NBC’s ‘The Voice’ review: Meet James Irwin (again), Will Champlin, and Ashley DuBose

“The Voice” is now in its seventh and eighth hours of its blind auditions, which to us is something that we like to consider as when anticipation for something else starts to bubble over a little bit. Most of the funny quips are gone, and we are left with a group of singers that are entertaining, but not necessarily the grade-A superstars that you would want to root for in the end. Heck, even some of the singers who got through tonight were not all that interesting.

Will Champlin – In tonight’s edition of “relatives of famous people auditioning” (following up Briana Cuoco last time), we have a contestant here in Will who is the son of Bill Champlin of Chicago fame. He is already a working musician, but there’s nothing wrong with a guy like this coming on the show to get himself more of a career. Plus, he’s pretty awesome / quirky. He also has a coach who should be good for him. Pick – Adam Levine.

Stephanie Anne Johnson – This was probably the most surprising coach selection of the night in some ways. She knows former contestant Vicci Martinez from school, and she went pretty far with Cee Lo as a coach. Cee Lo turned around, and the two had the same sort of quirky vibe. But, for whatever reason she still surprised. Pick – Christina Aguilera.

Sam Cerniglia – This guy is probably not going to last long. He’s a bit of a jazz crooner with a slight Michael Buble vibe, but he is really pretty generic. There is not going to be much of anything that we remember about this in a week or two; heck, we’re starting to forget about it as we write this. Pick – Blake Shelton.

James Irwin – Is it funny that the two coaches who turned around first were the two who weren’t on the show last year to reject him? This is one of those cases of a guy letting off the gas once he realizes that he has been chosen for a team. To a certain level, it’s probably hard not to given that you’ve poured so much into this by the time you get on stage. Remember our theory from earlier that Adam tends to win four-person battles for whatever reason? Pick – Adam Levine.

Olivia Henken – We get Olivia’s claim that many country folks don’t really take notice of Olivia because there are already some blonde country singers out there. We understand that this can be frustrating, but can’t you always change your hair color? We don’t even know if she is a natural blonde! She is a pretty good singer; a little strained on the high notes, but what was interesting is that her choices were between Cee Lo and Christina … no Blake involved. Pick – Christina Aguilera.

R. Anthony – We don’t know if we would use this stage name anymore, mostly because it makes us think that he could be doing a sequel to “I Believe I Can Fly.” The vocal quality is there, and he’s got a little bit of range. But do we think that he is really going to win this? Probably not, even if his smile reminds us of President Obama. Pick – Cee Lo Green.

Justin Chain – This can be best identified as none of the other coaches deciding to even bother. They all knew he was going to pick Blake, so the moment that he turned around first, they just all decided to let that one slide for a while. One thing that we will say? Blake hasn’t had a ton of luck with country guys on this show. Women, however, are a different story. Pick – Blake Shelton.

Ashley DuBose – Finally, we turn to a woman in Ashley who we teased leading up to this episode even airing. This is a woman who seems to have it all together: The ability, the intelligence, and also the humility to go very far. But remember what we said about Adam winning these four-person competitions? Yeah… Pick – Adam Levine.

Who was your favorite tonight among the advancing acts? Share below! Also, click here if you want to see the highlights from last night’s blind auditions.

Photo: NBC