S07.E16: Live Playoffs 2

[dizzyizzy01]

As much as I am finding Gwen completely worthless on the panel this season, she has consistently given her contestants good songs to sing and seems invested.

 

 

ITA.  Gwen is terrible on the panel, but she seems to be a pretty darn good coach and seems to spend a good amount of time thinking about what makes sense for her contestants.  They should definitely stop going to her first though for commentary.  She's not quick on her feet at all.

[Padma]

The coaches definitely benefit from editing. All the comments from Gwen about Jean--and then from Adam trying to support her and re-make the point--would have been nicely edited down to a couple of sentences in the battlerounds.

 

I didn't think Blake didn't want to comment. I had more the feeling he'd been told ahead of time that if they were worried about time, they'd just go to the other three most of the time. I don't know whose bright idea that was--or who thought it was good to begin with Gwen--but they were wrong. And Pharrell apparently benefitted greatly from editing, too, because his smooth, guru-like presence on tape was a lot more appealing than his live blank face and the same platitude over and over about "be true to who you are" when they REALLY needed to hear, "Don't mug. And don't smile when a song is sad", "Cut out the over-emoting and think about the meaning" and "You can hit the note nicely so why not show that off? I'd keep one or two runs for impact, but cut all the rest out" and "You sang it. Now tell me this: what's it about?" 

 

I found him really irritating and his song choices ruined nearly everyone's chances. Why not let them choose, especially since he'd boasted about how he'd be doing that in the blinds (and criticized Adam for not doing it)?

 

I think he'll save Sugar Jones and that Gwen will save Ryan Sill, regardless of who else is left after the audience chooses.

[LoneHaranguer]

 

I think Bass is a horrible piece of trash whose supposedly positive message is convoluted by its idiotic lyrics, and Anita's performance of it did not make me like it any better.

I thought Anita started off weak and made a hash of the end. I presume she screwed up and improvised something. If she meant to go off track, maybe to show what she could really do, she should have chosen another song instead.

[Noreaster]

I didn't think Blake didn't want to comment. I had more the feeling he'd been told ahead of time that if they were worried about time, they'd just go to the other three most of the time. I don't know whose bright idea that was--or who thought it was good to begin with Gwen--but they were wrong.

The coach feedback has always been done in a certain order. They start with the coach sitting to the right of whoever's team is up. So, for Pharrell's team, they go to Gwen first, then Adam, then Blake, and finally Pharrell for comments. Occasionally they'll skip a coach or two if there are time constraints. I think Blake was caught off-guard once or twice last night because Gwen and Adam talked so much that he thought they would skip him and go straight to Pharrell.

I think Gwen will get used to providing feedback more efficiently. Jean was really the first person she had to provide such quick feedback on.

[Amy Beth]

For those commenting about how the coaches flipped on Jean, don't forget that "last week's" critique took place at the end of August.

[Babalooie]

I had to bleach my ears after hearing Sugar butcher that classic.  If Dionne Warwick were dead, she'd be turning over in her grave.  It's hard to understand the coaches overpraising her.  My suspicious nature thinks that maybe she's "overly friendly" with someone on staff.

Edited November 12, 2014 by Babalooie

[Sunnyside]

I love Pharrell - he was looking especially turtle-y tonight.

I do hope he steps away from the oldies soon - they are so over done on these singing shows, aside from Joni Mitchell, I suppose. Apropos of nothing, I realize that Joni is a folk legend, and I can appreciate that Help Me is a very complicated, creative melody, but damn if that song isn't just overwhelmingly unpleasant - the melody has always annoyed the shit outta me.

That Elyjuh (good lord) kid really does have such vocal precision - kind of impressive, really - if I listen to him without watching, he's about 10 times better.

I thought the same thing about Elijah. Great voice, but....When he came out to sing I closed my eyes and he actually was 10 times better than watching him. Thought it was just me.

[limecoke]

Interesting night but nothing much stood out for me musically, so I'll just nitpick.  Please, people who are singing, please quit shouting "Come on" in the middle of your performances.  It's dumb and irritating and shows you can't command an audience with your voice.  Thank you.

[realdancemom]

Elyjuh's voice is really good if you don't watch him.  That's why I understood Pharrell's decision last week since Ricky is just o.k.

 

I wonder if they told them to clap the audience's hands.  It just ruined the mood for Luke's song and I like him.

 

Last night, Anita and Taylor stood out for Gwen's team.  So I hope it's both of them and Bryana.

 

For Pharrell's, anybody but Jean.  I didn't really listen to Sugar though so I'm not sure if she was any good.  It seemed like the coaches loved her.

Edited November 12, 2014 by realdancemom

[hincandenza]

Not just you, I've been saying that from the get-go. His voice is radio ready and insanely good: Elyjuh, not Luke, has the best voice in the competition right now. His pitch and control are flawless, his runs are clean as a whistle, and he's even got some smooth moves and looseness on the stage.

Elyjuh'sproblems are basically two-fold, and one will be hard to fix:

1) He over emotes to "Jim Carrey in the Mask" proportions in his face. This seems instinctual and thus hard to correct, which is why we hate watching him but when people close their eyes, they hear butterscotch like vocals.

2) He hasn't gotten the artistic maturity to strip down the excess runs and falsetto so they are a treat and not a chore. All the young singers do this, like Bryana and Mia et al.

But his voice is insane; he could go into the studio today with Pharell and make great radio friendly tracks. But watching his face when he performs, oy vey.

Someone above noted that Pharrell missed a golden opportunity to reign him in when he mentioned online criticisms, but Pharrell has really disappointed me the last few weeks. Poor coach selections in the battles, poor song choices, etc. Once Alicia Keys left, I stopped liking Pharrell and am amazed to admit my two favorite teams are Gwen and Blake.

[Padma]

Not just you, I've been saying that from the get-go. His voice is radio ready and insanely good: Elyjuh, not Luke, has the best voice in the competition right now. His pitch and control are flawless, his runs are clean as a whistle, and he's even got some smooth moves and looseness on the stage.

Elyjuh'sproblems are basically two-fold, and one will be hard to fix:

1) He over emotes to "Jim Carrey in the Mask" proportions in his face. This seems instinctual and thus hard to correct, which is why we hate watching him but when people close their eyes, they hear butterscotch like vocals.

2) He hasn't gotten the artistic maturity to strip down the excess runs and falsetto so they are a treat and not a chore. All the young singers do this, like Bryana and Mia et al.

But his voice is insane; he could go into the studio today with Pharell and make great radio friendly tracks. But watching his face when he performs, oy vey.

Someone above noted that Pharrell missed a golden opportunity to reign him in when he mentioned online criticisms, but Pharrell has really disappointed me the last few weeks. Poor coach selections in the battles, poor song choices, etc. Once Alicia Keys left, I stopped liking Pharrell and am amazed to admit my two favorite teams are Gwen and Blake.

I agree with all of this. It makes me sad...angry...not sure what exactly, because for the first time last night I really thought Elyjuh has the vocal talent to take this whole thing. He has an amazing voice and phrasing. And I know he can dial down the over-emoting with his face and jerkiness with his body because I saw a bit of that last night. He just needs coaching!!!

 

I thought Pharrell would be the one to do it, but he failed so badly, even when Elyjuh asked for his help and realized he had a problem. It obviously hurt him to read about how people reacted to him performing but he wanted to fix it. And I believe he could, just practicing so he unlearns the old habits (maybe watching video with a critique) and RElearns new ones instead. I think he seemed so teachable, with more openness now--so much better than the blinds now.  But Pharrell just steamrolled over all that. So sad.

 

I wish he was on Blake's team because I think Blake would pare him down gesture-wise and definitely get him to stop overdoing all those runs. I'm sad, that he's stuck with Pharrell because he was one of the few highlights--vocally--of the whole week and could be so much better with someone who really tried.  :(

[ToxicUnicorn]

Interesting night but nothing much stood out for me musically, so I'll just nitpick.  Please, people who are singing, please quit shouting "Come on" in the middle of your performances.  It's dumb and irritating and shows you can't command an audience with your voice.  Thank you.

A million billion times this.  It's so jarring and commonplace and trite. It has exactly the opposite effect on me: as soon as I hear it, I want to go away.

 

Eliyjuh's song was interesting once it got lively.  I didn't like the slow part at all.

[hks]

I was only really wondering one thing:  Remember when Blake kind of suggested to Ryan that he had locked eyes and was singing to someone on either his or Adam's team? Do you think he was referring to Jessie Pitts?  When they performed with/against each other in the battle rounds and looked all sorts of in love, maybe they actually fell in love? Or he fell for her? OR he trained so hard to sing to her specifically during their battle round, that he now has to sing to her for each subsequent performance? Or it's been a running joke on the show ever since it was suggested that they were going to make out on stage?  I'm just curious about whom Blake was referencing.  I'm a sucker for made-up romance. :)

[Sunnyside]

Not just you, I've been saying that from the get-go. His voice is radio ready and insanely good: Elyjuh, not Luke, has the best voice in the competition right now. His pitch and control are flawless, his runs are clean as a whistle, and he's even got some smooth moves and looseness on the stage.

Elyjuh'sproblems are basically two-fold, and one will be hard to fix:

1) He over emotes to "Jim Carrey in the Mask" proportions in his face. This seems instinctual and thus hard to correct, which is why we hate watching him but when people close their eyes, they hear butterscotch like vocals.

2) He hasn't gotten the artistic maturity to strip down the excess runs and falsetto so they are a treat and not a chore. All the young singers do this, like Bryana and Mia et al.

But his voice is insane; he could go into the studio today with Pharell and make great radio friendly tracks. But watching his face when he performs, oy vey.

Someone above noted that Pharrell missed a golden opportunity to reign him in when he mentioned online criticisms, but Pharrell has really disappointed me the last few weeks. Poor coach selections in the battles, poor song choices, etc. Once Alicia Keys left, I stopped liking Pharrell and am amazed to admit my two favorite teams are Gwen and Blake.

Exactly!!!! That's it! Edited November 13, 2014 by Sunnyside