. I liked her when she was an underdog and then not so much when she was going all-out theatrical. But she’s doing well, I think.

My picks for the bottom 2 are Jessie and Ryan. As I think about it, that’s who I would have predicted going last week because those were the two coach saves that I was surprised by, and not in a good way.

I keep wanting to say this about this season, so I will. I’m just feeling like the talent level is really mediocre. There aren’t really any stand-outs, so it’s hard to pick who to eliminate. They’re all about the same. . . just OK. In past seasons, I had favorites and also-rans. This season, they’re all sort of muddled together.

76

Too bad Taylor Brashears was ousted. But none are really special, the 16 year old girl sang Lenny Kravitz’s “It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over”. Loved it! Prior to this I never thought she was great.

77

For me the answer is yes. There was nothing compelling about that performance. In fact, I almost started zoning out.

To me Ordinary World is a great ballad, and I don’t think Ryan did it justice.

78

Yay, America saved Luke. I just didn’t want to see him leave on that flub. That would have been sad. If that wasn’t the reason for the pick, I could see it, but I was hoping that wouldn’t be the sole reason.

Maybe he’ll redeem himself next week. On a side note, I read something about Luke early in the season during the blinds. It was a blog post about Luke by someone who interviewed him about his The Voice experience. The interview made it sound like his run was already over by the time of the interview, but that couldn’t be the case since he’s still in it, and it’s live. The interview talked about how Luke was struggling in the profession and how he had bipolar disorder. Luke didn’t make it a big deal; he didn’t even bring it up. He just noted how he dealt with the issue when it came up. Anyway, glad he’s there for another week.

I was OK with Jessie and Sugar being picked to leave. That’s an amazing thing for Blake to say that he and Jessie will be friends for a long time. He has had so many contestants that it’s hard to believe that this one stood out. She sure didn’t stand out on stage. But it was nice of him to say. It was also nice that Pharrell made a comment about recording with Sugar. Hopefully if they do, she won’t be so screechy on the high notes.

The reviewer on TVLine, Michael Slezak has a major hate-on for that performance by Ryan Sill. This was after the live show last night:

He wasn’t pleased that Ryan was saved. :smiley:

Did Blake miss that high note in the Sad Songs song? He sounded like he was really straining. Craig made it sound so easy in comparison. What happened there? Did he start in the wrong key or something?

Silly story: Last week, I was listening to the clips of the first ten contestants from the live round on Hulu. They just play automatically one after the other, so I didn’t even look up from what I was doing. They were all pretty mediocre, so I wasn’t even tempted to look up and really watch. But then I heard someone who sounded pretty good and thought, hey, that sounds pretty good. . .who’s that? I look up to see Adam. He was doing his new song. Heh.

79

I was with the results, picking pretty well who it would be, up until Luke. Meh. So we get the “dance off” between Jessie, Sugar, and Ryan.

Jessie sounded the same, getting rather annoying. Can’t seem to hit the right notes.

Sugar gave her best performance to date. That song worked for her, she had good dynamics, and only pushed the loud at the end, without screaming. She should have been saved.

Ryan sounded pretty good on that song. It fit with his voice. I still felt a tiny edge of teeny bopper early on. Just the tone on his voice.
I’m disappointed Sugar was trending at the bottom. She should have been above Jessie at least. Oh well, at least Jessie is out.

Except there’s that new announcement - everyone eliminated will be brought back one more time for a sing off for a Wild Card slot into the finals. So we still have to have one more performance by her - plus any more bring backs or whatever for the filler songs.

Oh, and did anybody else notice, both Sugar and Ryan flubbed lines in their songs? Sugar reversed “and when the night falls, my lonely heart calls” to “and when the night calls, my lonely heart falls”. And Ryan flubbed the second to the last line:
“then you couldn’t make me feel
just by saying, I love you.”

He even knew it, and kinda slurred through “me feel”.

For me, yes, the mistake didn’t factor into it. I just don’t like his voice. I didn’t get into his performance at all.

Blake has stayed in touch with several of his contestants, taken them on tour with him and stuff. So I believe it.

I don’t know, but Blake sounded particularly bad at the opening of that song.

80

Nov 24

Wow, that was a really good show.

My top three pics are Damien, whose performance was perfect; Craig Wayne Boyd, who took a country song, countried it up even more, but I loved his performance anyway :D, and DaNica Shirey, who also gave a perfect performance.

Chris Jamison gave a great performance, and I thought that Anita Antoinette was very good.

Ryan Sills was a little better than last week, but to me he’s still one of the weaker performers. Meanwhile I thought that Taylor John Williams was a lot better than last week and he’s in the middle of the pack for me.

And finally, my pick for bottom three. Matt McAndrew, not crazy about the falsetto and I thought it was a bad song choice. Although over-all I rate him kind of high, so I guess he had an off night (in my opinion). Regan James sounded like she was doing karaoke. And Luke Wade gets an A for effort, but a C for content. I didn’t really care for him last week and I don’t care for him now.

So, going by my over-all feelings of the artists and not just confined to this weeks performance, Luke Wade and Ryan Sills are at the bottom of my list. If I was just picking for this performance then it would be Luke Wade and Regan James.