NBC’s ‘The Voice’ finale review: Jordan Smith, Jeffery Austin, Barrett Baber, Emily Ann Roberts compete
The final four contestants on “The Voice” are hitting the stage tonight with one primary goal: Trying to determine who is the right person to take home the title this season. Is anyone going to have a real shot at overtaking longtime favorite Jordan Smith? This is something that we’re going to have to figure out over the course of the two hours.
As always with these sort of reviews, we’re going to be bringing you some more updates and scoop as to what is coming up as the show goes on!
Jordan Smith, “Climb Every Mountain” – Jordan’s not used to starting this show, and this was far from his best performance. There was some weak notes in his high register tonight, even if he did have some of the same vocal power (plus the choir) that we’ve come to expect from him. He’s going to have plenty of opportunities to show more of his strength as the night goes on.
Emily Ann Roberts, “Blue Christmas” – We were really excited about this going in, but unfortunately Emily failed to mostly capture what we would say is the spirit of the song for the most part. The tone was off, and she never quite brought herself to the place where she brought Elvis’ notes to life.
Barrett Baber and Blake Shelton, “Rhinestone Cowboy” – this was a nice tribute to Glen Campbell, but other than being solid, there wasn’t anything in here that was particularly memorable. As we thought going in, this is a hard song to add any sort of “spin” to.
Jeffery Austin, “O Holy Night” – Maybe we shouldn’t have forced everyone to do three songs, or we should have left Christmas carols? We’re not sure, but these first wave of performances have not been great. Jeffery felt flat for much of this, and nobody as of yet has performed like they are out to win.
Jordan Smith and Adam Levine, “God Only Knows” – Good harmonies at the beginning, but messy towards the end and there were very few solos throughout. More than anything, there was something just off with the arrangement of this from start to finish.
Barrett Baber, “Die a Happy Man” – Sure, it’s hard to really compare this to anything else on the night, since everything to date has been disappointing. Even if there were more standout vocals, though, we still think this would be among the best. Great performance here by Barrett of a song that was just creative enough, and feels perfectly in his vein.
Emily Ann Roberts and Blake Shelton, “Islands in the Stream” – Not a bad performance, but for whatever reason it contains the trend of creepy Blake Shelton duets that we’ve had off and on for a few different seasons on the show. That was a little jarring. To elaborate, we’re speaking here in terms of the lyrics of the song! Great vocals, but not our taste.
Jeffery Austin, “Stay” – Now we’re heating up! Despite the creepy factor of Emily’s the last three performances have all been much better, and this was no exception. Heartfelt and beautiful, this was the Jeffery who has moved us the majority of this season.
Barrett Baber, “Silent Night” – We once again give Barrett the same stamp of approval we did for his “Ghost” cover. Even though we did not love the vocal, we appreciate the fact that he is a country singer who is at least trying to do things a little bit different. This was not the same carbon-copy carol we’ve heard so many times.
Jeffery Austin and Gwen Stefani, “Leather and Lace” – Jeffery probably wishes that “Stay” was his final song of the night. He and Gwen may have a good working relationship, but there wasn’t really any chemistry on stage for the two of them, or in terms of some of their vocal harmonies.
Jordan Smith, “Mary Did You Know” – A very pretty rendition of the holiday hit, and easily Jordan’s best of the night. Yet, at the same time, does anyone else feel that he may have had the weakest overall night? He may have to rely on his fans to carry the day, since he’s at least vulnerable.
Emily Ann Roberts, “Burning House” – Really good performance at about the best time possible. Just by virtue of singing two out of her three performances really well, she may actually have delivered the best night overall. Blake even acknowledged more or less that Jordan is pegged to win at the end of this, but an upset is at least possible in theory.
Who did you like the most tonight on “The Voice”? Vote below, and click here to see where we ranked everyone going in! Also, head over here to get some other TV news on everything we cover, sent right to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)
a.r.m.
December 16, 2015 @ 12:46 am
Perhaps, Jordan doesn’t want to win. I read that the winner’s recording contract with Republic is pretty lame and that Republic (the label who represents the winners of The Voice) does not advance the careers of the artists who win nor does it know how to. Adam is well aware of the problems (Pharrell alluded to it in his comments to Jordan) and it’s possible that he’s hoping for an upset which would allow Jordan to sign on with a different label. Could this be why Jordan didn’t pick a winning song last night and instead let Emily soar? Sounds plausible.
a.r.m.
December 15, 2015 @ 2:31 pm
If he wanted to do something different, why didn’t Jordan take on Streisand or even Lennon’s “Imagine” which would have been a lot less corny and paplum and could have generated a great deal of excitement as well as further demonstrated his remarkable range and talent. On YouTube, “Climb Every Mountain” isn’t getting nearly as many views as his past performances, which speaks to the lack of interest in his taking on this saccharine-y show tune. I had hoped that Jordan would have hit it out of the ball park (like last week); instead, with this song, he hit a double. It clearly didn’t resonate with people as much as his previous covers (compare the less than 100,000 views the next morning for “Climb” with the nearly 1,000,000 views the following morning for “Somebody.”) While he may be getting a lot of purchases of it on iTunes, that’s probably because his large fan base (of which I am one) wants to coronate Jordan as the winner. It’s not a coincidence that his hauntingly beautiful Christmas piece (“Mary, Did You Know”) is higher on the iTunes chart than “Climb.” I REALLY want Jordan Smith to win but his performance of “Climb Every Mountain” last night left me short and watching it on YouTube again confirmed that this was a “meh” performance at best. I’m scratching my head as to why Jordan picked that tune, sweet as it may be.
PS – what the hell was the saucer he standing on/in??? In my opinion, it simply added to the lameness of the piece. Also, to me, the piano orchestration was overwrought and competed with his voice.
fubsy
December 15, 2015 @ 4:14 am
I disagree with much of this review. I thought Jordan Smith knocked it out of the park tonight with ‘Climb Every Mountain’ and ‘Mary, Did You Know’, and his ‘God Only Knows’ duet with Adam was notable for its genuine sweetness. I thought Blake’s and Barrett’s version of ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ was a train wreck, and did little to honor the original. Blake did not do a great job of coaching him throughout the run of the show, which is unfortunate because he showed incredible promise at the beginning of the competition. Jeffery and Gwen exceeded my expectations on ‘Leather and Lace’, especially Gwen, although I agree it wasn’t Jeffrey’s best night. I thought Emily Ann was excellent tonight, but to me, Jordan was better.
a.r.m.
December 15, 2015 @ 3:30 am
Weak night for Jordan. He should have stuck with covers of popular artists rather than trying to make a statement about his journey with the Julie Andrews standard. The last time he did this (Who You Are), he wasn’t stellar either. He went from the most amazing performances the last few weeks to a lackluster one tonight (although his last song, Mary, Did You Know was elegant and moving). Still, i hope that he wins.
a.r.m.
December 15, 2015 @ 2:32 am
I think you are spot on. The duet between Adam and Jordan was so incredibly disappointing. I’m surprised that Adam didn’t allow Jordan to shine with some solos and lovely harmonies in that piece. The performance (and the song chosen) was remarkably simplistic and repetitive. Who cares that this is one of Adam Levine’s favorite songs? It did nothing to showcase Jordan’s phenomenal talent. And, after all, isn’t that supposed to be the purpose of the coach on The Voice?