NBC’s ‘The Voice’ preview: Luke Wade, Taylor Phelan take part in Knockout Rounds

Monday night’s “The Voice” brings the Knockout Rounds to the table, and this could be interesting. It’s one of the few opportunities you get after the Blind Auditions where you really get to see what sort of artists these contestants envision themselves doing in the real world.

In the video below, we have a preview for the Team Pharrell battle between Luke Wade and Taylor Phelan, who have both shined at various times this season.

Luke Wade, “Rich Girl” – A very nice old-school song choice. Luke improvised enough in the song enough to keep things from getting karaoke. Pharrell has some of that appreciation for this sort of music, and this could lead to him potentially getting some love from his coach here.

Taylor Phelan, “Rather Be” – A completely different approach. We’d never heard this song, and we figure many other viewers have not, either. It was pleasant, but we wouldn’t say that it was anywhere near when Luke Vosbury performed a great song in Passenger’s “Let Her Go” at around this point. At the time, that song was also relatively unknown to American audiences.

Here’s where we are torn. We feel like Luke was the better overall singer, but Taylor showed more creativity and himself. To us, even though we didn’t love the song choice, we’d be more intrigued every week by what he is going to do. If this show really was just about the voice, we’d be left with more boring winners every season. Taylor is our pick.

Who do you think should win this particular knockout battle? Let us know with a comment below, and you can also sign up to get some further TV updates worth a song or two via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Also, click here to see some other “Voice” previews, including one featuring none other than guest mentor Taylor Swift. (Photo via NBC.)

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