S14.E15: The Live Playoffs, Night 2

[Prin Holmes]

From TV Guide:

Quote

The remaining five artists from each of Team Blake and Team Alicia perform live before coaches Adam Levine, Alicia Keys, Kelly Clarkson, and Blake Shelton to secure a spot in the top twelve.  Viewers will vote in real time, with the results being revealed in the next show.

Discuss the one-hour second live episode here.

Edited April 18, 2018 by Prin Holmes

[PhD-Purgatory15]

OMG, Gary Edwards w/ one of the most shameless, full on pander-y desperation attempts to stay in the competition ever attempted (hearkens back to good ole Kristy Lee Cook from one of the middle Idol seasons). I hate it and yet weirdly respect the hustle simultaneously.

Edited April 18, 2018 by PhD-Purgatory15

[chloerose2]

I thought Wilkes just killed it! He was so good I downloaded the app to vote, for some reason I can only vote team Alicia.  Bummed, Guessed I missed the window WHICH IS STOOPID!   

Gary Edwards had a really odd song choice for a singing competition.

That's ok I got my girl Jackie F on lock.  she is fantastic on those rock songs!

[Quickbeam]

Still don’t know names....but the “Take Me To Church” singer sounded all over the place. Not in a good way. 

[Quickbeam]

1 hour ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

OMG, Gary Edwards w/ one of the most shameless, full on pander-y desperation attempts to stay in the competition ever attempted (hearkens back to good ole Kristy Lee Cook from one of the middle Idol seasons). I hate it and yet weirdly respect the hustle simultaneously.

OMG, it was just a hair short of Lee Greenwood territory. I had the same peculiar respect for it.

[Prin Holmes]

Thoughts on tonight's performances:

Spensha: I love the pureness of her voice.  Unfortunately, she definitely went off key a couple of times, and that took away from the performance.  Overall, it was still good, though, and that was my favorite Carrie Underwood song, so I was all right with what she did with it.

WILKES: Good choice to not restrict himself to purely country.  Doing the song of Blake's fiancée and putting somewhat of a rock spin on it was a very smart choice.  However, I think the real spike in his votes came because of his fall during the song.  He sounded very good, but I hope he doesn't become too much for a threat in this competition, because we really don't need another Blake win.

Pryor: Oh, my.  This was a mess.  Between the total lack of dynamic variation and singing a classic Dolly song with a voice that totally doesn't fit it, it's no surprise to me that it was an overall terrible performance.  Don't see him getting the public vote after this travesty.  And that was not worthy of a standing ovation from the coaches.

Austin: Austin, Austin, Austin.  Bad move to pull a Lowell Oakley and switch out of your crooner lane and into a pop one.  And even then, not even a good pop song.  Maybe putting it in a crooner setting might have helped.  Even though your voice sounded very smooth, it was just so inferior to the three before you.  I don't think he's getting the vote.

Gary: Definitely a pandering effort.  All we needed was to cry a bit and wave the American flag, and he would have been set.  However, the "correct" pandering to use is Christian pandering, not patriotic pandering.  His voice was very solid throughout the song, but overall, it didn't do much for me.

Terrence: I appreciated the spin he put on the song, but he probably should have put a better spin on it than that.  Nevertheless, I loved his slow, quiet start that built up to a louder, faster presentation that actually resembled the original a little bit more.  I don't know.  I guess Terrence isn't really for everyone, but I liked it a lot.  He might not get the public vote, but he's a good candidate for Alicia's save.

Christiana: Hozier was not a good choice for her to take on.  It sounded like her singing was slurred almost the entire way through, and she was woefully off-key quite a bit.  She started to enunciate a bit more toward the end, I guess, but on the whole, I was greatly unimpressed.  It's a pity, too, because I usually love her performances.

Jackie F.: She had the misfortune of getting drowned out by the band early on, but once she picked up the pace and hit the chorus, she just killed it.  She demonstrated who usual power, control, and dynamics and just brought the house down.  Probably the best performance on the team tonight.  And given how much her votes spiked after a performance, it would be a tragedy if she doesn't get the vote tomorrow.  Or at least Alicia's save.

Kelsea: All that hard work to pull out a great performance last night, only to blow it away with a mediocre performance tonight.  What was that?  It wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't good, either.  Another one who went off pitch.  Even worth, she had a fight with the band a number of times and only barely managed to win out.  Not getting the public vote, I wager.

Johnny: Good idea to not sing in Spanish tonight.  If nothing else, it shows the voters that he can do more than that.  Doing an Adele song was a good idea, and he sounded very good.  Just a beautiful, clear, unforced tone.  Good way to end the night.  Well done, Mr. Bliss.

Tomorrow, I have no doubt that WILKES we'll get through on the vote, leaving Blake to save either Spensha or Pryor.  Austin and Gary are definitely goners.  And Jackie F. is crushing the Twitter vote right now, so I pretty much expect her to get through on those roads, leaving Alicia to save either Terrence or Christiana.  Kelsea and Johnny are definitely dead in the water.

Decent episode.

Edited April 18, 2018 by Prin Holmes

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Team Blake

Spensha: Valiant effort, but man Carrie Underwood is in another galaxy vocally. You almost can't not (yay double negative!) compare somewhat unfavorably.

Austin: Yes he absolutely needed to try and Bubleify a more contemporary song, unfortunately you could just tell this song didn't really lend itself to that. And I think he knew it and sounded tentative and muted because of that.

Gary: Hahahaha. You went down swinging with the patriotism (I'm assuming).

Pryor: Interesting, unexpected song choice. But man he really doesn't have very many gears for someone who has gigged as much as he has. His sets would feel like one giant, 30 minute song to me.

WILKES: That was awesome, and a cheeky song choice too.

My guess is that WILKES is voted through, and then Blake saves Spensha. Pryor is not out of it my any stretch....but I feel like now he's the one who needs the fan vote as Blake would likely choose Spensha or WILKES for his save ahead of Pryor.

Team Alicia:

I missed Terrance and was only half listening to Johnny Bliss so my thoughts on Team Alicia aren't near as fleshed out.

Christiana was not good on Take Me to Church. Kelsea is still intriguing vocally and seems more and more confident on stage performing. Jackie F. gave another pretty strong performance of an iconic female rock song.

My assumption is that Christiana and Johnny will not advance through the fan vote or Alicia's save. Jackie F. must get the fan vote, there's no way she's getting Alicia's save. I think there is a slim possibility this could happen, but I'm not going to go out on that limb. So I will say that Terrence and Kelsea will advance. If he needs it, Terrence is absolutely getting Alicia's save....I would put a small sum of money on that prediction. If Terrence is voted in by the fans instead, then I think Alicia's instinct will be to take Kelsea with her to the Top 12.

Edited April 18, 2018 by PhD-Purgatory15

[Sugar]

4 hours ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

OMG, Gary Edwards w/ one of the most shameless, full on pander-y desperation attempts to stay in the competition ever attempted (hearkens back to good ole Kristy Lee Cook from one of the middle Idol seasons). I hate it and yet weirdly respect the hustle simultaneously.

I burst out laughing when I heard his song choice and my boyfriend couldn't understand (bless his soul, he's too good for reality tv and never watched Idol) why I kept sputtering "Kristy Lee Cook!" in between tears. I'm so very relieved that there are others like me who remember the important historic and cultural moments of our time.  

This is why I think Blake is actually very savvy and aware - it's usually his artists who pull out the Jesus/Patriot pandering, and it's usually successful. I think that Miley took a page outta his book with Amazing Grace last year for Brooke (and it worked).

[Magic]

I didn't see anything new from the Voice charting on iTunes.  I don't know if it is just me or tptb are blocking that info or no one charted??

[Prin Holmes]

16 minutes ago, Magic said:

I didn't see anything new from the Voice charting on iTunes.  I don't know if it is just me or tptb are blocking that info or no one charted??

The artists only recorded studios for last night's performances.  They did not record any for tonight's or tomorrow's performances.

1 hour ago, Sugar said:

This is why I think Blake is actually very savvy and aware - it's usually his artists who pull out the Jesus/Patriot pandering, and it's usually successful. I think that Miley took a page outta his book with Amazing Grace last year for Brooke (and it worked).

Wrong.  It wasn't savvy at all.  Gary pulled in the smallest amount of votes for Blake's team tonight.  So it didn't work.  It won't work for him every time.

[Padma]

I thought Gary went too far, even for Blake, and that was why he made it clear that the singers chose their own songs for this round. Easy for him if Austin and Gary don't advance. I think his team will be Spensha and Wilkes. I'm sure he'd like to give Pryor a boost, but he just doesn't bring enough vocal variety to his song interpretations. Good sound for what he does, but kind of a one trick pony.  The other two will seem more unique to Blake, I believe.

I think Alicia will save Terrence although he wouldn't be my choice. Not sure who'll wind up of Christiana or Kelsea--both are good. Personally,  I'd keep Johnny because I enjoy the Spanish songs for a change (not everyone is there to be F1). Jackie's a strong singer, too, but doesn't stand out enough, imo.

Good show overall, but these mass eliminations are tough.

[Prin Holmes]

27 minutes ago, Padma said:

Personally,  I'd keep Johnny because I enjoy the Spanish songs for a change (not everyone is there to be F1). Jackie's a strong singer, too, but doesn't stand out enough, imo.

I suppose you didn't look at Twitter. Jackie dominated the Twitter retweets, and it wasn't even close.  She's going through for sure tomorrow.  Johnny, on the other hand, lagged way behind the rest of the team.  Only way he gets through is if Alicia chooses him.

[Kaiju Ballet]

Dang, I thought it was me--there were so many off-key performances tonight. Christiana disappointed two nights in a row. I agree with @Prin Holmes, that was an awful song choice. Maybe part of it was that she was interpreting the song title literally and not really connecting with the lyrics. She definitely wasn't connecting with me.

Unlike WILKES. Even before his mike mishap, I thought he had it in the bag. That song choice was inspired, and the emotion he brought to it was convincing and moving. He deserved all four coaches standing. If they had voting available on NBC.Com I totally would have voted for him.

Pryor also received a four coach stand. There's no nuance though, and it totally sucked for him following WILKES.

Gary -- lol, I'm so grateful I recognize the song that it took a while for the "the Hell?" to kick in. I also realize that I prefer his backstory to his actual performances.

I keep rooting for Terrance, even though an almost total falsetto performance really isn't my cuppa.

On a completely shallow note, I see that Alicia's wearing makeup again. She's beautiful without it, and beyond gorgeous with it.

[JeanneH]

I call BS on WILKES and the mic stand collapse. The way he was messing with the mic and stand you just knew the second he let go of them the stand would collapse, and it did. And he reacted too quickly IMO. Convenient excuse to be on your knees to finish the song, but why not just reach down and grab the mic since the stand was totally upright with the mic on top. Yes, stands do collapse but IMO that was a calculated play for some pity votes.

[peachmangosteen]

1 hour ago, JeanneH said:

Yes, stands do collapse but IMO that was a calculated play for some pity votes.

If so then damn I gotta respect that!

Just like I kinda madly respect Gary for doing America the Beautiful. 

Do what ya gotta do, man!

Especially with this horrible format they're using this season.

Edited April 18, 2018 by peachmangosteen

[Palomar]

Along with this new misguided format, having the artists picking their own songs (without the coaches input) did not work well last night.  VERY boring choices for the most part. 

[vb68]

15 hours ago, Prin Holmes said:

Pryor: Oh, my.  This was a mess.  Between the total lack of dynamic variation and singing a classic Dolly song with a voice that totally doesn't fit it, it's no surprise to me that it was an overall terrible performance.  Don't see him getting the public vote after this travesty.  And that was not worthy of a standing ovation from the coaches.

Plus he was flubbing the words left and right. It was obvious he didn't really know the song that well. I thought it was atrocious, and so bad someone should have said something. Heh. Where's Simon when you need him?

 

14 hours ago, Sugar said:

I burst out laughing when I heard his song choice and my boyfriend couldn't understand (bless his soul, he's too good for reality tv and never watched Idol) why I kept sputtering "Kristy Lee Cook!" in between tears.

That's exactly who I thought of as well, and the phrase "star spangled pander" that we used for her at the time, too.

[AlleC17]

I usually like Alicia quite a bit, but got very, very tired of 'what America has to understand about  singer x is that it is SO HARD to do what they just did' blah blah blah about every one of her artists.  *sigh*  No, the voters just vote for who they like Alicia...or at least some of the country.  Hawaii does not get to vote unless we retweet unheard, which probably some fanatical people do, but not me.  Really, the only performance that truly engaged me was WILKES.  Not to say that the others are not talented, but the song choices did not resonate with me.

[peachmangosteen]

1 hour ago, AlleC17 said:

Hawaii does not get to vote unless we retweet unheard, which probably some fanatical people do, but not me. 

Why can't Hawaii vote?

[Prin Holmes]

37 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

Why can't Hawaii vote?

HI is exactly five time zones behind EST.  They would have to watch their Twitter feeds at three in the afternoon and keep on retweeting till four, despite not having seen a single performance by that time.  Something not too difficult to do if you're not busy, but if you are, it could be very difficult.

[limecoke]

I sort of got that Gary was doing his own thing with the Ray Charles version of ATB.  If it was pandering, at least he did it well.   

Did Kelly lose some weight between the taped shows and the lives?  She looks great.  

[MaryPatShelby]

On 4/19/2018 at 5:36 PM, limecoke said:

I sort of got that Gary was doing his own thing with the Ray Charles version of ATB.  If it was pandering, at least he did it well.   

Did Kelly lose some weight between the taped shows and the lives?  She looks great.  

I thought the same thing about Kelly.