NBC’s ‘The Voice’ review: Elyjuh Rene, Ricky Manning, Mia Pfirrman, and a Troy Ritchie travesty

We’re not going to lie: We’re pretty angry over tonight’s “The Voice,” mostly because of what the coaches chose to do with their beloved saves.

We’ll be getting to that very soon, mostly because we’re talking about a sensational first battle that we want to scream about at the top of our lungs, as soon as humanly possible. Take a look below for what happened.

Troy Ritchie vs. Taylor John Williams (Gwen Stefani)

Troy, “Hey Ya” – A total blast. One of our favorite performances of the entire season, maybe ever. We loved the energy, the vocal, and the stage presence. Every part of this was so much fun, and deserves to be commended.

Taylor, “Mad World” – Not Adam Lambert great, but great. He hit the notes, brought some meaning to the song, and seemed to be lost in the moment.

The winner – Taylor? Yes, Taylor. We’re not that upset about that, at least in comparison to our disdain over nobody stealing Troy. This was the most egregious “Voice” snub at this point in the competition ever.

Alessandro Castronova vs. Mia Pfirrman (Adam Levine)

Alessandro, “Next to Me” – We don’t care for the song, and we didn’t care for this performance much, either. It just didn’t bring a whole lot creatively to the table, and dare we say that we were hoping for more.

Mia, “Human” – We don’t really love this song choice either, but there was no doubt to us that this was the better performance of the two.

The winner – Mia. Not really a whole lot of debate here.

Elyjuh Rene vs. Ricky Manning (Pharrell)

Elyjuh, “With You” – Probably the most talented of the two, but he’s still raw. It’s like he knows how to do great runs, but now how to do everything else to make a great performance … at least not yet.

Ricky, “Wrecking Ball” – Another solid performance. For now, Ricky is the more complete performer. The thing that we are the most bummed-out about here is that this song is starting to lose its appeal after being done so many times on TV.

The winner – Elyjuh, with Ricky going to Gwen’s team. We knew a steal was coming all night thanks to some more weak editing.

Who was your favorite tonight? Share with a comment, and head over here to get some further news worth singing about right now via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo via NBC.)