NBC’s ‘The Voice’ review: Darby Walker, We McDonald kick off preview show
The first episode of “The Voice” season 11 was not even entirely an episode. Instead, we’d consider it a little bit of an appetizer. The show only has thirty minutes in which to work with, and as a result of that, it has to make do with whatever it can.
One thing that it certainly did that surprised us was that it wasted almost NO TIME AT ALL getting to the first performer of the season. There was no introduction, no opening number, or anything. Instead, we ended up meeting the first contestant of the season right away. Suffice it to say, she was extremely good. (For the record, we’re apparently going to get the opening number with the coaches at the end of the show — it’s a twist!)
We McDonald, “Feeling Good” – This performance was sensational, and what is really interesting about her is that she sounds almost entirely different when she is singing as opposed to when she is speaking. This entire performance rocked, but the coaches’ critique was at first a little the sugary-sweet in between all of the typical shtick and also Miley Cyrus basically describing the point of the show to us. Eventually, though, there were some good points made … but the moment that Alicia Keys used the whole “bring out the family” strategy, this felt a little bit like a slam-dunk for her.
The one tough thing about airing in the Olympics show, other than that you’re so separated from the rest of the season, is that we didn’t really get much of an intro package at all here. Team Alicia.
Darby Walker, “Stand By Me” – We’re starting to think of this episode as the “meet the new coaches” special, since the first audition was a lot about Alicia, and the second one was very much about both the “No One” singer and Miley given that they both sang with her. Darby’s got a very soulful, quirky voice with a lot of different sounds in it. She’s the sort of artist who could easily do country (here’s looking at you, Blake!), but also could do folk-rock or modern soul without a problem. Range is a powerful thing to have, and she could last for a while this season.
Given that this episode was about the newbies to the show, it only makes sense that she is now Team Miley.
Group Performance, “Dream On” – Hey, kudos to Adam for a the high note — but we never really critique these. There’s just not much to say.
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