NBC’s ‘The Voice’ review: De’Borah, Amanda Brown kick off Battle Rounds

We’ve made it to the Battle Rounds on “The Voice,” which is something that we have had another name for over the course of the past few years: the round that we hate. It’s far too long, far too stuffed with filler, and it really just feels like something that is there because producers don’t know what else to do.

Thankfully, we did find something new worth celebrating this season: the steal. We’ll have more on that soon … but first, check out some of our performance highlights. If you want to see who we think are the top contenders from each team, all you have to do is click on the coaches’ name below.

Casey Muessigmann vs. Terry McDermott (Blake Shelton) – Did anyone else roll their eyes when Carson Daly introduced Case as “former overweight wrestler”? This was a strange combination, but we actually liked the idea of having Casey take on Terry with a song in “Carry On My Wayward Son” that appealed to both of them. It was clear to us from the get-go here that Terry was both the better singer and the better artist, so to see him win here was not even remotely surprising. As for the lack of a steal, we just don’t really think that Casey knows himself well enough yet.

Collin McLoughlin vs. Bryan Keith (Adam Levine) – We are instantly loving this steal twist, mostly because it now suddenly makes these usually-boring battle rounds a little more interesting to watch. Now, the other coaches have a reason to actually be there … and it all but guarantees that a good artist will not be forgotten. This was a great example of this, as Blake ended up picking up Collin when Adam did not want him.

Diega Val vs. J.R. Aquino (Cee Lo Green) – We don’t know if there has been a battle that has been as geographically diverse as what we saw from the Peruvian singer and the YouTube star from Alaska. It was really just a fun battle to watch here, since “Jessie’s Girl” is a fun song that everyone knows. So why did Diego get the edge? Really, we’re just chalking it up to having something interesting that Cee Lo can work with.

De’Borah vs. Nelly’s Echo (Christina Aguilera) – During this battle, we had what may be one of our top five performances ever on “The Voice.” While Nelly’s was out there trying really hard (probably too hard) to have himself be heard, we saw De’Borah absolutely kill it with her take on “Message in a Bottle.” We were interested in every move she made on stage, and how her confidence and momentum built throughout the song until it ended with an explosion of crazy, awesome notes.

2Steel Girls vs. Gracia Harrison (Blake) – We love how Blake managed to single-handedly get the biggest country hoedown ever going with this take on “Sin Wagon.” 2Steel Girls was never our favorite group, but they did at least bring it vocally. However, what really helped her was that she did more on the stage while the duo more or less stayed stationary.

Trevin Hunte vs. Amanda Brown (Cee Lo) – First things first, in what universe did Cee Lo think that it was going to be a great move to put Trevin and Amanda on the same team together? Really, all he did as a result of that was give the other coaches license to steal someone. this not only was the best performance of the night, but it may be the best performance ever, as they were both on just about the same level as De’Borah. We knew that Trevin was a beast, but we also learned here that Amanda was really holding back in her blind audition. She is now a major force to be reckoned with, and even though Cee Lo didn’t choose her, she picked Adam Levine after all of the other coaches wanted to steal her.

Who was your favorite performer from the Battle Rounds?