NBC’s ‘The Voice’ rankings: Sawyer Fredericks, Koryn Hawthorne, Mia Z compete on stacked Team Pharrell

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Monday night’s new episode of “The Voice” brings to us the official start of the live rounds, and there have been times in the past that we have come into this portion of the show carrying a slight sort of ambiguity about who has the best time.

This is not happening this season. We were not so big on Pharrell Williams’ team this past season, but for spring 2015, he has one of the best groupings of people assembled on any season of the show. It’s a shame that we cannot just transfer some of them over to other teams and get rid of more people here. This is the fun of starting off our contestant rankings this season with his team; there are no duds here, and while we do think one person is a lock to advance, the fare of everyone else may depend on what they do come Monday night. That’s what you want from this show more than anything else: Competition. Consistent favorites are boring.

For these rankings, we’re basing them on performance quality, edit, past voting history, and even to a certain sense coach loyalty and chemistry.

5. Caitlin Caporale – This is what we mean by this whole team being awesome. Caitlin is so good! What she runs into here as a problem is mostly just that we have heard many voices relatively similar to hers, and there are so many people who have her beat in terms of creativity.

4. Lowell Oakley – Killer voice and swagger. Our concern is that he was almost too calculated during “My Girl,” and felt a little like he was trying too hard to project a character to go along with his voice. Our advice to him? Cut out the ad-libs, and let the lyrics do the talking for you.

3. Mia Z – She at times has been slightly under the radar, but there’s a serious talent here with potential to do some cool, creative things. As with most of the rest of the team, the problem here is standing out when everyone is so good.

2. Koryn Hawthorne – We’re a little concerned about her fan following given her relative screen time, but her last performance of “Try” was just AWESOME. It wasn’t just her voice, but the commitment that she showed to the song with her whole body. You bought it, and it’s hard to get lost in that world under the bright lights and the obnoxious set.

1. Sawyer Fredericks – A gorgeous, unique voice and impressive range anchor Sawyer. He sounds like he transported from a festival into the 1960s. We’re really impressed with his interpretation on songs like “Collide,” and given that he is still so young, imagine what he could do in a few years.

Over the next few days, we are going have rankings of the remaining singers this season at the link here. Check them out! Also, sign up to get some other TV news worth singing about via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)

 

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