Recapping The Voice Season 7 Live Playoffs Part 2: Team Gwen v. Team Pharrell

The two newbie judges put their five-person teams up for America's vote tonight.  Gwen Stefani looked absolutely stunning tonight while Pharrell Williams disappointed by eschewing his usual behatted look for a Olivia Newton-John "Physical" look.  A few of the front runners faulted, some dark horses are about to be taken out and shot, and one guy seems positioned to take his hat straight to the finals.  Let's recap!

Being first up is never great.  Unless you give the performance of a lifetime or strip naked on stage no one will remember you by the end of the show when voting opens.  Team Gwen's Ryan Sill was in the unfortunate first up position and, if that weren't bad enough, he did an uninspired, by-the-numbers, totally forgettable rendition of "I Lived" by One Republic.  So unless the rest of Team Gwen recently travel to West Africa and are stuck in a 21-day quarantine, that's probably the last we'll see of Ryan.

I'm a huge fan of Team Pharrell's Jean Kelley and looked forward to her lasting a long time in this competition, but she made two rookie mistakes on the first night of the live playoffs. One, she changed her look. I know the show is called "The Voice" not "The Look" but let's be real.  Image is important as is branding, so if you're the curly red haired singer you don't suddenly become the straight haired ash blonde with too much eye makeup.  Second, she didn't balk when her coach saddled her with an obscure, schmaltzy song, "Piano in the Dark" by Brenda Russell.  She did her best but instead of coming off emotional and real, she came off as theatrical and rehearsed.  

The first great performance of the night was from Team Pharrell's Elyjuh René.  I will admit (especially since I said in it a blog post that's only a week old) that I was shocked when Pharrell picked Elyjuh over Taylor Phelan during the knockouts and thought he'd been wearing too small a hat for his head and it squeezed all common sense out of him.  But Pharrell was right and I was wrong.  While Taylor faltered on night one, Elyjuh brought the house down on night two.  He sang the crap out of "Latch" by Disclosure (feat. Sam Smith, since the show can never get enough Sam Smith).  One point off for the "C'mons" during the song, but aside from that one glitch he showed an amazing range and ease on stage

Bryana Salaz was up next for Team Gwen.  She sang "Amnesia" by 5 Seconds of Summer and while she did a solid job, it was hard not to equate her performance with the talent competition of a beauty pageant.  Her voice is rich and powerful in her lower register but strains when she goes for the high notes.  The sweet Veterans' Day shoutout to her dad was the best part of her time on stage.  Unlike her past cover of Demi Lovato, which was filled with sincerity and passion, this seemed too studied.

If there's any song that should be retired from singing competitions, "Let's Get it On" by Marvin Gaye has to be at the very top.  Pharrell assigned Blues singer Luke Wade the Motown classic, I suppose to play to his style of choice.  But to me, it just showed the difference between someone who sings Soul and someone who feels it.  Luke sings all the right notes in exactly the right time, but it doesn't move me at all.  By the way, Luke it's "baby" not "bibbee." And as for his moves at the end of the song?  You're no James Brown, either, dude.  Get up off your knees, you look silly.

Kudos to Gwen for giving Anita Antoinette a non-Reggae song to sing.  "All About the Bass" by Meghan Trainor may be a really annoying, repetitive, meaningless earworm of a song, but at least it's something different for Anita.  Love her stage presence, love her moves, love her attitude, pretty much everything but the banana pants .  Her vocals are still not the best and I can't see me ever downloading a song of hers, but at least she's moved up on my list from "why is she on the show" to "I'll be sad to see her go."

Pharrell gave Sugar Joans one of the best songs to sing ever written.  I may balk at the hoary old songs that some of the judges have dug out of obscurity for their unwary contestants, but "Say a Little Prayer" by Burt Bacharach/Hal David is one of the most melodic,beautiful songs ever written.  It deserves the title" classic" and if you haven't ever heard Dionne Warwick's original, take a listen.  If you clicked and listened, you now know what was wrong with Sugar's performance. No heart, no passion, no genuine feeling.  Just a lot of screeching to hit notes out of her range.

I can't fairly evaluate DaNica Shirey's take on Joni Mitchell's "Help Me."  That is one of my all time favorite songs.  If DaNica didn't sing it exactly the same as the original, I would hate it because she dared draw a mustache on the Mona Lisa, if she did a copycat version, I would hate it because no one can be Joni Mitchell.  So she had a tall order.  How'd she do?  I'd give her a C.  I did indeed not love her take on the verses, the little changes were not good choices.  But her take on the chorus was different and I loved it.  I still think she has the best voice on the show, but she needs to work on arrangement and melodic choices.

Because it had been so long sing someone sang a Sam Smith song, Team Gwen's Ricky Manning was up next to sing "Lay Me Down" by,,,Sam Smith   Ricky continues his upward trajectory and had another really strong performance.  Love his voice, in full voice and in falsetto.  He really has a great instrument and has total control over it.  Next he has to work on his performance - he's still not fully connecting with the crowd,  I hope he has the chance to stick around long enough to learn how to work the stage.

The pimp spot tonight went to Team Gwen's Taylor John Williams who sang "Stuck in the Middle" by Stealers Wheel.  For any cinephiles, that of course is the song playing during THAT SCENE in Reservoir Dogs that is seared in our brains for all eternity.  For music fans, Stealers Wheel lead singer Gerry Rafferty is also known for some great solo hits, including one of my absolute favorite romantic songs, "Right Down the Line."  But back to Taylor.  Shocker,  he was great.  This guy is so consistent.  He has it all, the look, the attitude, the performance (silly dance moves for the win), and the voice.  He took a forty year old song, switched it up, played around with it, and made is relevant and very cool.

Rankings:
1. Taylor John Williams
2. Elyjuh René
3. Ricky Manning
4. DaNica Shirey
5. Anita Antoinette
6. Sugar Joans
7. Jean Kelley
8. Luke Wade
9. Bryana Salaz
10. Ryan Sill

Recapping The Voice Season 7 Knockout Rounds, Pt. 3: Reunited and it feels so good

The final round of knockouts.  Many songs with parentheticals, one abbreviated performance, and one last steal re-adoption.

Fans of Matt McAndrew, like me, were cheated as his segment was shortened down to 30 seconds.  It's hard not to jump to the conclusion that his opponent must have really laid a giant atonal turd on stage and there was no question who the winner was. If that's not the case, then The Voice owes Rebekah Samarin a huge apology because that's the assumption their cutting her out of the episode left, not to mention relegating her to montage status for each of her performances. If you want to see Rebekah's performance, she has it here on Instagram. If you want to hear more of Matt's take on Train's Drops of Jupiter it'll cost you a mere $1.29 here to get it as your very own.

Blake Shelton put his two retro country crooners, Alison Bray and Taylor Brashears, up against each other.  Alison was the one who had come back after failing to turn any chairs in her first blind audition. This time, she and her matching platinum blonde teeth and hair were saved from two-time disappointment when Blake turned his chair around.  Alison was not a standout this season and had continued along during these early rounds more by default than by any memorable performances.

Taylor Brashears completed the talented Taylor trifecta on this season and had made a strong showing with a three-chair blind audition turn around twanging her way through a convincing version of "You Ain't Woman Enough." But she was part of the worst battle round pairing when she and her opponent showed that neither was woman enough to tackle a Linda Ronstadt song.  Taylor won that round for being less atrociously bad than her teammate, but she had a lot to prove.

Alison strutted around and belted out the Dixie Chick's "Sin Wagon."  She had attitude and command of the stage, but still her vocals fell short.  Taylor gave herself the ultimate gift, taking Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" - the song, like "Mad World" or "Hallelujah," that instantly makes you sound good whether or not you an sing. Hell, Billy Corgan made it sound good.  Taylor could have rested on the strength of the song, but she actually put her heart into the performance, having her strongest vocal in the competition, and made Blake's choice a very easy on.

Next up was Gwen Stefani.  She pit lantern jawed Ryan Sill against Beth Spangler.  Ryan was one of the few artists to have the right reaction to seeing Taylor Swift as their guest mentor, admitting he was about to pee his pants.  But despite his excitement, during the rehearsal he was solid.  He has a perfect voice for radio and can easily tackle any of the music coming out these days.  He's a little too clean cut and earnest and probably should develop a little edge, but there's no doubting his vocal talent.

Beth Spangler was a recent addition to Team Gwen, having been rescued after her tough battle round loss to Mia Pffirman.  Beth has a great voice, lots of power and a great tone.  But there's something missing, it's a bit bland and disconnected.  I don't see performer when she's on stage.  I won't sink to saying it's the kind of voice you'd hear on a cruise ship, but let's just say her screechy performance last night was "Too Little Too Late."

I want to dislike Ryan just because he's so God-darn fresh faced and boy band-ian.  But his take on "Miss Independent" (sadly, not the Kelly Clarkson song) was spot on.  He has an amazing range and doesn't miss a note. He's Justin Bieber without the douchiness.  And he's a great person to have on your team as he really listens to the advice and applies it on stage.  I'd like to see him get a neck tattoo or a nose ring before the live shows, just to mess with everyone.

Pharrell Williams was up next and he put two former Team Gwen members - Jean Kelley and Melnik Zergabachew - head to head.  Jean had lost her battle against Sugar Joans and was then fought over by both Pharrell and Adam. Jean has an exceptional voice and it was a shock when she lost in the last round.  Melnik has an interesting look and style, but there is nothing current or marketable about his singing.  This was not a close race.

Melnik brought his Reggae sound and distractingly swinging arm to "Could You Be Loved" and it was a typical Melnik performance.  Boring, flat, uninspired,  He has a nice voice, but nice isn't goig to cut it,.  Not tonight.  There's really not much to say.

Then Jean came up and destroyed, killed, mutilated, ripped apart the stage.  She chose the "beautifully sad song" "Chandelier" by Sia.  During rehearsals, Taylor Swift sat mouth agaipe, eyes wide open, in awe of Jean's emotional performance.  Her response, "Oh my god," said it all.  It was a game changer. On stage, Jean was even better.  Raw, vulnerable, touching.  It was the easiest choice of the night.

The next knockout was only slightly less lopsided.  Adam Levine put what-decade-are-we-in Blessing Offor up against young, James Taylor lookalike Chris Jamison.  Blessing would have been a great pick had The Voice aired fifteen years ago, but now he looks like he should be leading the band, not trying to get his big break.  His style of singing was outdated twenty years ago.  Chris has a bit of an accent, something with how he forms certain words that can sound sloppy when he's singing. I wasn't terribly hopeful for this round, especially when I heard that someone was doing (Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay, a song almost as old as I am!

Blessing, probably did not make a lot of points with Taylor Swift, choosing John Mayer's "Your Body is a Wonderland."  But the awkwardness was ignored, helped perhaps by the fact that he completely ditched the original and put his own spin on the song.  The little "hehs" and "huhs" Blessing throws in at the end of every line is really distracting to me and sounds like something from a revival meeting and it leaves me waiting for him to ask for an "Amen."

Chris was surprisingly good tackling the Otis Redding standard.  He had some really good runs, some nice adlibs.  He also showed great range.  I can't explain while his twist on the original felt fresh and dynamic while Blessings sounded so old, but I was captivated enough to actually consider shelling out money to buy his studio version.  Chris is a sleeper in the competition, he hasn't been on the radar before last night.  But he's got a good trajectory going.

Blake was back with a tough knockout choice, the battle of the high schoolers - Grant Ganzer against Reagan James,  We had a sixteen-year-old who looks like he went through puberty between rounds against a preternaturally mature fifteen-year-old who exudes confidence and poise.  They both have the chops, but they're miles apart as far as stage presence and "readiness."

Grant did a great job with "Apologize." True, it's almost in the "Landslide" category of a song even I could make sound good, but Grant sold the emotion (it helped that he looked like he was going to throw up during his performance) and nailed the notes.  Once his stage presence and belief in himself catch up to his vocals, Grant will be a force to be reckoned with.

Reagan James is already the complete package.  She has the looks, the talent and the self-assurance of someone who's been doing it for fifteen years, not someone who's only been on the planet for that long.  She sang "Hit 'em Up Style (Oops!)" by Blu Cantrell and it was a standout performance.  She's a front runner in this competition.

The last battle of the night was an odd couple pairing of Reggae singer Anita Antoinette competing against country rocker Craig Wayne Boyd.  This was Anita's second go-around on the Voice, having failed to turn around any chairs back in Season 3 and she was back with a vengeance.  She has a great look and strong voice and her style is reminiscent of Gwen's No Doubt era.  Craig has started on Team Blake but had lost his battle of the three named country singers to James David Carter.  He was lucky to be taken by Gwen who decided to do an less than extreme makeover to bring his style into this century.  Getting him to jettison the fringe jacket and lop off a few feet of hair was a move in the right direction.

Admittedly, Reggae is not everyone's bowl of ganja. There's a Mexican restaurant near me that plays Reggae music and I either wolf down my food or get it to go to avoid listening to Bob Marley and everyone who thinks they're Bob Marley.  So considering I'm not a fan of her genre, I thought Anita did a great job with "Rude" by Magic!   She has a strong voice and really commands the stage.  And she's great at channeling real emotion into her performance,  Not surprisingly, Gwen picked her.

But all was not lost for Craig.  We were already tipped off that Blake was hoping to get Craig back on his team and as this was the last performance of the knockouts, we knew where this was was going.  Craig did a serviceable version of  "Can't You See" by the Marshall Tucker Band.   I'm not a big fan of his vocal idiosyncrasies and cringed every time he sang, "can't you sheee."   All male country rockers who sound like that and look like him are starting to blend together for me and I'm looking for something different, like someone with clear pronunciation. And no facial hair.  Maybe in a blue serge suit.  But for rock fans, beggars can't be choosers and it's great having someone with musical knowledge from the early 70s Allman Brothers/Black Oak Arkansas/.38 Special era.  Blake got his boy back and he was mighty happy.  And maybe I'll get to hear a Creedence Clearwater Revival song next week. That would make me happy.

So there you have it, the knockouts are over and the teams are set.  Next week we start the live shows.  Here is how the teams break down.

Team Adam: Chris Jamison, Damien, Matt McAndrew, Mia Pffirman, Taylor Phelan
Team Gwen: Anita Antoinette, Bryanna Salaz, Ricky Manning, Ryan Sill, Taylor John Williams
Team Pharrell: DaNica Shirey, Elyjuh René, Jean Kelley, Luke Wade, Sugar Joans
Team Blake: Craig Wayne Boyd, James David Carter, Jessie Pitts, Reagan James, Taylor Brashears

These teams are about as evenly matched as can be (putting aside that Team Pharrell is hanicapped by being Taylor-less).  Gwen may have the overall strongest team, Pharrell the weakest, but I can see Matt or Taylor from Team Adam, or Reagan from Team Blake, lasting till the end.  Should be good!

The Voice Season 7, Knockout Rounds, Pt. 1& 2: Some surprising choices, great moments

Two nights of knockout battles and too many good singers.  Couldn't some of these contestants try out for American Idol instead; this is getting to be a really crowded field of top notch talent.  Rather than a recap of all the battles, let's focus on some of the front runners going into the live rounds.

But first.  How effing awesome is Taylor Swift as a guest mentor?  What are the chances we can get her to come back as a full time coach?  Her advice is spot on, her suggestions are impeccable, her instincts are unerring, and her knowledge of what works and how to make something good even better is preternatural.  If she gives up mentoring, she could have a really solid career in music.  

This also begs the question, how can you be so good at everything and yet not so great at picking boyfriends?  One of the mysteries of life.  On to the contestants. 

The best female singer on the show has got to be DaNica Shirey.  She may look like Red from "Orange is the New Black," but she sings like Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey had a fifty year old love child.  I don't know if coach Pharrell Williams can do anything to update her look, but vocally she is solid gold.  She easily won her knockout round showing both power and control as she (apologies to Randy Jackson) made Whitney Houston's "Saving All My Love for You" her own.

Fans of indie/folk/rock male singer-songwriters (also known in American Idol circles as "White Guys With Guitars" - i.e., winners David Cook, Phil Phillips, Lee DeWyze) have too many good choices.  Two Taylors, Phelan and John Williams, Matt McAndrew (who will be in next's week's knockout), Luke Wade, James David Carter would all be front runners in any previous American Idol season yet threaten to split the votes when it gets to the live rounds.  Which is too bad, because they are some of the strongest competitors this year.

Luke Wade won the battle against Taylor Phelan, yet both will continue on in hopes of becoming America's Next Top...wait, I watch too many reality shows.  Luke is a bluesy soul singer who looks more like a substitute teacher than a musician. He chose Hall & Oates "Rich Girl" and now I've had that horrific song stuck in my head since Monday.  He did a great job considering he has lousy taste in songs and picked one of the most annoying songs in the history of music.  But he was up against Taylor Phelan, whose version of "Sweater Weather" was the best blind audition of this or any year.

Phelan sang "Rather Be" and he assaulted the song, commanding the stage like he's been doing this for forty years.  While his vocal was not as strong as either his blind audition or the battle round, he is still a front runner for his stage presence, comfort, ease and unique vocal styling.  Having seen all their performances, it was clear who Pharrell would pick, until he said Luke Wade and the other judges realized that their winning The Voice ship had just come in.  They all hit their buttons to take the diminutive singer over to their teams, but it was Adam who begged and pleaded and ultimately claimed the prize he's wanted since the blind auditions.

The winner for the oddest pairing of songs has to go to Team Gwen's Troy Ritchie taking on the fun, silly "Hey Ya," by Outkast against indie artist Taylor John Williams singing the hauntingly beautiful "Mad World."  This is not apples and oranges, it's the Three Stooges versus Shakespeare.  Blake Shelton put it best when he said that Troy performed with the "enthusiasm of Richard Simmons" and the "seriousness of Napoleon Dynamite." In any other setting, under other circumstances, that would be the most talked-about performance.

But Troy was followed by Taylor John Williams who gave one of the most mesmerizing performances in the show's history.  Take an exquisite song, give it to a real performer who connects with it deeply, and you have an unbeatable combo.  Taylor three names felt the song, changed it up just enough not to be a copy cat, and left everyone with chills.  As Gwen said, for her it was like watching a peer.

Blake Shelton called James David Carter's blind audition, the best country audition he'd ever heard, and he had the edge against the pop singer, Griffin, who Blake had taken during the battle rounds.  Carter took on the mellow, sleepy "You've Got a Friend" and was sitting down, plucking away, as if he were in an intimate club playing to twenty people and not on national TV. It looked like he might get overshadowed in his knockout battle against Griffin, who chose the more energetic Justin Bieber's "As Long As You Love Me,"  But Carter's voice was impossible to ignore and he won on the power of sheer vocal ability alone.  Griffin did everything asked of him and gave a great performance, and I lahlahlahlahloved him, but sadly this was the end of the line.


I was disappointed to see Toia Jones not stick around and thought she did a great job with "Crazy in Love," but coach Adam Levine went for Damien, who did a serviceable, but not memorable, version of  "How Do I Live."  Coach Gwen Stefani had a really difficult choice between two strong singers who gave equally strong performances, Bryana Salaz taking on - and almost outdoing - Demi Lovato's "Heart Attack," and Sugar Joans singing "Love on Top."  But coach Pharrell tipped his hand that if Sugar were available, he'd be hitting his steal button faster than I hit an all you can eat buffet, so in the end each judge, and probably each contestant, got what they wanted. 

Another super-close match was Alessandra Castronovo versus Mia Pfirrman.  Alessandra sang "Next to Me," by Emeli Sandé while Mia took on "Human," by Christina Perri.  Alessandra has a crystal clear voice that she controls well, but she lacked that intangible star quality.  When Mia Pfirrman sang, her voice has such a beautiful tone, it gave me chills (aka JLo's "goosies").  She trusted her lower register, and softer tones, letting the song build effortlessly to the big, powerhouse moments.  Coach Gwen made the right choice going with Mia.

The shocker of the night came when Pharrell chose Elyjuh René, who did yeoman's work with Chris Brown's "With You," over smoldering Ricky Manning who crushed, pulverized, demolished and otherwise wreh-eh-ehcked both Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" and the audience.

Elyjuh is an adorable, immensely likeable kid with a strong voice and bright future.  But no one can say he out-sang Ricky (not even Pharrell).  As with his inexplicable choice of Luke Wade over Taylor Phelan, it seemed that Pharrell was abandoning the one who gave the best performance over who he thought he could do more with, who could most benefit from  his tutelage. But fear not, as Gwen swooped in to steal reh-eh-ehscue Ricky from a life on New York's streets playing for quarters and slices of pizza.  Now on Team Gwen, Ricky is the dark horse in this competition, getting better with every performance.  If he continues on this trajectory, he will peak at just the right time to give the new girl coach their first victory. 

Next week we finish with the knockouts and then the final 20 will convene for the live rounds where we can stop sitting by and bitching at other people's decisions and get in on the action.

The Voice Season 7 Final Battle Rounds: Some surprises, some predictability

After tonight's episode we can say goodbye to the steal, the inaccurately named second chance button that gives contestants another shot at making it to the live rounds.  Going in, Gwen Stefani was the last judge who could hit her button and give one of the losing contestants another shot.  For all the judges, that meant that when they picked a winner, in all likelihood, that was the end of the line for the other contestant.  So, not much at stake.  Just the hopes and dreams of the remaining contestants who all believe that this show is their big chance to have a career in the music business, not realizing that the seventh place finisher of Nashville Star is doing better than any of the Voice winners.

Team Pharrell: Ricky Manning v. Brittany Butler
The first battle of the night was Joaquin Phoenix lookalike Ricky Manning and "weirdo" Brittany Butler.  Brittany had grabbed Pharrell Williams' attention during the blind auditions with both her strange song choice, the kitschy "Girl from Ipanema," as well as her oddball, retro jazzy style.  When he turned his chair, he must have been pleased to discover that the possessor of such unusual musical instincts was quite the looker.  Ricky Manning had a more current, relevant song choice and did an okay job with "Love Me Again," benefiting more from a good song than soaring vocals.  When the judges turned around, they might have been a little surprised to see Commodus from Gladiator standing there. 

Pharrell put the jazzy scary singer against the R&B scary singer and gave them a song that split the difference between the two, "On Broadway."  The George Benson version of this song is beboppy and scatty and can be a good showcase for improv.  If you're not familiar with that version, maybe you remember the instrumental version that was in American Beauty.  Ricky sounds good in the rehearsal, right on pitch, solid in the lower register.  But he's less comfortable improvising. Brittany has a more idiosyncratic sound and punches up the song with her own melodic choices.  She shines when given the chance to go off page.  Pharrell gives her permission to jazz it up even more and now I'm worried.

Ricky sounds great as he opens the song, and even earns a "Damn" from Blake Shelton.  Then Brittany comes in with her deep voice and attitude and mops the floor with him.  They are completely different, and every time it seems like Ricky will take this, Brittany just comes in and wrecks it.  Both Adam Levine and Blake seem to agree with me that Ricky was far better this time around and really showed something special tonight.  He took chances and changed up the song in what seemed like an effortless, spontaneous moment.  It's going to be so sad to see him go....and then Pharrell picks Ricky!  Okay, I'm surprised.  I thought he'd go for the cool, unique, jazzy girl with the rich deep tones but he went for "most improved" which clearly was Ricky.  Nice choice!  That Pharrell guy may have a future in music.

Team Blake: Kensington Moore v. Reagan James
The next pairing was between Kensington Moore, a high school senior who we'd only seen in a brief montage during the blind auditions, and fifteen-year-old Reagan James who shined in an impassioned performance of Ed Sheeran's "Give Me Love."  Kensington is a fresh-faced guitar playing country girl, Reagan is a preternaturally self-possessed indie singer who hails from the same small town as Kelly Clarkson. Blake gave them Lorde's "Team" to tackle and if we know anything about how Reality TV show editing works, Kensington will be back to school in time for midterms.

Kensington was tickled pink to meet her idols, Little Big Town and I was happy for them that someone recognized them and were happy to meet them.  Reagan was a lot more excited about the song choice and she immediately took to the Lorde hit.  She has the same sound as Lorde, which can be both a blessing and a curse and she's expected to nail this performance.  Kensington has lowered expectations and could sneak in with a stellar vocal.  Reagan sounded great during rehearsals, though Blake warned her about pitch problems.  Kensington was concerned that the high notes were slightly beyond her reach and her new BFFs LBT told her to go up to the falsetto and once she did it sounded amazing.

For the final rehearsal, Kensington was a no show.  She was laid up with a bout of kidney stones and so a last minute sub (the poodle haired Kimberly from LBT) stepped in to take over her part during Reagan's rehearsal.  But they did have one final chance to work together and get Blake's last minute coaching (Reagan, enunciate!).  When they started, Reagan forgot about that piece of advice.  But Kensington seemed to forget the melody. I felt for Reagan, bravely trying to get the song back on track as Kensington kept trying to slow it down. But by the end, they sounded beautiful together.  Blake wisely took Reagan who has a much cooler sound while the Jewel lookalike Kensington was good but not particularly special.

We saw a montage of battles with Blake picking Alison Bray over Fernanda Bosch and Gwen choosing Anita Antoinette over Mayra Alvarez as well as Bryanna Salaz over Gianna Salvato.

Team Adam: Beth Spangler v. Mia Pfirrman
This is a battle of the four-chair turn arounds with Beth Spangler going up against Mia Pfirrman.  Being two of the strongest vocalists, Adam gave them quite the challenge - Christina Aguilera's "I Turn to You."  Beth had impressed during the auditions with a powerful performance of "Best Thing I Never Had." Mia showed great range and control with her take on "Unconditionally." The two have the potential for nailing the big moments and giving them a Xtina song is risky as they can easily fall into  oversinging.

During rehearsals, exercising restraint and building to the big moments, is the focus.  What Adam and his guest mentor Stevie Nicks doesn't want the girls doing is getting into a scream fest of who can sing the loudest or hit the highest notes and I hope they take that advice or my thumb will be hitting the skip button.  Both girls sing well and mostly keep the histrionics out of the song, but Beth is a bit blander to me, a bit more calculated.  I'd pick Mia who seems more natural.  Blake agrees with me, Pharrell chooses Beth which causes me to question myself, and then Gwen picks Mia and I stop worrying knowing that there's still a steal save and Gwen has it.  So if Adam picks Beth, Mia should be okay.

But Adam picks Mia and it looks like Beth is on her way out of the competition except, we know there's a steal lifeline left, there's only a few minutes left in the show, and the producers would of course save the steal rescue to the end.  So as Beth goes in for her goodbye hug from Gwen, Gwen hits her button and keeps her in the competition. Shocker!

Next week the knockout rounds begin but there's a twist.  The steal is still in play??  Stay tuned.

The Voice Season 7 Battle Rounds: Day Number Two

Let's get the poop jokes out of the way first.

When Team Pharrell singer Jordy Searcy was backed up, unable to get any movement as he tried to bear down on The Script's "Breakeven (Falling to Pieces)" Pharrell's number two, guest mentor Alicia Keys, pushed him to sing the crap out of the song, telling him to "push your belly out as if you're gonna go take a poop."  After she dropped that brick of wisdom, it was easy to guess that bloggers would be sitting on their stools, dumping a load of puns on tonight's episode. 

And that's too (#2?) bad, because it may have eclipsed some very good performances from the second day of battle rounds.  The Jordy battle against Taylor Phelan was far closer than expected and showcased two strong vocals.  Jordy has a sweet, clear voice that blended beautifully with Taylor's grittier, heartfelt vocals.  But Taylor has that certain something that makes him more memorable, while Jordy falls into the nice voice but forgettable category.

Going in, Taylor was the clear favorite and Jordy seemed clearly outclassed.  But, again showing how important a good mentor is, after rehearsals Jordy had really upped his game.  He sang powerfully, holding his notes and hitting strongly in his upper register.  Pharrell Williams' fellow judges did not envy him having to choose, but it was clear that Taylor was the winner (putting two Taylors into the next round).  He looks and sounds like a performer, not a contestant, and he's one of the few whose performances I listen to repeatedly and look forward to seeing in future weeks.

Less obvious was the duel pitting Alessandra Castronovo against Joe Kirk.  My personal preference was for Joe as it takes far less time to type his name and it doesn't cause spellcheck to go nuts.  The Team Adam members battled on Rihanna's "Stay" a touching, gentle, melodic song that gives you nowhere to hide.  Going in, I thought Joe would be the clear winner as I did not even remember Alessandra from the blind auditions.  Like Jordy, she was only seen briefly in a montage of "others" who had made it through the blind auditions.

During rehearsals, it seemed as if Alessandra felt like the underdog as well. She worried that even if she sang her best, it wouldn't be enough.  She was up against a cute, freshly scrubbed Jonas brother lookalike with a young, current sound.  Did the world really need another Haley Reinhart?  But something happened to Alessandra when her life on the show was on the line and she sang with passion and power and eclipsed the occasionally flat youngster.  She was as solid on her deeper tones and she was on the high notes showing great range and consistency.

Surprisingly, Blake Shelton called Joe's the best performance on the show thus far and Pharrell guaranteed him that he'd have a future in the music business while calling Alessandra a "diva" in the great vocalist, not demanding princess, sense of the word.  Gwen Stefani called it a tie and it appeared that Adam Levine would choose the more marketable one. Adam agonized about his choice, going so long that Blake quipped he'd had a birthday during the wait.  But it didn't seem for show and when he went against the obvious choice, picking the girl over the boy band cutie.  

If you thought I was rooting against Alessandra, you know I had a clear favorite in the duel involving Team Gwen members Menlik Zergabachew (gesundheit).  We might as well have former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski try out for The Voice.  But I digress.  Menlik was matched up against Troy Ritchie and there was no clear favorite going into the battle.  It was a clash of styles and genres with a Reggae artists taking on an alt/pop singer on a song that is one of the most annoying, trite, silly, cheesy and tuneless songs ever to be recorded.

Troy's karaoke version of "Out of My League" by Fitz and the Tantrums during the blind auditions did not seem worthy of even the single chair that Gwen turned around for him.  Menlik had a better audition with Sublime's "Santeria" and Gwen had to win him over Blake to the great disappointment of all of us who were dying to see what Blake would do with him.  What would happen when two mediocre singers took on a god-awful song?

It was a painfully boring performance that was not unlike two drunk groomsmen on the dance floor near the end of the wedding reception.  Winner of the battle gets to go home with the bridesmaid who is currently sobbing under Table No. 7.   Troy had slightly more stage presence, as the extent of Menlik's move is to swing his arm around him like a tether ball.  But neither vocal was particularly on point.

Still, the judges managed to wring drama from the duel as Gwen agonized over this tough decision (which reminded me of the old days when Blockbuster was still around and on a Friday night you had to pretty poor choices as all the good new releases were already gone).  Her choice of Troy made some sense in that there is zero market for Reggae, the last Reggae artist from the show has sold 28 records, and the most impressive thing about Menlik is the Scrabble value of his last name.

What was surprising was that Adam and Pharrell both hit their buttons to steal appropriate, take, assume, redeem, reclaim, save, rescue, retrieve, salvage Menlik from obscurity.  Not surprising was Menlik's decision to go with super-producer extraordinaire Pharrell. 

In addition to these full battles, we saw montages of other battles.  If we've learned anything about the rules of Reality TV, the "winners" of those battles will shortly be cannon fodder, never to be heard from again, so no need to waste our time on them.  You can catch their few moments of screen time on the video below.

We're about halfway through the battle rounds with two more episodes to come.  Check out The Voice next Monday at 8 on NBC to see if a song even worse than "Maneater" is selected, if Alicia Keys has any more suggestions on how to deal with creative blockage, or if  someone singing a genre even less in demand than Reggae (Rock perhaps?) makes it through.