NBC’s ‘The Voice’ review: James Dupre, Ellie Lawrence, Emily Ann Roberts take on blind auditions
The second part of the two-night premiere of “The Voice” aired Monday night, and the opportunity for the show was simple: Try to find a way to secure either some great talent, or produce at least some great entertainment. We’d be kidding ourselves here if we said that this show is a search for a music superstar at this point, since for the most part the track record is not the best.
Hey, at least you got to see some corny winners’ lodge with Blake Shelton and Adam Levine welcoming in Pharrell! Yes, it was extremely corny, but we do look forward to almost anything that we can to break up some of the monotony.
Just like last night, we’re going to review the show as it goes on. Refresh soon for more!
Blind Joe – What we liked first and foremost about this package is that while the show did mention his blindness often, he does it with a sort of lightness and humor that is different than some of the typical sob stories. This was a guy who has a pretty good voice (we’re not sure that he was worth four chairs), and with the right training he could get that natural storytelling quality that any country singer needs. We think that it was probably impossible for another coach to snag him, but we don’t think Adam campaigning by saying that Blake could get rid of him was probably not the right way to go about it.
Ivonne Acero – She’s back! The cantaloupe farmer returned from last season, and our favorite part of this performance, other than the beginning, was hearing her call out Blake for not turning this time after he said he would after her last audition. She did get Pharrell and Gwen Stefani, and our initial thinking was just that she would pick the person who wasn’t there to shun her last time. Yet, she surprised us by choosing Pharrell, who she credited for giving her the confidence to want to return.
Gage Navarro – Does anyone else feel sometimes that the people who don’t get a chair turn have a shorter vocal performance than those who do? His edit before the performance was a little heavy, which is not always something that we love even if we do give him props for overcoming hardship; as for the performance, it’s about picking the right song. This just wasn’t it for him. You always want to pick things that can show off more of what you can do vocally.
Regina Love – Regina’s great. She’s got that great voice, but more than that she just seems like the sort of person you just want to be around since she’s got all of that passion and spirit for life. This was a pitch that we feel like Adam did a really good job at making to her, and it is a reminder that when it comes to people he really wants and feels he can get (at least other than country artists), the Maroon 5 frontman is still really good at this.
Zach Seabaugh – Adam called him Superman, which is appropriate given that he kind of looks a little bit like Clark Kent. He like his voice (deep, soulful), but this audition as a whole should be fined under “unique ways that The Voice manages to waste our time.” This week, it came via the show trying to convince us for whatever reason that there was a slight chance that he would choose Pharrell when it was obvious that it wasn’t going to happen. We will give so many props to a country singer who doesn’t choose Blake.
Evan McKeel – Evan’s got a cool story, but to go along with that, he’s got a very interesting voice that could do a lot of different things. He’s also one of the few people we’ve seen who actually got to do a variety of different things in his audition thanks to getting to do that Stevie Wonder song. He chose Pharrell, which seems about right to us given that he is the person who got Evan to sing it in the first place.
Bryan Bautista – There are certain songs that people just shouldn’t tackle, and one of them is “Loved Out of Heaven.” You have to avoid doing straight-up arrangements of songs that come across as mere karaoke. that’s what this was, and it’s a shame since we come tell from his National Anthem performance that Bryan can really sing.
Emily Ann Roberts – Here’s another round of “unique ways” for you. The thing is that we actually feel like Emily made a mistake here. We typically wouldn’t say that with a country singer, but Adam really made some intelligent points and was far more passionate in his pitch. We also think that he would have brought her far into the season, just to stick it to Blake even more that he had her on his side.
Ellie Lawrence – We’re not sure we would’ve called Ellie a slam-dunk for Gwen in the way that country artists are for Blake, but this one was obvious. Her voice was stunning, and probably one of our favorites that we’ve had in the past two episodes. What we are left to wonder right now is this: Should the show do something to change up the increasing trend of people coming aboard who seemed to have made up their mind on their coach long before turning up?
Natalie Yacovazzi – We’re a little surprised that she didn’t get a turn here. She had a huge voice, and hit a lot of big notes in it. She was a little out of tune throughout, that may have been what caused her. We’ve talked a lot about song choice in this article, but we do actually think that she chose the right song.
James Dupre – It finally happened, planet Earth! We weren’t sure that we would ever seen the day when the show was not wasting our time with a country singer and false drama over who they would pick. James went with Adam! We feel like it was a smart choice from a strategic point of view (which is what we were trying to say earlier), and we also like it mostly because we feel like he’s got a voice to do more than just country. He’s not our favorite of the season so far, but we’d like to see him last a while.
If you want to see our review of “The Voice” from Monday night, head over to this link! Also, sign up over here to get some other news on everything we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)