Are any of the contestants worthy of being crowned The Voice?

Last week, I claimed “so begins the real competition” for The Voice. Instead, there was a whole lot of lackluster which apparently carried over from what came before. Whether on Blake’s team or Christina’s, there weren’t many performance about which I had good things to say. Did things improve with Adam’s this week? With Cee Lo’s?

Nope. Not really. As a matter of fact, the singers drowned in many of their songs. Some committed underwhelming efforts, some got swallowed whole by their choices:

Katrina Parker “Tonight Tonight”
The music completely overpowered Katrina’s singing. Add the fact it was a sketchy performance that should have been filled with angst (if you weren’t going to put your own spin on it) and you have a stinker to start off the evening.

Cheesa “Don’t Leave Me This Way”
I will say this: At least Chessa put it out there more so than Katrina who just schlugged it before her. Not much else to comment on.

Tony Lucca “In Your Eyes”
Of the first three who have performed thus far, we finally have a contestant who decided to put a little effort into his performance and make it his own. How? Well, the dude couldn’t hit the high notes, that was evident. What he did do, instead, was exude. Nothing wrong with that. And Christina calling him out as “one dimensional” was rather the cheap shot. There was a better way to critique him, a more constructive way to relay a message. Perplexingly, he even thanked her for what she said. Odd.

Kim Yarbrough “Rolling In The Deep”
Why did her song sound paper thin coming out of her? She power-housed through it, but it still sounded strained and fragile. It left me scratching my head. And what the hell exactly was Adam trying to say here? “I know that this sounds negative but, really, I don’t disagree with all the things that were said … and think there were some issues I was worried about. For the most part, though, it was fantastic …” If you can translate that for me, bring me up to speed in the comment section below.

James Massone “Don’t Know Why”
What a sweet, interesting, vocally acceptable song for James to take on. Parts of it worked wonderfully. Other parts chewed him up and spit him out. He needed 100 more practice swings with that tune to get it right.

Juliet Simms “Roxanne”
The potential was there and Juliet had plenty of gumption to pull this Police song off. She had the growl and grumble to make it work. But it didn’t come across for me as a relatable effort. The coaches certainly were on board with it, however.

Mathai “Ordinary People”
Hello! Outstanding and distinctive voice! Nifty vocal performance! Confidence in the song being sung! What wasn’t to like about Mathai’s effort? Fellow contestants: Did you hear what she did?

Tony Vincent “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”
If there is one thing I’ve heard over and over and over again when someone takes on this Tears For Fears song it’s that they over sing it, put too much *umph* into it. Not so with Tony. He should have blasted it. Instead, we got another performer who inexplicably got swallowed up by what he sang, which is not indicative of him in the least. What gives?

Karla Davis “Airplanes”
And then there was Karla who was in dire need of enunciation and projection throughout her time on stage. This was the perfect example of the theme of the evening: Performers who were eaten by their song choices.

Erin Martin “Walk Like An Egyptian”
*snore* This offering was so boring, even the back up singers weren’t into it. It was almost a tie as to who gave the more lackluster effort — them or Erin. If it wasn’t for the ridiculousness of the performers on stage who added unintended humor to her time on stage, Erin’s performance would have been narcoleptic for the average viewer.

Pip “When You Were Young”
And … ladies and gentlemen? This penultimate effort of the evening, underwhelming as it was, just laid its head down in submission. If ever there was a performer headed out the door, Pip is that one.

Jamar Rogers “Are You Gonna Go My Way”
Sorry. This performance was frantic. Forced. And fake. Jamar, per Adam, “embodied what The Voice is.” No … he didn’t. His heart was in the right place, but it was sloppy and anxious.

Yep. Half the contestants — Katrina, James, Tony, Karla, Erin and Pip — seemed to have either been overwhelmed by their song choices or performed them with such dull, lifeless efforts they fell flat before the viewing audience. And, as noted, I was especially surprised at Tony’s take on a song he should have nailed.

Pip is a goner. Karla is a goner. Erin, absolutely. I believe Cheesa is as well. Which leads me to speculate who The Voice could be: For my money, Erin Willet and Mathai will certainly be in the Top 4 come crunch time … but I honestly cannot pick any others worthy of standing beside them. Can you? (P.S. As stated, Chris Mann from Christina’s team is not The Voice.)

Notes:

• I don’t know what her deal is lately, but every single hopeful Christina talked to and critiqued during this episode she did so with down-cast eyes as if she was embarrassed to look directly at them for some reason. What was that all about?
• As much as I dislike Carson Daly, I admit to enjoying his loss of command and control of the circus when the coaches go on there doofus asides.

Quotes:

“I don’t know how to feel about the whole thing that was happening up there … it’s a little evil … hellish. For me I don’t know, I was so wrapped up in whatever that was that it was harder for me to concentrate on the music …” — Blake on Tony Vincent’s weird performers gyrating in the background while he sang

“Here we go again with the male strippers. What the hell does that have to do with this?” — Blake on Erin’s staging

“I think Blake just bought a one-way ticket to Boner Town.” — Adam responding to Blake’s comment above

Clacked by Michael Noble
on Apr 10, 2012 @ 11:49 EST5EDT