S11.E18: Live Top 12 Eliminations

[Michel]

From TV Guide:

Quote

The results of America's vote are revealed.  The bottom two artists compete for the Instant Save, and one artist is eliminated.  Team Adam and Team Miley perform.  Coach Alicia Keys also performs.

 

 

[Wandering Snark]

*hears a pin drop*

*looks around*  Well, I really liked the subtle 'protest' vibe of Adam's team and Alicia's performance. About as much as you can get away with on prime time network tv...

And I have to say it's a tough night when people (beside retweeting) have to type in Sa'rayah in their "instant" save tweets to keep you on the show. Did ones with a ' count? Did anyone know how to spell her name once it wasn't on the screen? I think this had a lot to do with the landslide result.

[Jabu]

Teams rosters/cheat sheets:

Team Adam
Brendan Fletcher (saved by America's vote)
Billy Gilman (saved by America's vote)
Josh Gallagher (saved by America's vote)

Team Miley
Ali Caldwell (saved by America's vote)
Darby Walker (saved by America's vote)
Aaron Gibson (saved by Twitter vote)

Team Alicia
Wé McDonald (saved by America's vote)
Christian Cuevas (saved by America's vote)

Team Blake
Courtney Harrell (saved by America's vote)
Austin Allsup (saved by America's vote)
Sundance Head (saved by America's vote)

[Michel]

Not exactly a good, ringing endorsement for the new coaches that one of each of their artists was in danger.  But really, once Austin, Courtney, Josh, and Darby were all declared safe (all of them being called as safe blew me away other than Josh due to the country brigade voting for him), I knew it'd be Aaron and Sa'Rayah in the bottom.  Interestingly, two former Battle partners.  But I am a bit surprised that Aaron was in the bottom.  He got America's votes to save him last week, while Darby needed the save.  Did she seriously shoot past Aaron that much in the voting from last week to this week?  Sa'Rayah doesn't surprise me, though.  The ones who need the coach saves typically get booted sooner than those who got America's vote (which is why I somewhat expect to see Brendan and Courtney in the bottom sooner rather than later, though not Darby after this week).

I was bored by Adam's team performance, unsurprisingly.  What is it with Adam and his tendency to make his artists boring?  Even those who don't originate on his team start out interesting, but end up boring once they land on his team.

Loved Miley's team performance.  No surprise she'd do a Dolly song, and I loved the harmonization done by Aaron, Ali, and Darby.  Even Darby sounded clear.  She actually enunciated, for once!

I liked Alicia's performance, and a big surprise to see Adam accompanying her on his guitar.  But I guess she'll really only have Christian and Wé to perform with her next week.  Wonder what went into the idea of not having the new coaches just perform with their teams this week just in case something like this happened?

Wow.  Aaron cleaned up that vote quite nicely, by a real landslide.  He'd better step it up next week.  Miley needs to rally her supposed 32,000,000 followers and get them watching, already, so they can vote if she wants any hope of winning this season.  I think Alicia can cruise with Christian and Wé for the next few eliminations, but she'd better make them step it up, too, just in case.

Edited November 16, 2016 by Michel

[Court]

I didn't really mind either of them going home but I still wish Darby had been in the bottom.

I couldn't understand most of Aaron's song tonight. I was somewhat surprised Christian was safe.

[Michel]

12 minutes ago, Court said:

I couldn't understand most of Aaron's song tonight. I was somewhat surprised Christian was safe.

Really?  Christian's been hugely popular since the pretaped episodes.  His Blind, Battle, and Knockout all have high YouTube views.

[filmfan2480]

Heh? Christian was one of the better ones last night. Did well on iTunes, as well.

[selkie]

I get what Adam was doing with "For What It's Worth" but it's really not a singer's song- all you need is a pleasant tone, and the ability to sing about two notes- and I don't think I've heard it on one of these competition shows where someone knocks it out of the park.

[Court]

15 minutes ago, Michel said:

Really?  Christian's been hugely popular since the pretaped episodes.  His Blind, Battle, and Knockout all have high YouTube views.

I actually like him but I didn't care for last night. I thought it was an odd song choice but I'm likely blinded by my dislike of Coldplay. 

 

(I know that's an unpopular opinion of Coldplay.) 

[huahaha]

2 hours ago, Wandering Snark said:

*hears a pin drop*

*looks around*  Well, I really liked the subtle 'protest' vibe of Adam's team and Alicia's performance. About as much as you can get away with on prime time network tv...

And I have to say it's a tough night when people (beside retweeting) have to type in Sa'rayah in their "instant" save tweets to keep you on the show. Did ones with a ' count? Did anyone know how to spell her name once it wasn't on the screen? I think this had a lot to do with the landslide result.

As a former Idol watcher, I've been a bit shocked at the unfairness of The Voice's voting system. West coast couldn't vote the first round, now having a hard-to-spell name is a liability. I guess the producers don't think winning is that big of a deal, so why protect the process?

2 hours ago, Michel said:

But I am a bit surprised that Aaron was in the bottom.  He got America's votes to save him last week, while Darby needed the save.  Did she seriously shoot past Aaron that much in the voting from last week to this week?  Sa'Rayah doesn't surprise me, though.  The ones who need the coach saves typically get booted sooner than those who got America's vote (which is why I somewhat expect to see Brendan and Courtney all in the bottom sooner rather than later, though not Darby after this week).

Darby must have a lot of west coast voters, which makes sense. Especially for people who were irritated that they couldn't vote for her last week.

[Noreaster]

5 hours ago, huahaha said:

As a former Idol watcher, I've been a bit shocked at the unfairness of The Voice's voting system. West coast couldn't vote the first round, now having a hard-to-spell name is a liability. I guess the producers don't think winning is that big of a deal, so why protect the process?

Darby must have a lot of west coast voters, which makes sense. Especially for people who were irritated that they couldn't vote for her last week.

I don't think spelling is a huge issue.  To vote by twitter, all anyone really needs to do is retweet the ones sent out by The Voice after the contestants perform.  Also, the show accepts a few misspellings for each contestant...they're listed on the voting rules on the website.  (And then of course, for people watching the show, the spelling is right there on the screen.)

We have no way of knowing how well the live voting format last week would have matched up with regular voting.  In any event, it's happened before when a coach save outlasted a public save.  Many folks vote based on the actual performances.  It's not just the existing fanbases.  

[Court]

If you use the Voice app to tweet, it has it written for you already. :)

I didn't look at the iTunes sales but those are usually a pretty good indicator of who is going home.

[Michel]

23 minutes ago, Court said:

I didn't look at the iTunes sales but those are usually a pretty good indicator of who is going home.

I actually stopped judging based on those last season after Adam Wakefield almost consistently charted better than Alisan Porter and still lost to her in the end.  Oh, and the season before, when Ellie Lawrence charted better than everyone else on Team Gwen during the Playoffs and still didn't get voted through by America (Jeffery Austin and Braiden Sunshine did), and then had to watch Gwen give her final save to Korin Bukowski over her.  And then the season before that, when Deanna Johnson had to sing for the Twitter save (and barely got it), despite charting extremely high during the top twelve week.

Point is, iTunes sales may tell how well a song is selling, but I know damn well they're not necessarily vibing with how the viewer votes are going.  They sometimes do, but definitely not always.

[Wandering Snark]

Agreed, often iTunes points more to the popularity of the song rather than the singer.

[Ketzel]

Speaking of iTunes, I find it ironic that the only performance I felt compelled to buy so far this season was Aaron and Sa'Rayah's knockout battle song,  I'll Take Care of You.  Assuming Aaron doesn't win The Voice, I think he and Sa'Rayah should consider teaming up. Something about their respective voices really balanced well, to my ears.

Edited November 16, 2016 by Ketzel

[Keekski]

Alicia should have saved Kylie last week. I'm still bitter.

[Gel]

Aaron, I'm a fan, but throw me a bone, man. I'd like to hear a less growly song, and one in which thewordsdon'tallruntogetherreallyfast, so I can least understand you. Losing My Religion was great. I understand that whole build future fan base for the kind of music you want to do thing, but this 90 seconds to show the world you're The One isn't the format for the type of song that needs to grow on you.

It cracks me up that during Adam's team performance, Adam was the only one I understood completely, even though I know the words. I understand Billy most of the time, but I don't know what he was doing there. Is enunciating really that hard? 

Edited November 16, 2016 by Gel

[Ketzel]

I think Billy missed the point of the song and also was too busy trying to stand out in the team-and-Adam performance to enunciate. (On the other hand, it's also possible he didn't quite remember all the words.) Certainly he wasn't singing anything close to the actual melody (which, as others have pointed out, is a simple one, meant to convey a certain menacing monotony, and not really intended for elaborate vocal embellishment and flourishes.)

I'd like to hear Aaron sing Bob Segar. Maybe"Old Time Rock and Roll." That would get the crowd going, if he could pull it off.

Edited November 16, 2016 by Ketzel

[bluepiano]

I think in fairness the quality and tone of Billy's voice is so different from the others in that group number that he couldn't help but stand apart. I personally enjoyed hearing that difference, because by that point the performance was starting to sound monotonous. (Granted that monotony is to some extent built into the song).

2 hours ago, Keekski said:

Alicia should have saved Kylie last week. I'm still bitter.

It would've been fun to hear what she came up with. Each season there's at least one singer you know has zero chance of winning, but you want them to stick around because they add some variety to the show.

Edited November 16, 2016 by bluepiano

[LeLalique]

This is the first year I've watched this show.  Has the band always played over the singers?  Can they not afford a sound board?  Also has anyone purchased any of the songs sung?  Are they studio mixes or the live performances?  If live performances ... can one actually hear the singer over the band?

[blueray]

I feel like Aaron did what you should do in that situation. Which is pick a well liked soft rock song that isn't to hard to sing. And sign with your heart. That's what gets the most votes. The other woman (forgot her name) did some song, I personally never heard of and I feel like she was totally out played by the background music.

[Noreaster]

3 hours ago, LeLalique said:

This is the first year I've watched this show.  Has the band always played over the singers?  Can they not afford a sound board?  Also has anyone purchased any of the songs sung?  Are they studio mixes or the live performances?  If live performances ... can one actually hear the singer over the band?

I have never bought any of the itunes, but I know they are studio recordings, not live.  

I think the sound has gotten worse over the seasons.  I don't remember it being a problem early on and there were definitely some big productions during the Cee Lo seasons.  

[Gel]

I have bought a couple of the iTunes recordings. Listen to the free snippet first. It's usually much better than the lives, but sometimes the background singers are still there, and still distractingly loud.

Edited November 17, 2016 by Gel

[Nedsdag]

20 hours ago, Court said:

I actually like him but I didn't care for last night. I thought it was an odd song choice but I'm likely blinded by my dislike of Coldplay. 

 

(I know that's an unpopular opinion of Coldplay.) 

Coldplay's music got me through some tough times. To each his own.

Slick move by Adam and Alicia with their song choices last night. Very apropo. 

I have a sick feeling this show won't give rid of Darby until the bloodbath before the finale. She'll be like Braiden Sunshine and outstay her welcome.

I understand why Aaron decided to sing a song that's not well known to the grannies viewing the show, but I wish he would've sang the Ed Sheeran song instead.

[MaryPatShelby]

7 hours ago, LeLalique said:

This is the first year I've watched this show.  Has the band always played over the singers?  Can they not afford a sound board?  Also has anyone purchased any of the songs sung?  Are they studio mixes or the live performances?  If live performances ... can one actually hear the singer over the band?

I have bought a lot of songs, and they are studio, not live.  Those songs are among my favorites, but I have not bought any in at least the last 3 seasons.  That fact, and also that I'm sick of the coach blathering and the ad nauseaum tongue bathing and standing o's, is making me think I need to take at least a season off.

[limecoke]

Unpopular opinion here.  I'd like to apologize to Dolly Parton for the crime perpetrated on her song last night.  It sounded like four yowling cats in a sack.  Seriously, my dog looked a little disturbed by the whole thing.  Good grief, that was bad. 

Knew Aaron would stay.  He's ok but needs to be told that lyrics are important and growling out sounds no one understands is not that ok.  

Darby continues to annoy me beyond words.  But Ali stayed so...good news!!!

[Crs97]

Not so unpopular.  We were amazed at how bad they sounded.  Dolly makes it look so easy.

I never realized how good Adam is on guitar.  I liked his group's song, mostly because of his playing, and Alicia's song.

Darby needs to go away now.

[Sugar]

Disappointed about Sa'Rayah. I know she's not everyone's cup of tea, but I think she needed a coach that would help her reign it in a bit and she could have been amazing. I bought "I'll Take Care of You" because I couldn't get the performance out of my head, and the studio version is fantastic. She and Aaron really sound magical together. I think the best venue for Sa'Rayah would be broadyway/musical theatre. I keep thinking Jennifer Holliday when Sa'rayah performs- she's got that natural drama to her voice and her stage presence.

I listened to Aaron's studio recordings and he sounds SO MUCH better. I really think the sound quality has been off on the live performances, and Aaron especially has been sounding rough. But his voice sounds really good in studio - plus you can make out the words!

I really enjoyed Team Miley's Dolly cover. I actually thought Miley was the weak link, and I say that as someone who likes her voice. It just didn't blend with the other voices in the group, because she's got that goatiness to her voice, whereas Darby is breathy and Ali is smooth. But still fun to watch.

I'm ready for Billy to just go. He doesn't have the vocals to do a Freddy song, and not even 1/10th of the charisma that's needed to pull off Show Must Go On. Like others have said, his performances are soulless to me. I don't like his thin, almost nasally voice, but I can respect that it's technically good. However, he isn't bringing anything new to the songs, and he certainly doesn't make me feel anything.

Ali, on the other hand, made me cry. Partly because Leonard Cohen will always be my man, and his passing hit me hard, but also because I felt her performance.

Darby is obnoxious, but as long as the judges keep praising her for being unique, she's going to continue with her shtick. I wish we could just hear her natural voice without any affectations or imitation.

Finally, I like Alicia as a person, but her comments are verging on Paula Abdul levels of incomprehension. If everyone is beautiful and special and unique and "an artist", then no one really is. I expected higher quality critique from a trained musician - I always appreciated when Christina pointed out specific problems like a missed note, or lack of breath, or poor technique, etc.

[Kendall]

While I do find Sa'Rayah to be generic and felt that she never sang like herself, but attempted impressions of the artist she was covering, for her to lose to Aaron is just gut wrenching. Not only can he not sing, his "growl" is so affected and overplayed that I believe it's because he knows that he can't sing and is pretending that his voice is just "different" from what we normally hear.

[saber5055]

Not surprised Sa'Rayah lost that vote. Maybe if she had chosen a song with WORDS instead of just screams that go up and down in register, people would have appreciated her talent. But walking all over the stage while screeching at the top of her lungs isn't singing for me. I will give her the win for being gorgeous and having lots of presence on stage. At least Aaron sang a song with words, even if his growly voice irks me. In either case, whichever one didn't go home this week is probably headed for the door next.

[bluepiano]

9 hours ago, Sugar said:

 Finally, I like Alicia as a person, but her comments are verging on Paula Abdul levels of incomprehension. If everyone is beautiful and special and unique and "an artist", then no one really is. I expected higher quality critique from a trained musician - I always appreciated when Christina pointed out specific problems like a missed note, or lack of breath, or poor technique, etc.

I share your disappointment. It feels like Alicia is intentionally avoiding making any comment with substance, and only cares about coming across as a nice person. For all the money the coaches get paid, it seems like that's taking the easy way out. A couple of weeks ago she even went "full Pharrell" and told Sa'rayah that when she sings she knows that "God is in the room." Which for me is the ultimate meaningless comment. (If you're religious, don't you believe that God is in every room, all the time?)

Adding my vote with those who thought that the Dolly Parton group sing was painful to listen to. Only Ali sounded good, to my ears.

I'm also in the "Darby is super annoying" camp. Her singing is like a collection of affected vocal mannerisms from other singers she's heard, and she isn't even consistent within a single performance. It's like, I sang that line one way, now I'll try something else. A real vocal coach would help her find her personal voice. But it's been successful so far, so no reason to change. (Though I suspect that people voted for her because she's young, cute, and smiles a lot. So how she sings is beside the point).

Edited November 17, 2016 by bluepiano

[hincandenza]

9 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Not surprised Sa'Rayah lost that vote. Maybe if she had chosen a song with WORDS instead of just screams that go up and down in register, people would have appreciated her talent. But walking all over the stage while screeching at the top of her lungs isn't singing for me. I will give her the win for being gorgeous and having lots of presence on stage. At least Aaron sang a song with words, even if his growly voice irks me. In either case, whichever one didn't go home this week is probably headed for the door next.

Yeah, it was kind of terrible, as were most of the performances on Monday.  I was religiously watching every episode of this show live from the very first season, but stopped watching about halfway through season 8 with the Sawyer Fredericks win, and hadn't watched again until this season, out of boredom.  Catching up last night to the Monday/Tuesday shows, it really hit me that I remember now how quickly the show can go down hill in the Lives.  The singers mutate into these awful oversinging, belty-AI monsters; everything is ridiculously overpraised even when it's objectively kind of awful; and the song choices/musical choices become laughably inept.  If next week is as collectively bad as this, I'm out again.  In season 1, this was a show about discovering experienced, mature talent- not teenagers- who simply hadn't had that big break but had been actual touring professionals for years.  Now, it feels like it's dominated by AI types who have regular non-musical jobs and are hoping for a break.  And it freakin' shows in these amateurish performances- even without getting into how the soundboard mix is terrible, washing over the singers and muddying up the already weak performances.

 

9 hours ago, bluepiano said:

I'm also in the "Darby is super annoying" camp. Her singing is like a collection of affected vocal mannerisms from other singers she's heard, and she isn't even consistent within a single performance. It's like, I sang that line one way, now I'll try something else. A real vocal coach would help her find her personal voice. But it's been successful so far, so no reason to change. (Though I suspect that people voted for her because she's young, cute, and smiles a lot. So how she sings is beside the point).

To my ear and aesthetics, Darby appears to be musically deaf.  Not tone deaf- but rather, seemingly without any awareness of good musical choices.  That bastardizing of "Ruby Tuesday" was one of the worst things I've ever heard on this show, and I was shocked when she wasn't even in the bottom 2!  You describe her perfectly: she's throwing together learned vocal tricks like a decoupage, but without any real sense or reason or bigger picture, and I suspect her performance of a given song would not be remotely the same if she performed it again.  My god, Ruby Tuesday was so bad; it's a lovely little song, and she not only sang it with zero awareness of the actual melody- such that practically speaking, she was not even singing Ruby Tuesday but rather a song with similar lyrics- but what she sang was not well done to its own self.

How... how did America mess this one up so bad?  Why does this show keep going off the rails now, both in production and in the apparent (lack of) mentoring of these singers?

Edited November 18, 2016 by hincandenza

[JMarie99]

I think Darby was trying to do the Melanie version of "Ruby Tuesday" from way back in the 70's (gosh now I'm really showing my age!). But Melanie was a much better singer and Darby's attempts at imitating her quirkiness totally ruined the song. Surprisingly I thought she had a few lines in the group sing where her voice actually sounded kind of pretty. Unlike that little girl who won AGT, who I don't think has much of a voice at all, I think Darby may actually have a voice in there somewhere if she would keep the affectations to a minimum and just, you know, sing! But that's her "style" so I know that's not going to happen. 

[Kendall]

2 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Not surprised Sa'Rayah lost that vote. Maybe if she had chosen a song with WORDS instead of just screams that go up and down in register, people would have appreciated her talent. But walking all over the stage while screeching at the top of her lungs isn't singing for me. I will give her the win for being gorgeous and having lots of presence on stage. At least Aaron sang a song with words, even if his growly voice irks me. In either case, whichever one didn't go home this week is probably headed for the door next.

She chose to sing "Rock Steady" and that's the actual problem for R&B singers on The Voice: most of the audience isn't familiar with R&B songs that didn't significantly crossover. The song has words and is a great song to sing for the correct audience, which The Voice would never be for a singer like Sa'Rayah.

That's the general problem for R&B singers, the specific problem for Sa'Rayah is that she never trusted her actual talent and thus oversang or killed melodies that didn't deserve death. When she sang Chaka, she tried to sing like Chaka, when she sang Bon Jovi, she got caught up singing a rock song like a rock star that is singing R&B and since she couldn't make sense of how to showcase her talent, the audience couldn't really make sense of how to acknowledge and approve of her talent.

She deserved the boot, even before Aaron in favor of other singers, just not standing next to that dude as he shouldn't even be on the show.

[Noreaster]

13 hours ago, Sugar said:

Finally, I like Alicia as a person, but her comments are verging on Paula Abdul levels of incomprehension. If everyone is beautiful and special and unique and "an artist", then no one really is. I expected higher quality critique from a trained musician - I always appreciated when Christina pointed out specific problems like a missed note, or lack of breath, or poor technique, etc.

 

4 hours ago, bluepiano said:

I share your disappointment. It feels like Alicia is intentionally avoiding making any comment with substance, and only cares about coming across as a nice person. For all the money the coaches get paid, it seems like that's taking the easy way out. A couple of weeks ago she even went "full Pharrell" and told Sa'rayah that when she sings she knows that "God is in the room." Which for me is the ultimate meaningless comment. (If you're religious, don't you believe that God is in every room, all the time?).

Yep, Alicia totally seems like Pharrell to me.  Meaningless commentary.  Actually even worse, I get the feeling that she's not particularly invested in the show.  Pharrell used to at least show more genuine emotion and you could tell when he got really excited or invested.  I don't get that from Alicia.  Just a smile plastered on her face at all times and platitudes.  

On another note, does anyone else think Blake seemed a little off this week?  It felt like he was really struggling with his words and it took him forever to spit out commentary on some of the performances.  

[Wandering Snark]

Alicia and Miley got their chairs due to excellent work as guest mentors... and Alicia simply hasn't 'worked out' or brought what she did as a guest. I think she's "too close" to everyone to make the kind of comments/suggestions that were helpful during her guest slot. She's just lost in a continual state of rose-colored glasses-ness and can't get in there and dissect what's going on like she did with singers she didn't have a connection to.

[hincandenza]

18 minutes ago, Noreaster said:

Yep, Alicia totally seems like Pharrell to me.  Meaningless commentary.  Actually even worse, I get the feeling that she's not particularly invested in the show.  Pharrell used to at least show more genuine emotion and you could tell when he got really excited or invested.  I don't get that from Alicia.  Just a smile plastered on her face at all times and platitudes.  

On another note, does anyone else think Blake seemed a little off this week?  It felt like he was really struggling with his words and it took him forever to spit out commentary on some of the performances.  

I totally agree on Alicia; I thought she would be amazing, and I was impressed at first... but she has become like the rest: Pharrell, Gwen, even Blake and sometimes Adam, with the meandering empty praise.  And yeah, I agree Blake seemed to really be struggling to come up with praise during this week's performances, with uncharacteristic long pauses.  A couple of times I actually thought he might say something genuinely negative... but he pulled up at the last moment. :)

What really surprised me is how much I love Miley: I never had an opinion on her, since I only knew her by name as a child star and thus didn't care about her awkward transition into public adulthood and the ensuing memes (except when her dad apparently flipped about her smoking salvia as an adult, and I was like "But she's an adult!  And it's legal!  What the hell?!?"); if anything, I found the "she's a skank!" commentary to be frankly ugly.  But seeing her on this show, she's got great feedback, good musical instincts, a fantastic attitude, and is clearly very committed to working with her people.  I don't think I've ever seen a mentor at the final rehearsal before, except her- and she seems to always be in those clips when they show them.  I'd rather keep Miley at this point, and ditch Blake or Adam, than the reverse.

[Noreaster]

17 hours ago, Wandering Snark said:

Alicia and Miley got their chairs due to excellent work as guest mentors... and Alicia simply hasn't 'worked out' or brought what she did as a guest. I think she's "too close" to everyone to make the kind of comments/suggestions that were helpful during her guest slot. She's just lost in a continual state of rose-colored glasses-ness and can't get in there and dissect what's going on like she did with singers she didn't have a connection to.

I've skipped over most of the rehearsal footage this season, but in the little that I've seen, Alicia actually does seem to provide useful tips and arrangement ideas in rehearsals.  She's just really boring in the coach's chair during the performances.  

[bluepiano]

22 hours ago, hincandenza said:

 In season 1, this was a show about discovering experienced, mature talent- not teenagers- who simply hadn't had that big break but had been actual touring professionals for years.  Now, it feels like it's dominated by AI types who have regular non-musical jobs and are hoping for a break.  And it freakin' shows in these amateurish performances- even without getting into how the soundboard mix is terrible, washing over the singers and muddying up the already weak performances.

To my ear and aesthetics, Darby appears to be musically deaf.  Not tone deaf- but rather, seemingly without any awareness of good musical choices.  That bastardizing of "Ruby Tuesday" was one of the worst things I've ever heard on this show, and I was shocked when she wasn't even in the bottom 2!  You describe her perfectly: she's throwing together learned vocal tricks like a decoupage, but without any real sense or reason or bigger picture, and I suspect her performance of a given song would not be remotely the same if she performed it again.  My god, Ruby Tuesday was so bad; it's a lovely little song, and she not only sang it with zero awareness of the actual melody- such that practically speaking, she was not even singing Ruby Tuesday but rather a song with similar lyrics- but what she sang was not well done to its own self.

The Voice still does have more professionals than AI, in large part due to the lack of an upper age limit. And it sill does have a higher percentage of genuinely talented singers (not a very high bar). But I agree that over the years it's moved closer to AI, both in terms of the number of young, inexperienced, and unprepared singers who last longer than they should, and the tendency to have overproduced performances in which the band drowns out the singer.

Someone else mentioned that Melanie did a version of "Ruby Tuesday," which I didn't know. But that is who Darby reminds me of, even though Melanie's career was long before Darby was born. But Melanie at least had a consistent tone. Unfortunately, the way Darby sings, seemingly throwing in any vocal trick that pops into her head at the moment, is what gets you called an "artist" on these shows. As if singing the actual melody with a clear voice and good intonation and letting people hear and understand the lyrics was boring. (Ella Fitzgerald would probably not qualify as an "artist.")

This is the unfortunate legacy and influence of AI, and to a somewhat lesser extent of The Voice. There's a huge emphasis on runs and "glory notes," which always get the audience cheering. Even the coaches, who are supposed to know better, practically jump out their seats when a singer does a big screechy run that's totally inappropriate to the song. As for Darby not knowing the melody, we see that all the time. Singing the actual melody, which used to be considered square one, is becoming a lost art.

When Harry Connick Jr. was a mentor on AI, he once reamed a young woman in rehearsal for throwing in runs on a Gershwin ballad. He told her, Gershwin is a genius, every note is there for a reason, learn the melody before you even think about embellishing it. (Sadly, when he became a judge he ended up cheering for that very kind of oversinging).

I still think that The Voice is way better than AI was, and I stick with it because each episode I generally hear at least a couple of performances I like. But yeah, some nights it's rough.

Edited November 18, 2016 by bluepiano

[MaryPatShelby]

Someone above mentioned the coach's "meandering empty praise"; yes, their praise is both, but I have to give them a pass on that. They are required to comment after every singer every night, plus while the Twitter save is running. They're apparently not allowed to provide any criticism, constructive or otherwise, nor suggestions for improvement. There are only so many ways to say "you are the most unicorny of unicorns that's ever unicorned on this show" to a whole bunch of people twice a week; of course it's going to sound meaningless and empty.

[Wandering Snark]

Speaking of Voice vs. AI I keep reading these comments and (unbelievably to my own ears) I long for the days when Randy could say "I don't know, dawg, it wasn't good... it's a rough one for me."

[ladytenor]

Add me to the camp of "will Darby go away already and stop assaulting my ears?" I know Darby is getting a lot of support from fans of Girl Meets World.  She is a cast member (with the character name Darby Walker). Rowan Blanchard, Sabrina Carpenter and other cast members have been relentlessly tweeting to their fans to vote for Darby. She is mainly a background character, but she did have some lines as Yogi's Lab partner in Girl Meets STEM.  She has a running gag where she picks up Yogi..here in Girl Meets Yearbook
Darby in Girl Meets World

[Noreaster]

16 hours ago, MaryPatShelby said:

Someone above mentioned the coach's "meandering empty praise"; yes, their praise is both, but I have to give them a pass on that. They are required to comment after every singer every night, plus while the Twitter save is running. They're apparently not allowed to provide any criticism, constructive or otherwise, nor suggestions for improvement. There are only so many ways to say "you are the most unicorny of unicorns that's ever unicorned on this show" to a whole bunch of people twice a week; of course it's going to sound meaningless and empty.

I think one problem is the contestant quality level has gone down. So if the coaches were to be honest nowadays, they would end up pointing out a ton of flaws and that doesn't look good for the show.  

In the earlier seasons, I think the coach commentary was more interesting because the contestants were actually good. So it was sort of personal preference when it came to feedback.  Occasionally they would point out technical issues (pitchiness, etc), but I find that criticism to be the least constructive.  That's the job of the vocal coaches.  These celebrity mentors should be more focused on what would make the performances more effective.  Things like stylistic choices, song choices, stage presence, etc.  

[blueray]

5 hours ago, ladytenor said:

Add me to the camp of "will Darby go away already and stop assaulting my ears?" I know Darby is getting a lot of support from fans of Girl Meets World.  She is a cast member (with the character name Darby Walker). Rowan Blanchard, Sabrina Carpenter and other cast members have been relentlessly tweeting to their fans to vote for Darby. She is mainly a background character, but she did have some lines as Yogi's Lab partner in Girl Meets STEM.  She has a running gag where she picks up Yogi..here in Girl Meets Yearbook
Darby in Girl Meets World

Really I didn't know that. That explains a lot. I was kind of surprised when she didn't go home. She was the weakest performance in my opinion. But to be fair to her, I also didn't like the song which really doesn't help.

[bluepiano]

6 hours ago, blueray said:

Really I didn't know that. That explains a lot. I was kind of surprised when she didn't go home. She was the weakest performance in my opinion. But to be fair to her, I also didn't like the song which really doesn't help.

I didn't know that either, and interestingly, it was never mentioned on the show, while they talk all the time about Billy's show biz background. Between this and Miley's huge online following, Darby could be around for a while and definitely outlast some better singers.

It's funny, because the first time I saw Darby, with her hat and blonde bangs, I thought, wow, she looks like the kind of girl who gets cast in some Disney type teen sitcom. Maybe that's also why Miley identifies with and is so protective of her.