Getting here a bit late given that results are already out, but I thought Sawyer, Meghan, and Koryn (in roughly that order) were really strong this week, and that Joshua was by far the weakest (I actually laughed out loud at the easy jazz version of “Desire”, but that might just be me). Is it late enough that I can spoil the elimination? Do we have guidelines on that? Anyways, I don’t have too much of a problem with the elimination because I thought her first performance was the second-worst of the night, and this is such a strong group that everyone is at least some kind of “good”.
Thanks for that.
So on the results rundown, I wasn’t sure if it was Sawyer going to be first, but I pegged Meghan second, and Koryn third. However, I was totally surprised that Joshua made fourth and was safe - I thought his two lackluster performances would put him on bottom.
Then we got the last chance song, and Oh My God, they stank. Stinkerino city.
First, India performed “Perfect”, but it was awful. She was pitchy, and she was off tempo and all over the place. I was thinking “Kimberly is really going to have to screw the pooch to get eliminated here”.
Then Kimberly came out to sing “Seven Nation Army”, which if she wanted to prove her rocker status, that would be a good choice, but what does she do? She can’t find the pocket to save her life. She’s too slow, sounds like she entered early, and just kinda dragging through the part that’s supposed to be a staccato marching beat. It felt like she’d just given up or something. She managed to belt out the end, but she was even worse on tempo and pocket than India, and India was dreadful.
I honestly didn’t know who to send home, and dammit, it made the point that Joshua got saved a good thing, despite what he did to “Desire”. Bah.
And it was neck and neck on voting, before India once again squeaked through. I thought maybe Kimberly - she’s had a somewhat better record overall - but somehow India’s fans pulled another last second tweet off.
So, my guess for next week. Sawyer and Meghan will once again top the performances. Koryn will be solid, and whether or not Joshua has a good night will come down to song choice and arrangement. How well India actually does I can’t guess, but I’m not counting on her to make it out of the bottom 2 - I think by now there isn’t much she can do to overturn people’s impressions and picking by favorites.
So I put India and Joshua in the bottom 2, and then we get to see if India is charmed or if Joshua can keep from bungling under pressure. I’m fairly certain the other three will be finalists, just guessing who comes in fourth.
I meant to comment about Kimberly as a rocker, I have to agree that for all the talk, she had a hard time showing us that in her performances. We finally get some songs for her to let it shine - “Dirty Diana” (surprisingly rock for MJ) and “Seven Nation Army” and she still doesn’t really make a convincing show of it.
As for embellishments, I like when Blake and Adam tell their contestants to dial things back a bit, not try to squeeze every vocal gymnastic into every song, and try to find the original melody at least once through. Those are solid coaching points that reflect performances I enjoy. Christina has the vocal ability to do wild stuff, but she seems to be encouraging her contestants to add more, to try to do more, and it turns me off. I get that you want to show off their abilities, but there’s something to be said for finding a melody, for singing lyrics without stupid repetitions and interjections that break the sense of the line, for a little more understated a flow.
I mentioned Joshua doing “Time in a Bottle”, but Jim Croce actually came to mind when Sawyer was playing. I think he could so something like “Alabama Rain”.
While “Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown” and “Don’t Mess Around With Jim” are fun songs, I don’t think they’d really work in this show, especially at this stage of the competition.
Beauty!
If I could pick the outcome tonight, this would be it.
I only saw the last 5 minutes of the show, enough to see that Kimberly and India were on the bottom and that Kimberly lost the twitter save.
Michael Slezak is beside himself. You can almost hear him screaming through the monitor.
I’m relieved. Explaining why I don’t care for her style week after week was getting monotonous.
I read and heard that there were some alum acts tonight. Earlier in the season, I was going to write that it would be nice if the show would do segments on ‘what happened to. . . ?’ for some alums that are doing things you might not hear about but are still doing things in the music business. Tonight’s show sounds a bit like that. I hope they do more of that.
I saw something else in the comments section of the column that I had noticed but didn’t think to comment about. It was Kimberly’s crotch rub in her MJ song. It didn’t go well with me. Even when MJ did it, it was less weird. He did it as part of a dance and to show a sort of macho style. When she did it, it was with a dress. It just looked odd. It was subtle enough that it seemed a tiny bit icky. I wasn’t really bothered by it, but I doubt it won her many votes.
Crotch grabs are always ichy.
The alum stuff was them trying once again to promote their former contestants. The R&B guy was pretty good. Vicki Martinez wasn’t bad. I’m sure Craig Wayne Boyd’s was fine country, though they keep trying to call him a southern rocker.
Joshua
“I Can’t Make You Love Me” - I would have preferred that he sang a little bit slower.
“When I Play my Masterpiece” - The best performance that I’ve ever heard from him.
Koryn
“One” - Good, not great. Lacking something. My wife’s caregiver said that Koryn sounded a little breathy. Does anybody agree?
“Oh Mary Don’t You Weep” - Good singing, but most of it was hard to understand.
Meghan
“I’m Not the Only One” - Pretty good and fairly soulful.
“Tennessee Whisky” - A very good performance.
India
“Gravity” - A lovely and wonderful performance.
“Earth Song” - I absolutely loved it.
Sawyer
“For What it’s Worth” - I didn’t care that much for how he tried to make the song his own.
“1,000 Years” - Not bad.
If it were up to me, Koryn would be going home. And I personally think that India did that absolute best for both performances.
I thought the song choices were positively soporific, especially the first hour. Makes it harder for me to judge the singing on its own merits; my gut feel was that I liked Sawyer the most overall, really liked all three ladies on their second time through the order, and Joshua was close to actually putting me to sleep.
Re: Koryn on “One” - she definitely sounded a little off, I’m willing to go with “breathy” if you are!
My favorite non-compliment compliment of the night was Christina talking about how great the drummer had been this evening.
Of the remaining artists I want Meghan to win, even though it will probably be Sawyer.
But if Meghan does win I think Blake should retire for a season or two to give the other judges a chance.
I haven’t noticed you being a Meghan fan before. Is there another reason that you want Meghan to win or just that she has the strongest body of work?
I haven’t seen the shows this week except for the last 3 minutes tonight. I was good with the outcome of Koryn being safe. I’ll have to catch up later in the week.
I just think that she’s the best out of the remaining four.
That seems to be what he dopes, rush the tempo on lines for no reason. Great song choice, decent performance except for that.
I liked her performance of “One”, and thought she finally managed not to be breathy. At least she didn’t drop syllables this time. The second I couldn’t enjoy, and I want to kick Pharrell in the balls. So that’s why several people died in tornadoes and floods, God was busy watching “The Voice”.
Great performances, and she didn’t start at 11.
Both were pretty good.
Agreed.
Maybe they should take notes.
My DVR cut out right at the end of the results tonight. I thought Koryn did better tonight, and India has been on the bubble a lot. I see Koryn is in, and that’s how the votes were trending whole being shown.
I knew India was toast when Christina proclaimed she had selected a singer’s song! Everyone bow down to the awesome lady who can sing Gravity. It probably is a difficult song that requires a lot of technique.
I still hate that song. Always have and always will. I switched channels for a few minutes until it was over. Christina always seems to select crap songs most average fans don’t like. People on her team pay the price.
Blake is the shrewdest coach in picking material. He explained his strategy Monday night. Meghan has spent weeks winning over R&B fans. Monday night he made sure Meghan pulled back in her original country fan base. Giving her both. Blake knows how to give her the best possible chance to win. She’ll be either the season winner or #2. Probably #2 because the public won’t give Blake another win this soon.
I still think Sawyer Fredericks has a image problem. He reminds me of that dweeb in Animal House torturing Belushi with this oh so angsty and droning song. Sawyer’s music isn’t quite that bad. But a lot of those indy singers are so angsty it makes me stabby.
I need to go back and listen to Joshua Davis and Koryn Hawthorne. I don’t have a strong impression of their music style yet.
Ah, OK thanks. Fair enough. Since I hadn’t heard much about her before (and really because I was reading some critical commentary on her from Michael Slezak), I thought you might have wanted her to win for some strategic reason like you wanted someone else not to win.
I really like her. I hope she comes in second. I’m still a big Sawyer fan, so I hope he wins. For me, he has a natural charisma. I’m not sure if it would play as well if he were older, but it’s working for me right now.
I’ve been thinking about this. I don’t really care which coach wins, but I do care about how interesting the show is. If they bring in new people, the tendency for new people is to blow out talent early and to give difficult songs to the contestants to “help them grow” and build the new coaches’ egos. If everyone did that, the show would get boring very quickly after the blind auditions because it wouldn’t take long for the coaches to blow out their main talent. By the time the new coaches are giving their contestants over-challenging songs, I’d be losing interest.
Blake shows the counterintuitive approach that he’s figured out through trial and error over time. If more people followed his approach, I think the show would become more fun to watch because the contestants would be showcasing their best talents for more of the show instead of trying to emulate the coach.
That’s why Christina’s contestants blow out. They emulate her because she coaches her contestants to do so and the contestants fail because they aren’t good at being Christina. If Christina encouraged her contestants to be more themselves, they would probably do better. But Christina can’t take herself out of the equation.
If they replaced coaches like her instead, I think I might enjoy the show more. I don’t have anything against Christina (although I did in the past), and she’s improved a lot since the beginning, but I don’t think she’s really getting the concept, and that makes for less interesting viewing.
I’ve noticed that coaches like Usher and Pharrell have been successful because they’re emulating Blake over time and have said so. I hope that they bring on more coaches who are willing to do that. It takes a lot for a coach to put their ego aside to help their contestant be the best they can be without taking credit for it or making the contestant copy them.
Sad but true.
I’m writing while I’m watching.
When Koryn said she was doing this song (Man’s World), I remembered back to her song that Amanda Brown did and how she came across as a poor comparison. This song was already done masterfully by Judith Hill in a battle round. But Koryn did it amazingly. I wasn’t comparing. That was a fantastic start.
Meghan’s new song is really hitting home for me right now. And she really showed how much dynamic she really has. But the song is new, so I’m getting used to that as well as trying to judge the singing. It was also a bit of a disadvantage going after Koryn. It didn’t wow me.
Sawyer/Pharrell duet just showed how strong Sawyer’s voice was. Pharrell’s voice seemed small in comparison. It reminded me of the Blake/Danielle duet. Blake was struggling to keep up with her. Both the youngsters make it look so effortless, but you can tell from the coaches that it isn’t as easy as it looks.
I’m not sure how I feel about this original music stuff.
Joshua’s new song gave me mixed feelings. First, I was so bored that I didn’t watch the whole thing. The idea of it and the explanation of the lyrics had me riveted. But the song itself didn’t capture my attention. The way I thought about it was giving people they know are going to lose an opportunity to showcase their music during a time when the eyes are still on them. But it makes it hard to judge the singing. No one knows how it’s supposed to sound.
Having just written that, I really like Sawyer’s song. Even if it was new, it’s still a song I enjoyed hearing. How amazing that Sawyer got a song written by his idol. I enjoyed it.
Koryn and Pharrell’s duet was cute. She really came a long way in the competition and now her voice overpowers his as well. That was a fun song.
Joshua’s rendition of Hallelujah gave me goosebumps. The tone of his voice is beautiful and it had just the right smoothness for the song.
Meghan and Blake’s duet showed Blake’s mastery. He was able to change the mood from the serious mood she was painting to the fun mood the song should have started with just by injecting a smile and some silly antics. His appearance changed the whole song to what it should have been.
In Joshua and Adam’s duet, Joshua looked like he was having a blast, which was nice to see. It was a typical Adam duet where he took center stage more than the contestant.
I just realized that they’re all doing original songs. I also just realized that I like all of the contestants who are left. When I saw Joshua and Meghan with original songs, I thought that it put Sawyer and Koryn at an advantage because people could relate to songs they already know.
I loved Koryn’s original song. It was fun. It was a Pharrell song, and she delivered it well. I started to wonder if Koryn had a chance to win this whole thing. But I think it would be unfair because Sawyer has been so consistent this whole time.
On the other hand, they all really won already. They all have original songs out on the market. They’re all going out on tour. In some ways, it doesn’t matter who wins tonight. They’ve all done some great performances tonight. Now the original songs really favor Koryn and Sawyer because real artists/producers wrote them instead of being self-written. The difference was noticeable. The pros know what’s marketable.
I didn’t like Meghan’s song. She started on 10. It was her usual thing. I didn’t understand what part she was playing in that lyric. It was about a man loving a woman. She doesn’t have that experience. It didn’t match for me.
As always, I loved Sawyer’s song. His interpretation and insight is truly amazing. I was going to say for a 16 year old, but for anyone really. His singing just resonates with me.
For me, the night’s performances come down to Sawyer and Koryn. Koryn did the best tonight, but as they said, Sawyer was in the top 10 for every live performance. It would be unfair for her to get 2 good performances in and win the whole thing. I doubt it will happen that way since the iTunes downloads accumulate throughout the competition, I think.
Sawyer for the win, Koryn second, Joshua next and then Meghan.
Is it me, or in the duets did the judges sing pretty poorly? Maybe except for Adam.
OK, so, for the finalists.
Koryn - Overall I’d give her second place.
“It’s a Man’s… World” - I am so tired of this song. But putting that aside, I thought she did a great job with it.
“We Can Work it Out” w/Pharrell - I didn’t care for the hip/hop, or R&B, or whatever style it was, makeover.
“Bright Fire” - Another very good performance.
Meghan - If it were up to me, she’d win.
“Change my Mind” - The lyrics were OK, but her singing was great.
“Freeway of Love” w/Blake - Megan was great. What was up with Blake? He is a pro, right?
“When a Man Loves a Woman” - Another great performance.
Sawyer - Sorry Heffalump and Roo, I just can’t get into him.
“Summer Breeze” W/Pharrell - Bad song choice. They both butchered the song.
“Please” - OK. Also, I was hoping that the original songs would at least be partially written by the finalists.
“Old Man” - I thought that this was his best performance out of the three.
And while I’m typing, I see someone else posted something. Oh well, I’m not previewing. I’ll just see who it was after I hit Submit.
Joshua - My third place pick.
“The Working Man’s Hymn” - Good effort, but kind of boring. It seems like a pale imitation of the kind of song he wrote. Or in other words, other songs that have the same message and music style are better.
“Hallelujah” - Not bad.
“Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes” W/Adam - A good performance, but I don’t like that song. I’m not sure why.
First off, SHUT THE FUCK UP, PHARRELL. Sit the fuck down and get the fuck off my TV, dammit. Bring back Usher. Hell, bring back Cee Lo. I’d take Justin Bieber over that crap.
Now for the songs:
Meghan:
“Change My Mind” - I loved it. I loved her performance, I loved the lyrics. I think it’s a great song, one I’d actually listen to on the radio.
“Freeway of Love” with Blake - It was okay. Blake wasn’t great.
“When a Man Loves a Woman” - Another spectacular performance. My one quibble is that I don’t think it means what she thinks it means. She’s talking about it being a great love song, but I see it as a kind of miserable song about how she misuses her man and he can’t help but take it.
Sawyer:
“Summer Breeze” with Pharrell - I thought they had the best duet of the night. Faint praise, but I thought this worked for Sawyer, with a lighter song that still fit his folky style.
“Please” - Entertaining, if you enjoy what Sawyer does, this was very in that vein.
“Old Man” - Spectacular.
Overall, I thought he had three solid performances and was the most consistent.
Joshua:
“The Working Man’s Hymn” - Decent performance, but I agree with Nobody, a bit bland and pandering. But the audience seemed to like it.
“Hallelujah” - I thought it was a creatively different arrangement and a really good fit with his song. And he clearly had a passionate delivery. I was thinking this might have won it for him, if America takes a stronger like to the first one than I did.
“Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” with Adam - I think maybe the second best duet of the night. Both Adam and Joshua were having fun and enjoying the song. But I don’t care that much for it.
Koryn:
“It’s a Man’s World” - Kinda agree I’m getting tired of people doing the song, but she sang it well. One of her best performances, and a strong lead in for the show.
“We Can Work It Out” with Pharrell - What the fuck did Pharrell do to this song? Stinkeroo. I fastforwarded, and I almost always watch the competition songs. I figured this lost her the contest.
“Bright Fire” - Okay, I’ll be upfront, I couldn’t pay attention to the song, Pharrell’s blathering about it got me too annoyed. I wandered into the other room while it was playing, kinda hearing it in the background while I did something else. And then Pharrell going off about God ticked me off.
Now I want Sawyer to lose, just because I don’t want Sawyer to win, even though I thought he was the most consistently good tonight. Meghan is my pick for the winner, despite her duet not being spectacular. Joshua was decent, and I’d be okay with him winning. The only one I won’t be happy winning is Koryn, even if it’s mostly Pharrell’s fault and the arrangements of the songs.
They started the original song thing last season. I think the idea is to jumpstart the finalists’ post-show careers by putting out a new hit that can already hit the radio/itunes/whatever. It’s part of the push to get better visibility earlier. They’re still trying to get a breakout hit like “American Idol” seems to crank out.
It’s part of the three song group: original new song, duet with coach, and last cover of a classic/hit. Each gets measured on all three performances.
I guess I wasn’t paying that close of attention visually. I think I recall it starting rough and then shaking out to be more fun.
I completely disagree. I think Meghan and Joshua get the advantage because they display a larger role in the production of the song, so it’s a better reflection of the music they will be delivering in the future. And I thought Joshua’s music was pretty good, and in fact was kinda catchy, even if I didn’t care as much for the message. And Meghan’s song was just awesome. I loved the catch in the chorus. It was just a brilliant song all through, and I would actually listen to that on the radio.
It’s weird how differently we could see things.
Agreed.
I liked the original songs more than I thought I would / than I have in the past. Joshua’s sounded like a generic song from any of the bland guitar rockers from twenty or thirty years ago, so not really my thing, but that’s pretty much the biggest mass market left for a rock musician so good luck to him. Koryn’s original was probably my favorite, but Sawyer and Meghan were both really good as well.
The duets were all kind of “blah”. Agree with the rest of you that I’m not entirely sure what was going on with the singing by the coaches. The standard Voice cover performances were… also all really good! Up against the wall I guess I’d take Koryn’s, but everyone for the last several weeks has had the talent to hit a high level, and they didn’t disappoint last night.
My final preference list: Sawyer, Koryn, Meghan, Joshua. That’s over the season. Last night I think Koryn was the best, but Sawyer has been such a powerhouse over time that he should probably take it.
Pharrell wasn’t very good on Summer Breeze. Showed pretty clearly he’s not comfortable with harmony. Sawyer did ok with his part. Jim Seals and Dash Croft were so good with harmony. It’s hard to live up to that standard.
Overall, I think Meghan should win. But, I’m afraid the public won’t let Blake win another time. It’s unfortunate she’ll get penalized because Blake has so many wins. But that’s just how it is.
I hate to say it. But Sawyer will probably take the win. I’ve never been sold on his talent. But everybody else seems to love him.
And I called the order during the results.
Koryn was fourth - hurray. Yeah, I like her as a contestant, but after last night I wanted her to lose so bad.
Joshua was third. The theme of his original didn’t overcome it’s blandness.
Meghan came in second. I wanted her to win, but I just felt America was going to pick Sawyer.
Sawyer for the win. I know, that means Pharrell won as coach, at least it wasn’t for the performance he was blathering over.
As for Sawyer being lucky to get his original song, I learned it’s “Ray LaMontagne”, with the La connected to the Montagne, not something like “Raila” ?? Yeah, I’ve never heard of him. So to me it’s totally logical that Ray would offer up an original song for Sawyer to sing, because “The Voice” is a huge platform to get his own name bandied around. But maybe I’m cynical and also he’s more well-known than I know.
And Michael Slezak is an idiot and a jerk. (I just read his recap of the finale performances to get Ray LaMontagne’s name.)