Sunday, September 21, 2014

The Voice 6 Wrap-Up: 25 Best Performances

A new season will premiere this week with two new coaches - Gwen Stefani and Pharrell Williams - but before we do that, let's take a good look of how things were last season. Josh Kaufman won the whole enchalada, but there were also a pretty good number of stunning performances through out the season.

So yeah, we now pay tribute to the performances that made Season 5 worth watching - and reviewing!

20. Get Lucky
Kat Perkins
[TEAM ADAM]
Top 8

Yes, the song was pitch too high for her range and the whole performance felt a little chaotic, but her radical rework on Get Lucky was pretty interesting and nice surprise. There's darkness to it that I didn't expect, and her energy was quite compelling. If only she had a stronger vocals on this, this would've been a total knockout.

19. Hide & Seek
Christina Grimmie
[TEAM ADAM]
Top 5

The beginning was FANTASTIC! I had apprehensions at first with the use of a harmonizer, but I thought it turned out pretty cool. In fact, I wish she had done the whole thing acapella as the performance fell apart as soon as she went belting those high notes. Her voice sounded too thin for my liking, and the way she transitions her voice sounded jarring. If not for the outstanding first half this would've ranked A LOT lower.

18. Bright Lights
Delvin Choice
[TEAM ADAM]
Top 10

Very pleasantly surprised with Delvin's performance of Bright Lights. Look, this was a pretty obscure song choice - and not exactly the most current in the bunch - but the way he worked his way in navigating the song from the arrangement to the melodic choices he took was quite terrific. There's blues, rock, and funk infused in her performance, and it was pretty riveting to watch.

17. Titanium
Madilyn Paige
[TEAM BLAKE]
Blind Auditions

Sure, she seemed nervous throughout the number, which made her vocals a bit shaky in parts, but she has a nice tone and sounded sweet. She actually reminded me of Caroline Pennell from last season. I think she could be a dark horse, especially with Usher to back her up.

16. I Can't Make You Love Me
Josh Kaufman
[TEAM USHER]
Top 8

Look, I'm not particularly a fan of the song choice - really Usher? - but Josh sounded fantastic for the most part. The way his voice navigated the song was terrific, the dynamics was good, and his tone suited the song choice perfectly. I was hoping for a better song selection, but I digress.

15. Chandelier
Kat Perkins
[TEAM ADAM]
Top 5

I may get some flak for this, but I actually enjoyed this! I don't know. I really wanted this to stop, but at the same time, I wanted to hear more. Haha. It's perplexing to be honest. The key changes and transitions in this song were terrifyingly hard, and yet, Kat held her own with the song. Her vocals were spot on for the most part. Oh, and this had a certain charm that's quite riveting to watch.

14. Streamroller Blues
Bria Kelly
[TEAM USHER]
Blind Auditions

Holy cow!! THIS WAS SERIOUSLY FANTASTIC! She reminded me of Jacquie Lee, but better, if you know what I mean. 

13. Collide
Morgan Wallen
[TEAM USHER]
Blind Auditions

The grit in his voice sounded incredibly appealing and his pitch was actually better than I expected. Sure, his stage presence was almost non-existent, but that's something he can work on moving forward. As it is, his voice is stupendous.

12. A New York State Of Mind
Sisaundra Lewis
[TEAM BLAKE]
Playoffs

Sisaundra is as exciting to me as Judith Hill was. And no, that's not a compliment. Haha. Yes, she has a good technical singing voice with a spectacular vocal range, but she's WAY too polished for me to take her seriously. I want to see growth in these contestants musically and I don't think I'll ever see that in her. Again, Sisaundra's crazy good and I think we'll be seeing her for a long time this season, I just don't think she'll win.

11. Love Runs Out
Josh Kaufman
[TEAM USHER]
Top 5

This was an incredible song choice for Josh to go uptempo. After Happy, I didn't think he'd be able to deliver another strong melody with a driving beat, but he proved me wrong. Dead wrong. The grit in his voice sounded awesome, there's intensity in his delivery, and the liberties he took with the melody were really good. I'd say, he's a man with the voice of an angel that can rock. Ha!

10. Edge Of Glory
Dani Moz
[TEAM SHAKIRA]
Playoffs

I admit, I severely underrated Dani, and while words cannot describe hosssssssw much I'm done with this song, this was pretty fantastic. The arrangement worked well with her voice and the way she phrased her verses were sublime. Oh, and that high note towards the end sounded glorious. 

09. Wrecking Ball
Christina Grimmie
[TEAM ADAM]
Blind Auditions

I'm quite shocked at how much I liked this. Yes, the upper end of her range kind of grates - reminds me so much of Cassadee Pope's - but the way she navigated this stylistic song's melody was pretty compelling. She has a crazy range, great stage presence, and actually has a lovely tone when she sings softly. Given the right guidance, she could be a force this season.

08. There Goes My Baby
Stevie Jo
[TEAM USHER]
Blind Auditions

Solid vocals. I seriously didn't expect much from him, but once he opened his mouth, he blew me away. The way he navigated that song transitioning to falsetto was terrific, he has a beautiful soulful tone, and his pitch was sublime. Amazing.

07. How To Love
Christina Grimmie
[TEAM ADAM]
Top 8

While Christina's take on How To Love wasn't as good as her previous performances - her vocals went a tad shrill towards the end and I felt like she did way too much to the song that she lost halfway through - but the verses were actually lovely and her transitions were almost flawless. She needs to tone down those glory notes though because it loses its impact when she does that every time.

06. All Of Me
Josh Kaufman
[TEAM USHER]
Top 5

I'm not exactly a fan of the arrangement - especially the strings section - but there's no denying that Josh actually killed this performance. His vocals were impeccable and his ability to switch in and out of his falsetto on a dime was impressive. Just beautiful.


05. Human
Tess Boyer
[TEAM SHAKIRA]
Playoffs

Her version was very impressive. Her lower register sounded terrific, and when she hit those high notes, my jaw just dropped. Why did Adam and Usher eliminated this girl? I just love dark horses like her.

04. It Will Rain
Josh Kaufman
[TEAM USHER]
Playoffs

Fantastic transitions. Gorgeous tone. Outstanding vocals. Enough said.

03. Dark Horse
Christina Grimmie
[TEAM ADAM]
Top 12

The dark intro arrangement was BRILLIANT! I've been pretty disappointed with a couple of Christina's recent performances, but she bounced back with a riveting version of Katy Perry's Dark Horse. Her vocals were fantastic - despite the almost nasal tone - and while she did a bit too much towards the end, I actually didn't mind. This was probably Christina proving that she could very well be a legitimate pop star in the making.

02. Hold On, We're Going Home
Christina Grimmie
[TEAM ADAM]
Top 10

HOLY CRAP! I've been completely ambivalent to her before the Live Shows, but this was absolutely stunning! The first half was gorgeous, and when she took it up a notch, it was game over. Fantabulous!

01. Stay With Me
Josh Kaufman
[TEAM USHER]
Top 12

Did this really happen? Wow. I've been a fan of Josh, but I never really figured him capable of delivering a water cooler performance at this early in the competition. Stay With Me was the perfect song choice for his voice, he sounded phenomenal, his transition were spot on, the dynamics he infused were impeccable, and he delivered it with so much intensity it's quite compelling to watch. FANTASTIC!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A Case of You by James Wolpert should be in here. Not sure if you might have missed it or you just didn't like it.

DAM said...

^^ Huh? You do know this is a countdown for Season 6 right?

In case you missed it, please do go to this link. Thank you.

http://dam-the-nation.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-voice-5-wrap-up-20-best-performances.html

Anonymous said...

No Counting Stars???

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