Gel

Loved Rottweiler’s performance. Loved.

OMG yes. Also, her white tank top was very ... revealing for Morocco, no? It seemed an odd choice.

I liked Ollie’s lyrics better before the changes.

Win or lose, I’d like to hear Dexter on country radio.

This Fall??? No. I’m not ready.

Maelyn should have an advantage strategically, though, since the country block vote is split three ways now. She also seems to have the best iTunes sales of the lot, with three of her songs still in the top 200, last I looked. I don’t know if the iTunes purchases are still x5 in votes? But that should help a lot. Andrew has improved a lot in the last two performances. Much as I find having three of them in the finale a bit much, I did like his “Simple Man” in the Instant Save the best. The difference between Blake and Blake’s team, is that when Blake sings I can understand every. single. word. eyes closed and not looking at the close captioning. Though, to be fair, the Bring Your Own Band aspect probably also helps.

Does anyone not use the fast forward button during the results show?

I like Blake, but I would not mind if they moved Kelly and John to the outside chairs and then got Alicia Keys and Charlie Puth to fill in.

Disappointed Kendra did not get through. I found her to be one of the more interesting performers, even though I did not care for the song she did this week, I would have been interested to see what she came up with next. Also would have preferred Team Kelly’s Abby over Team Blake’s Andrew, and I say this as a country music fan. Of the bunch my favorite is Dexter. Gyth is okay, but for me he over-emoted that song nasally and I prefer the original Shenandoah recording. It’s one of my favorite songs, so I am biased to think he benefited from the song choice. Jej and Maelyn run the danger of being too one-note as the competition goes on. I irrationally like Rod for his ability to hit the correct notes with enthusiasm.

Wait, what? Pikachu talks? Yes, I am watching just for that now. ETA: yeah, no, that’s just wrong. Oh, the show. I’m glad the finally, finally fixed the sound.

Rod was a nice surprise. Maelyn sounded great vocally, but I only understood every third word or so. Are you only supposed to vote for one or the other? Or how is that going to work? For those of you with a better ear, was keeping tempo with the band somehow an issue that threw some of them off pitch?

What is it about going to lives that makes them all go off pitch? Is it the change in studio? Nerves? It’s beyond frustrating that the Blinds is too often the best performance for so many, imho.

Are the current season Blinds and Battle Rounds no longer available on iTunes? Or do they come out later?

Beth vs. Jej was impressive for pure singing ability. Kudos.

Is it just me or did the Lion not sound as good as previous nights? I have always been favorably impressed with her singing, but last night both she and the Monster sounded off to me on a couple of notes.

This cannot be said enough. I would happily lose the runs and the “big” notes in exchange. If the basics are not there, adding more crap to it doesn’t make it better.

Thanks, PhD-Purgatory15. I remember the bird obsession, but sadly not the actual audition song (had to look it up on YouTube). Downside of actually watching the bios this time around? They seem to have cut down on the sob stories, thankfully.

Did I miss when Blake used his block? They kept saying Jennifer was the only one who had one to use.

That was a whole lot of angsty screaming. It’s almost as if they got coached to emote on one setting: pain. Question for those who know, were a lot of these guys flat, pitch-wise? They sounded off. So many of them sounded off that I started to wonder if it was a sound check equipment issue, or not being accustomed to the stage, or something systemic. All efforts to make the song “their own” was not helping, either.

I have no idea who these mentors are outside of Trace Adkins. And it’s a sign of old age I’m just resigned to that.

Anyone but Josh. Yes, Josh would fit in with country radio right now. And as a longtime country fan, I say, what happened to you, country radio?!

Thanks for the links and explanations on the in-ears. I guess learning to use them and initial nerves could explain why so many of the singers sounded so bad during the first of the live performances this season. It's sort of interesting going back to look at the Battles, they're not wearing the in-ears there.

You made me laugh because I was thinking exactly the same thing last night when Blake sang for Sundance's study tape. Billy and Aaron are frustrating opposites for me--it's like Billy does all songs well but none of them keepers, whereas Aaron does most songs badly but has a few real gems (YMMV). Frustrating. I tend to think Billy needs to stop singing to The Audience and sing to someone. Aaron needs to stop being on the show, but more because I think it is just not the right venue for what he does best. I liked Wé's song, but I always feel like she's having to outsing all the production, which detracts from the overall thing. This is probably just me, but it drives me batty when performers with guitars abruptly stop playing the guitar mid-song and more so when they do this for long periods of time, Josh. Lastly, what are those little earpiece thingies they wear? I noticed Billy took one of his out in the middle of his duet with Christian. Does it affect how they perceive pitch? Because aside from the nerves and the lives aspect, a lot of these guys sound horridly pitchy on stage to the point where it's just weird. They don't sound like that on the iTunes snippets or in rehearsal.

I wonder why the show didn't mention Courtney's vocal injury when they were all over Kylie's? At least Courtney seems to have a very lovely and positive attitude about the whole experience, which was nice to see.

It's the guitar. Austin should've brought his guitar. It's also getting kind of funny watching Aaron and Miley try to come up with new last parting words as demanded by the formula.