Battle Rounds:
It’s always best to watch shows like The Voice on DVR. Not only so you can fast forward through the commercials, but so you can also streamline your viewing of the show. By skipping the forgettable moments, you can make room for another show, or for things like sex, or a new book, or your kids, or whatever else people do with their evenings these days. With the broadcasts stretched out to an absurd three hours over two days, rating the singers this way can save a lot of time. Don’t feel guilty about skipping some of these performances, or some of the inane chit-chat. Just glory in having a life and go back to watch only the ones worth spending one’s precious time on, after the show is done recording.
One part of the show I do not skip is the coaching session. These sessions are the best parts of this show as far as I’m concerned. The way the judges hit on the real strengths and flaws of the singers, those details that affect how we perceive their performances, almost always feels right on (until they start advising the coordination-challenged among the contestants to dance). These preludes to the battles give viewers an opportunity to see who shines in the intimacy of the rehearsal space and who comes alive on the stage. We also learn more about the craft of singing when the judges break down their approaches to a song and try to align the intent of the lyrics with the styles of the singers.
After clearing out the weeds from the Blind Auditions, we have now moved on to the “Battle rounds.” Despite having filtered out the weaker singers, there are really only a few performances truly worthy of your time, as per usual. But we do get to see how the new crop of guest coaches work with our 4 chair-occupants this season, and whether they help or hinder the process.
BATTLE ROUNDS WEEK 1: EPISODE 1
BATTLE #1:
Usher; working with Grammy award winner Jill Scott (I remember her name, and shelving her CDs once upon a time in my days at the Borders music department, but I don’t remember a hit single)
Biff Gore vs T.J. Wilkins
Song: “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”
Winner: T.J. Wilkins
Rating: Fast Forward
Biff sang Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come” for his blind autition (the new stalwart of singing competition shows ever since it was selected for Adam Lambert to perform on that other show no one cares about anymore) and T.J. Wilkins sang Elton John to get to this phase of the competition. It’s a battle of gritty vs smooth, or “old school vs new school” as Usher calls it. When it comes to young versus old, these battles usually end with the see-saw touching down on the side of the young. Usher gives them “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” to compete with, a rather played out song that doesn’t offer too many creative avenues to make it one’s own. This signaled to me that it would be a matter of strategy that determined who Usher would choose. This battle, for me, was a definite Fast Forward moment- neither did anything vocally to make the song terribly interesting, and I just didn’t feel the gravitas inherent in the title. Though Usher and the rest of the judges seemed to love it, I was non-plussed. I was sad to see Usher choose T.J. because his performance seemed particularly phoned-in. I though that Biff was the obvious choice here (especially with his high-kicking dance move). I always have a soft spot for the older contestants too, the ones whose lives forced them to put aside their dreams until this moment. But the vibe was that Usher would go with the younger performer here.
STEAL – Blakes steals, and Biff lives to flex his middle-aged vocal muscle for another week. At least he’ll get one more moment on TV to talk his grandchildren’s ears off with when his winter comes.
BATTLE #2:
Blake Shelton; working with guest coaches “The Band Perry” (quick question: who are they? And where is Cher?!)
Jake Worthington vs Lexi Luca
Song: “It Goes Like This”
Winner: Jake
Rating: Fast forward
The outcome of this one was also pre-determined. Jake, the reject from last season who came back stronger and more emotionally earnest, was facing off against one of the “montage folks” from the Blinds. In case you’re wondering, “montage folks” is my term for those contestants on talent shows who made it to the next round, but whose performances garnered only the smallest amount of screen time necessary to introduce us to their existence: the montage that skips over the less memorable moments to make room for the interesting people. Lexi appears to be one of these folks. And if she wasn’t, well, she should have been judging by her shaky performance. She also turns out to be one of those sundry unfortunates of reality TV, whose only featured moment was her failure. We should have known she was toast from her unstable rehearsals with only a few people around her. Even though Jake forgot some of the lyrics, clearly Blake did not look forward to listening to Lexi after tonight. No one was stealing this “off-key caterwauler” as C. Montgomery Burns once called the Beatles, and so it was so long Lexi. But she’s young, the country world is still her oyster. And Jake was so sweet that you couldn’t help but want him to win. I still fear that Jake’s country mold won’t spread into more interesting musical areas, but based on their voices, he was definitely stronger.
BATTLE #3:
Shakira; working with Miranda Lambert, in a real-life enactment of Blake Shelton’s wet dreams (when not filled by visions of Adam Levine).
Dani Moz vs DeShawn Washington
Song: “My Kind of Love”
Winner: Dani
Rating: Rewind
This one is definitely worthy of another look. Dani was amazing right from the beginning of the competition, and she continues to be so. I had my doubts about DeShawn since his awkward dancing and rather predictable approach to “Twistin the Night Away” in the Blinds, but he revealed a whole other dimension in the Battle rounds, showing off a much heftier, more creative vocal style than earlier. Despite my early prediction that Dani had this one going away before it even began, DeShawn made this a truly competitive battle duet. It was perfectly blended stylistically and they both delivered like they meant what they were singing-like they were really singing to each other. It was a shame that no one stole DeShawn, because he was certainly more of a revelation than Biff, and I’m more intrigued by his potential now than before.
BATTLE #4:
Adam Levine, working with Aloe Blacc
Kat Perkins vs Patrick Thomson
Song: “Whenever I Call You Friend”
Winner: Kat Perkins
Rating: Fast Forward/Rewind
Kat, one of the rocker Mary Poppins this season, turned 3 chairs in the Blinds, but Adam has to remind her that the dial doesn’t need to go to 11 for her to have an impact, and Aloe notes that they see more of her eyelids than her eyes when she sings, encouraging her to sing to the audience and not inside herself. A hokey Kenny Loggins/Stevie Nicks duet is a strange choice for a battle as well, since I can’t stand Kenny Loggins and he doesn’t offer much to battle with, while Stevie Nicks gives Kat a lot more to work with. Patrick has the natural “raw” emotion the judges like, but doesn’t trust himself with his upper register, so it was more up in the air as to who would take this one. Though she still closes her eyes a bit too much, Kat seemed more vocally sure of herself from the start, and had more personality in her performance. Patrick seemed a bit uncomfortable, stretching for high notes, and ill-dressed (couldn’t the wardrobe crew have encouraged him to venture into a world of color beyond navy and slate blue if he was just sticking with a blazer and oxford shirt?). Kat was worth watching again, but Patrick’s performance made it FF at the same time.
STEAL: Shakira steals, though I can’t imagine why. She’s a sucker for raspy voices, but if this is her only criteria for loving him, I see elimination in his near future.
BATTLE #5:
Blake
Paula Deandra vs Sisaundra Lewis
Song: “Do What U Want”
Winner: Sisaundra
Rating: Rewind
Paula I vaguely remembered from her blind audition because of her expertly measured falsetto, but I recall little else, explaining why her record label dropped her after two albums that fell instantly into obscurity. Sisaundra’s audition announced her as a star right out of the gate- the girl who grew up picking fruit in the groves of Florida and rose to work as vocal director for the ever-bewildering power-ballad robot Celine Dion. With Celine-level vocal power, striking out on her own at 44, and a collection of earrings that make hipster plugs look like child’s play (how they haven’t ripped her lobes to shreds is anybody’s guess), Sisaundra is pretty much short-listed to make it far on this season (so long as she doesn’t bore the judges with the same shtick every week). She seems to be feigning excitement at the guest coaches Blake has on his side, but digs into the song he’s chosen. Blake surprises with a really interesting choice (Lady Gaga) for these two women. There’s a lot of room for them to emote through this song, and it’s a complex one to work with so they can take it almost anywhere. Blake’s Band-aids tell Paula that she needs to find her own big moment in the song, a crucial clue that she needs some help to advance to the live rounds. As expected, Sisaundra nails it (with a mind-bending belt that almost knocks little Paula over). She seems to get the song more than Paula does, suggesting, strongly, that Paula’s walk off stage will be much longer and less triumphant. Paula ended well on her strong falsetto, but Sisaundra unhinged her jaw and devoured her in one bite in this battle. Gotta rewind to hear her again.
BATTLE #6:
Usher
Jake Barker vs Stevie Jo
Song: “Higher Love”
Winner: Stevie
Rating: Rewind
I was sad to see these two pitted against each other, because I really liked their auditions. Stevie, a former metal musician on a theatre scholarship, sang an Usher song and got him to turn around-pretty stunning considering Usher’s limitless self-adoration and persnickety vocal standards. And he convinced Usher that he was Black until he did turn around to find this pale, slightly doughy, average Joe with a ponytail, fresh from small-town America standing there. Jake Barker left a dead-end career tending bar and performed on stage for the first time in his blind audition, and was surprisingly great. Usually it’s the young’ns who perform on stage for the first time and just tap into a song, but Jake clearly has that natural spark, however delayed its revelation. Both struggle to delve into the urgency of the lyrics and sing as a team. The difficulty of the battle rounds is for each singer to augment their partners while standing out individually. Epilepsy-inducing lights and unwieldy movement around the stage aside, in the end both do incredibly well with yet another tired song choice. The judges liken Jake to Justin Timberlake, much to his delight, but Usher begrudgingly chooses Stevie, who had a more consistent technical performance.
STEAL: Everyone wanted Jake on their team once Usher let him go, but Adam weasels his way into Jake’s heart and scores the best steal of the night (curiously the best performances and steal happen together at the climax of the broadcast, fancy that).
BATTLE ROUNDS WEEK 1, EPIDOSE 2
BATTLE #7:
Shakira
Clarissa Serna vs Jeremy Briggs
Song: “Cold as Ice”
Winner: Clarissa
Rating: Fast Forward
Shakira picks another classic overplayed rock song, one that offers lots of showcase moments, but not much else, for our competitors. Shakira advises Clarissa not to hold back in their first go-round, and Jeremy, the EDD clerk/rocker, doesn’t seem to get many comments from either coach. At first they have trouble “holding [their] notes” and blending together according to Miranda (after an awful moment of poor harmonization in rehearsals). They start to make it work, but it doesn’t seem like a slam dunk for either singer going into the battle. Clarissa’s voice has more character than Jeremy’s and even though Jeremy seemed a little more solid overall, the judges mostly agreed that the Clarissa had more potential going forward. No steal for Jeremy, so the unemployed of California will not be losing a devoted public servant at EDD in Sacramento to NBC this year. But I’m sure he will meet many more aspiring musicians there at some point, as they grope in the dark towards their dreams of a record contract.
BATTLE #8
Adam Levine
Caleb Elder vs Delvin Choice
Song: “The Man”
Winner: Delvin
Rating: Fast Forward
Delvin was another reject from past seasons who came back, and showed marked improvement (though if I were ordering coffee from him at Starbucks I would tire instantly of his habit of singing out people order’s in made-up melodies). Caleb also works a menial job shilling donuts, one that he wants to leave behind to pursue music. Adam gives them a song by his famous helper Aloe, and Caleb needs help figuring out the rhythm (not a good sign) while Delvin has to reign in his reliance on melismatic flourishes. Adam says that they are evenly matched, but that’s clearly bullshit. I sensed that Delvin had the upper hand before they began, since the song doesn’t suit Caleb’s vocal style. I find the song rather dull, but predictably Caleb never felt comfortably in control, while Devin instantly grasped it. I can’t say that either singer performed particularly well, resulting in a ho-hum battle that had neither highs nor lows. I think the only reason we saw this battle in full, is because Devin works for Starbucks, and the judges’ tumblers aren’t enough advertising within the show for this sponsor. At least Starbucks customer’s need no longer fear sing-song harrassment from their barista when they just want a cuppa morning-joe to slog through the day.
Montage time:
Some of the featured performers from the Bind Auditions are here converted to “montage folks” as we’re treated to a short summary covering the less entertaining battles and their winners. So we’ll never really know if it was worth swapping out the Caleb vs Delvin battle with one of these. But FYI, Megan Ruger moved forward with Team Blake, Dendyl moves on with Shakira, and Morgan Wallen beat out the ginger twins on Team Usher.
BATTLE #9
Usher
Brittnee Camelle vs Melissa Jimenez
Song: “Give It to Me Right”
Winner: Melissa
Rating: Rewind
In the final battle of this week, Usher chose this song to bring out the aggressor in these two women, and Melissa pleasantly responds to her opponent’s excellent rehearsal with a desire to do better. She has a sense of self-awareness that makes her one of the more refreshing performers, but this could also hold her back if she tries too hard to overcome a hearty challenge. Brittnee tackles the song instantly with great verve and attitude, but needs to emote more honestly through her performance. As Jill Scott tells her- the sound tells the story but her face hides her true feelings. When they get to the stage, they both nail the song vocally (Melissa hit the most impressive high note), getting the attitude and defiance of the lyrics even in the way they moved, singing well together and individually. This one was truly petty even, but Usher chose Melissa.
STEAL: Shakira and Adam both hanker to steal Brittnee. Blake helps out his wife’s buddy by reminding Brit that Shakira wanted her from the beginning. It didn’t work as she wanted Adam’s proven track record on her side. And perhaps to be the hand that covers his junk in a reenactment of that nude photo of him that haunts my dreams.
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The next batch of battles look mighty impressive, but we shall see if that is the result of creative editing or genuinely good singing. Come back next week and find out who you should fast forward through and who you should actually watch, then watch again.
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