On The Voice: Battle Rounds Wrap
Tonight on The Voice we were treated to two or three actual battles, a LOT of previews of what was coming up next and a montage of three battles that we won’t get to see. Oh, and we spent even more time pimping the appearance of Miley Cyrus next week, showing clips of her working with contestants that hadn’t even finished their battle rounds yet (Owen Danoff) and promoting the one and only remaining steal that was obviously going to be used on the last battle of the night. I’m baffled by the amount of time that this show wastes when they could be packing more singing into the quick hour that they had to fill.
If I’m being completely honest, the first battle of the night was really the only one worth airing (#Sorry). Adam paired his two guitar guys Laith Al-Saadi and Matt Tedder for a Rolling Stones classic Honky Tonk Women. This had all the makings of an awesome battle round but Laith sort of blew young Matt out of the water. Their prep time was mostly all about Adam telling them they had to work on singing and not let their guitar playing steal the thunder. Matt had a decent voice but was a much better slide-guitar player. Laith took the trophy the minute he opened his mouth. I’m worried that there is a slight cross-over between Laith and Adam Wakefield so it will be interesting to see how far they can both go. Saved: Laith Al-Saadi
Team Pharrell is up next with California teaching student and Indie-Pop artist Caity Peters and a very nervous New Jersey amusement park manager with a soulful voice, Joe Vivona. I was pulling for Joe mostly because he followed me on Twitter but also because he runs an amusement park. Honestly, he was so nervous during the rehearsals that Diddy had to do some magic voodoo on him to take away his nerves and give him some swag (aka. confidence). The duo performed the Billy Joel classic Honesty and I thought Joe pulled it out in the end. Caity was more polished from the start but her key was so low that I felt like she was having trouble staying in tune. Pharrell called her a fire-breathing dragon. Weird. He chose to keep Caity and poor Joe goes back to the carnival.
Our last battle round of Season Ten had the potential to be amazing but sort of whimpered out for me. Blake chose Fleetwood Mac anthem The Chain for Canadian folk rocker Brittney Kennell and Arkansas business major and pop singer Trey O’Dell. I didn’t remember a lot about either of these contestants and I thought this round was just ok. The song is powerful and they each sang ok but I felt like they were just performing and there wasn’t anything honest about it. There is always so much emphasis on feeling the song and I don’t think these two did. They were both adorable though. Blake added Brittney to his team and if you’re keeping score, Team X-Tina needs one more person and this is the last battle. Please can we have better editing next time? This was not suspenseful and I don’t know how Trey was saved over Justin Whisnant. Yes, I hold grudges.
This is how the teams stack up going into the knockout rounds.
Team Adam-Has some amazing guys and some girls you’ve never heard of or will remember.
- Owen Danoff
- Laith Al-Saadi
- Nate Butler
- Brian Nhira
- Ryan Quinn
- Jessica Crosbie
- Caroline Burns
- Katherine Ho
Team X-Tina-If Alisan doesn’t win this season I’ll eat cat food for a week.
- Alisan Porter
- Bryan Bautista
- Tamar Davis
- Joe Maye
- Daniel Passino
- Maya Smith
- Trey O’Dell
- Kata Hay
Team Blake-A great country singer, a cool country rocker and a bunch of girls I’m struggling to remember.
- Adam Wakefield
- Mary Sarah
- Paxton Ingram
- Angie Keilhauer
- Kate Basden
- Lacy Mandigo
- Brittney Kennell
- Peyton Parker
Team Pharrell-An interesting mix of people who seem entirely different from what he started with.
- Shalyah Fearing
- Malik Heard
- Hannah Huston
- Emily Keener
- Abby Celso
- Caity Peters
- Moushumi
- Nick Hagelin
And yes, I listed them in order of who I think should stay. What do you think? See you next week as we start knocking people out America! Wait…where have I heard that before? I’ll be back to make fun of American Idol on Thursday. See you then.