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Mad Men Season 3 Episode 7: Seven Twenty Three 

Spoilery Observations (Don't read until you're all caught up): 

The Voice Season 8, Episode Two

While a Congressional investigation was going on into why none of the first eight artists on The Voice chose Adam Levine, another round of blind auditions took place on Tuesday.  My cable company must have been alerted to Adam's travails as the description for tonight's show was "Adam Levine competes with Pharrell, Blake and Christina to land the best new artist on his team."

First up was Anthony Riley who took on James Brown's "I Feel Good."  Having cut his teeth on busking, eight years as a street performer, Anthony knows how to engage a crowd and he has a powerhouse voice to go with his enthusiasm and showmanship.  And, although the show is call The Voice and the first round is a blind audition, it doesn't hurt that he's also a good looking guy.

Anthony had the judges even before the song started.  Within the first couple of notes, all judges had turned their chairs (his was the fastest four-chair turn around).  And that was a collective good decision as that meant they all got to enjoy his full performance.  Anthony should just punch his ticket to the finale - he's got the whole package. All four judges put on the hard sell, even Blake (especially after hearing that Anthony likes country music).  He offered to be the whiskey in Anthony's water, Christina and Adam pleaded with him not to break their hearts, but ultimately he went with Pharrell.  And Adam put the Suicide Hotline on his phone.

Next was Gabriel Wolfchild who was singing "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" by another singer who changed his name, Bob Dylan.  Not sure what spirit animal a Dylan is, but it's worked out pretty well for him.  I did not like Gabriel's voice nor his interpretation of the song.  His voice is too thin and flat for me, he doesn't seem to have any range, and he basically talked through the song.  I don't get the three judges' reaction at all.

He has an interesting look, enough to get Adam to profess his love.  Christina gave one of the best pitches I've ever heard and even though the folksy guitarist seemed more suited for Blake or Adam, the free spirit went with Christina who promised to work with him  and cater to him and his sound and what he wants to do as an artist.  Favorite moment, Pharrell's reaction when he realized that Gabriel would have gone with him.

So Adam is 0-10 and threatening to quit.  The next artist is Brooke Adee singing "Skinny Love" by Bon Iver.  She may be a small teenager, but she has a big voice.  Points off for the silly hair jewelry, but points added for the end notes on each line of the chorus.  She has a beautifully rich tone to her voice and pays attention to the lyrics she's singing.  And I give her even more points for having to deal with curly hair in Florida.

Brooke is adorable and talented and it would be easy to hate her and then she calls Blake and Adam "Tom and Jerry" and you fall in love with her. And she giggles.  I was shocked that only half the judges turned for her.  When it comes down to her picking between Dumb and Dumber, she goes where Danielle Bradbery and RaeLynn and other young now successful country artists have gone - Team Blake.  And Adam starts looking around for the hidden camera that is filming this punking that's obviously going on.

The next artist is a bald bundle of joy named Tonya Boyd-Cannon.  She's got dimples for days and so much positivity and energy, you pray she can sing.  You hear the first notes of Pharrell's "Happy" and it's such a perfect fit for her.  She nails it, knocks it out of the park, you choose the phrase.  She's not a big belter, she has more nuance and control.  I love her slightly raspy tone, her stage presence, her interpretation of a song we all know.

Adam tries reverse psychology to get Tonya not to pick the female singer with the amazing voice or the guy who wrote the freaking song she auditioned with.  Poor Tonya is so overcome with emotion, her voice quavering as she realizes she's talking to the judges and gets to pick one of the three smart ones who turned around (shame on you, Blake).  After the commercial break, we find out that the lucky winner of a great singer is...Adam.  Thank the good lord, Adam was pulled in off the ledge.  His first team member and it's a really good one.

Now that Adam has finally broken through, the fantasy of all the other judges filling up their teams first is over.  Time to go through the rest of the auditioners. Next is Samoan Joe Tolo singing "To Love Somebody."  There was too much vibrato throughout the song for my taste.  And I thought there wastn't anything distinctive about his sound.  But it doesn't matter what I think, only what the judges think and two of them turned their chairs.

The most impressive thing about Joe is his high note and he and Christina bonded over their ability to attract dogs from around the world with just their voices.  Blake made his best pitch - I've won, Christina hasn't - but there was no denying how fun it would be to have a singoff till your ears bleed with the vocal diva.  Joe joined Team Christina and I can only imagine what vocal gymnastics she'll have him do in the next round.

Next up is mush mouthed Mia Z. who garbled her way through "The Thrill is Gone" by BB King.  I hated everything about this performance.  Too mannered, too calculated, and too cute in a decidedly uncute way.  Oh, look how I am too cool to enunciate.  It's not a two-syllable word spee-ell, it's spell. Oh, look how I can hit a high note.  Is it over yet?

I've had it up to here with the "can you believe I'm only 15?" as a substitute for following some simple rules of singing (communicate) and kudos to Adam for telling her to cut down on all the affectations.  Even Christina, the queen of oversinging, must have thought this was too much.  In the end, only two - Blake and Pharrell turned.  Mia may have a good voice, but she needs to stop hiding it behind all the tricks and her wanton abuse of basic elocution.  She says she wants to sing the Blues, because as a beautiful young girl she's had a really rough time, and while Blake tries to convince her that country is just a stone's throw from Blues, she goes with Pharrell.

Blaze Johnson was up next with "How to Save a Life" by The Fray.  I cannot fairly judge this performance because I'm a huge fan of The Fray and this is one of my favorite songs.  Cookie Monster could croak it out and I'd swoon.  William Shatner could do a spoken-word version and I'd get goosebumps.  Blake is from the Bahamas and can go in an out of a really cool accent, but his singing voice is nicely unaffected.

With the caveats out of the way, I happened to like his soft yet rough-edged voice.  He did lose his breath early in the song and while that could be nerves, he needs to watch that.  But he hit some nice notes, played nicely with the melody and showed off a  good tone that might work on a song that I'm not inclined to love under any circumstance.  He had his choice of judges and ultimately went with Adam.

Deanna Johnson is back for her second try and she's gone from a zero to hero with a four-chair turnaround.  She sang "All I Want" by Kodaline (yes, I had to look that up, who or what is Kodaline, anyone?).  I did not like the heavy, throaty Cher sound so she could have offered free puppies and chocolate and I would not have hit my button.

It goes without saying that she's got the look - she's gorgeous and dresses well.  She says she like Florence and the Machine and I can see her doing well in that genre.  Adam had been using the "I was first to turn around" bit for the last two days, to little success.  This time, he was last to hit his button, getting in right under the wire.  And it worked.  Deanna and the frog that lives in her throat went with Team Adam.

My Rankings:
Anthony Riley (Team Pharrell)
Tony Boyd-Cannon (Team Adam)
Brooke Adee (Team Pharrell)
Gabriel Wolfchild (Team Christina)
Blaze Johnson (Team Adam)
Joe Tolo (Team Christina)
Deanna Johnson (Team Adam)
Mia Z. (Team Pharrell)
Posted by BurnThis at 1:15 PM No comments: 


The Voice Recap: Season 8, Week One, Night One

This is The Voice.

It's back and she's back and so I'm back as well.  The Voice Season 8 got underway while the ink on runner-up Matt McAndrews' brand new recording contract was still wet.  After having three team members in the final four and seeing two of his team signed to contracts in the days since the Season 7 finale, Adam Levine must be flying high.  Sure Blake won Season 7, but Adam was the undisputed king of the four-chair turn arounds and had his pick of artists.  Even with Christina Aguilera's much ballyhooed return to the show, and renowned producer Pharrell back for his second time, Adam had to be feeling pretty, pretty, pretty good as the season began.
By the end of week one, Adam must have thought he was in a musically inspired episode of the Twilight Zone.  One after another of this week's artists given a choice did not pick the golden boy.  He might be married to a super model, fronting a hit-producing machine like Maroon 5, and People's Sexiest Man, but Adam thoroughly lost his mojo.  Let's see some of the artists who decided to go another way, starting with Monday night's show.

First up was Italian American rocker Sarah Potenza who growled through Rod Stewart's "Stay With Me."  She looks more like the fun middle school art teacher who shops at the funkiest second hand shop in town than a rock star. Her voice is as rough as her unruly hair and had only one gear - loud. She picked a raspy, loud, one note song and did a good job of sounding like a middle-aged Rod Stewart, but I'm not sure that's a compliment.

I may not have pushed the button on my Voice App, but all four judges did.  Adam pushed first and then started making "white guy trying to be soulful" face.  Pharrell was next and was so overcome by Sarah's Mike Meyers as Linda "Coffee Talk" Richman inspired-glasses that he stood and made his own array of strange "O" faces.  Eventually all four turned and the begging/pleading/sweet talking began.  Adam gave her a hug and Blake and she bonded over Nashville and boots.  In the end, she surprised us all by going with country boy Blake.

Next was young crooner Lowell Oakley who sang Duke Ellington's "Don't Get Around Much Anymore."  The bar is set pretty low when there are just a handful of people singing in a particular genre and Lowell would not have been Perry Como's back up's back up in the old days, but today he gets two judges to turn around (kudos to Christina and Blake, you passed your hearing test).

The kid has a nice voice, a decent tone and stays on key.  It's just not for me an interesting or engaging voice.  Not much else to say about the performance, but I wonder if his pants have their own twitter account yet.  The tight above ankle pants have a life of their own and I really didn't care to find out if he was circumcised or not.  Maybe in the future The Voice can borrow the black box from The Bachelor.  After Adam and Pharrell give their spiels, and Pharrell symbolically strips bare for Lowell, the teen breaks Adam's heart and joins Team Pharrell.

The next "one who got away" from Adam was soul singer Rob Taylor.  He showed amazing range in faithfuly covering Luke James' "I Want You." Deep rich low tones, crystal clear ultra, super duper high notes.  Rob has it all - except for a decent barber.  Hopefully TPTB will help him with a make over before the live rounds, because his voice is really solid.

Not surprising, there's quite a lot of salesmanship going on as each coach tries to land the very talented singer.  But no one has a pitch like Christina, who gives Rob a taste of what a golden duet they can do in the future and lures him away from her fellow coaches like the siren she is.  Hopefully, unlike the sailors lured by the siren's song, Rob will have a nice, long, healthy run on the show.  This one has got to hurt Adam, but it's still early in the night.  He'll charm the next one.

The next four-chair turn around was country singer Cody Wickline who took on the George Jones classic "He Stopped Loving Her Today."  Adam hit his button within the first three seconds and then saw as his dream of bagging his first artist of Season 8 slowly slipped away from him with each subsequent button push.

Cody has a heavy old-fashioned country accent which borders on Muppet-like.  He needs to reel in the tricks and schtick and just focus on singing from his heart.  There were definite good moments and I like the little cry in his voice, but I hope he keeps on the modern side of the country spectrum and doesn't go too twangy. It was an obvious choice for him to go with Blake, so Adam shouldn't have taken this one that hard.  Maybe he'll have luck with the next singer.

Treeva Gibson is fifteen and both her parents are deaf, so her angelic voice was a pleasant surprise. I can't imagine what they must have thought when they were told she wanted to be a singer and they had no idea if she had the talent.  Well, she does!  She did a great job with Lana Del Rey's "Young and Beautiful" but only managed to turn two chairs - Christina and Blake.  Adam missed the boat, holding out for perfection rather than recognizing some young and beautifullly raw talent.

I'll have to give Blake credit for the best description of the night, as he told Treeva that her voice drapes over the band.  She has a really warm texture to her voice and she is a nice change from the quirky indie girls they usually populate the show with.  It's one of the few performances I've listened to over again. She's effortlessly good - she doesn't rely on runs or overly dramatic motions, just some good singing.  I'm worried that her new coach, Christina, may have her do too much, stretch her voice beyond what it should do.  But I'm looking forward to hearing her again.

Meghan Linsey was one half of Steel Magnolia, a mildly successful country duo in the late Aughts.  But, both personal (a breakup between her and her fiancee/partner) and professional (the move towards bro-country) problems left her solo and label-less.  Despite her country music background, Meghan would like to reinvent herself as a bluesy rocker.  Interestingly, Meghan had sung with Blake on stage back when she was opening for him a few years ago and was probably expecting to have to choose between him and the other coaches.

Not so fast, Meghan.  The only coach unimpressed with her gravelly take on "Love Hurts" was her old pal Blake.  I have to agree with his decision not to turn around (though it was more likely made because he already has a singer who growls and sounds like she's a two-pack-a-day smoker).  I am not a fan of her voice - it's a bad combination of Jennifer Nettles and Janis Joplin - and I prefer my woman singers to be slightly more feminine sounding and not the vocal equivalent of Rambo and Jean Claude Van Damme.  So finally Adam's losing streak will end now that he doesn't have to contend with Blake.  Oooh, no, sorry, Adam.  Meghan is going Team Pharrell.

The next singer, Joshua Davis, got one of the fastest turn arounds of the night and whatever he did in the studio to get that immediate reaction did not translate to my experience listening on my comfy couch at home.  He sang Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" and it got Adam and Blake to hit their buttons before his first note had stopped reverberating.  But all I heard was a nondescript, unmemorable singer who sounded slightly better than Elvis Costello (which is not saying much; my vacuum sounds better than Elvis).

Joshua is another seasoned performer who's been struggling for years and is hoping that exposure on The Voice will make the difference.  It certainly can't hurt, but I'd be shocked if he makes it beyond the battle rounds.  There is nothing unique or identifiable about his voice and I didn't even think he really connected with the song.  He has purdy eyes though.   He and his blue eyes were swept up in Blake's magic and once again Adam failed to get a singer that he wanted.  This is getting awkward, but I don't think this is the great get that got away.

Last singer of the night may haunt Adam, though.  He is Sawyer Fredericks and he's young and cute and possessed with a voice that is the complete opposite of Joshua's. It has a tone and sound unlike anyone else's and you'll immediately know it's him when you hear it.  He's got the whole package - the styling, the appreciation for a wide genre of music, and the chops to mesmerize an audience.  He's the one everyone will be talking about from tonight's show.

His take on the old American folk song "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" made the song sound both timeless and fresh.  Even if folk is not your genre, I'd be surprised if you weren't hitting your imaginary button.  I loved his singing, his guitar playing and his confidence on stage.  And I love how he plays around with the notes, not in a showy way, but as if the notes had a life of their own.  He seemed really in the moment, caught up in the music, and it gave me chills.  If he chooses Adam, the night not only wouldn't be a complete waste for Adam, but he'd manage to grab the biggest talent of the night.  So after much lobbying by the judges, Sawyer makes his decision.  Pharrell.  And Adam just died a little inside.

Rankings for the Night:
Sawyer Fredericks (Team Pharrell)
Rob Taylor (Team Christina)
Teeva Gibson (Team Christina)
Cody Wickline (Team Blake)
Sarah Potenza (Team Blake)
Meghan Linsey (Team Pharrell)
Lowell Oakley (Team Pharrell)
Joshua Davis (Team Blake)
Posted by BurnThis at 6:11 PM No comments: 

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