NBC’s ‘The Voice’ review: Owen Danoff, Hannah Huston, Brian Nhira try to impress America

Tonight, “The Voice” is back! Luckily, that means that we are, as well! We’re going to be updating this article throughout the night with our quick impressions on all of the artists from Adam Levine and Pharrell Williams’ teams, as we anticipate that there are going to be some great vocal performances in here from start to finish.

Will it top what we had last week with Christina Aguilera’s beastly team? That’s the challenge. We’ll be updating this article live throughout the night, so stay tuned!

Daniel Passino, “When I Was Your Man” (Team Pharrell) – Did this performance bring to mind the greatness of Bruno Mars? Yes, Daniel is a Coach Comeback artist, but he still really brought it here with a great vocal! The problem is that he’s going first, and as we learned with Paxton Ingram last night, this doesn’t always equate to getting your due on iTunes.

Emily Keener, “Still Crazy After All These Years” (Team Pharrell) – Were we crazy for this? Adam certainly was, even though she’s not on his team! While we’re not sure how memorable this performance will be at the end of the night, we do think that, for the most part, this was a really lovely vocal that will bring many smiles to viewers out there.

Laith Al-Saadi, “With a Little Help from My Friends” (Team Adam) – Did Laith bring anything new to this classic? We really thought he had a good shot of advancing before tonight because he’s super-unique and stands out in a crowd, but performing early in the show certainly hurts him. Also, this entire performance, while strong vocally, probably is not leaning more in the direction of the show’s demo.

Moushumi, “Love Yourself” (Team Pharrell) – Did she put a nice spin on the hit? We do think that this was a really nice version of the Justin Bieber song, but at the same time we’re not entirely sure how much power it really had. She’s going to have to get a huge spark from her media attention and also Bieber fans if she wants to stay alive.

Lacy Mandigo, “Love is a Battlefield” (Team Pharrell) – How much did we love this? Well, it was probably the best that Lacy has sounded on the competition so far, but we did want to hear a little more grit and vigor in it. That may come more with age and experience. For now, it was simply fine.

Owen Danoff, “Hero” (Team Adam) – Admittedly, this was a surprising choice for a guy we’d consider to be a mainstream favorite. Yet, it totally worked for us when it comes to being both incredibly vulnerable but also powerful and emotional. Maybe it didn’t show the entirety of his vocal range, but for us pound for pound this was the best of the night.

Shalyah Fearing, “Listen” (Team Adam) – Why is this being done again? It’s still something we are wondering even after listening to this. (Pun intended.) We know that Shalyah has talent for days, but there’s just very little that can be done here that we have not heard somewhere else, and she tried to make it HUGE when it would’ve been better restrained.

Nate Butler, “Sara Smile” (Team Adam) – Do we understand bringing him back? Sure, since we really liked his blind audition. Unfortunately, this was not nearly as exciting, and more like his Knockout Round performance. As much as we like the song choice, this just felt sloppy.

Caity Peters, “I’ll Be Waiting” (Team Pharrell) – Was this worth waiting for? She said going into this that she was nervous, and then went and proved precisely how much she was in the performance. We don’t mean to be negative, but it was shaky, and unfortunately continued a trend of subpar performances ever since Owen wrapped up.

Caroline Burns, “All I Want” (Team Adam) – Was this performance everything we wanted? This probably was the best performance that we’ve heard from her so far this season, but we always thought that she was more of a “potential pick” than anything else. Maybe she’ll last just off the shoulders of a pretty poor night.

Brian Nhira, “Alive” (Team Adam) – Did Brian bring something more to the Sia hit? He did bring a lot, but it is an understatement to call this a little disjointed. Leading up to the chorus, he was incredible! However, at that point he wavered off key. We’d still put Brian through based on his body of work; plus, we’ve mentioned that nobody tonight has really blown us away.

Hannah Huston, “Ain’t No Way” (Team Pharrell) -Was there “no way” for us to love this? It was actually the opposite. It was impossible for us to hate it! By and away the best performance of the night, even if her voice was strained at times. Hannah is still a little bit of a diamond in the rough, but she is crazy talented.

You can view our review of last night’s “The Voice” just by heading over here. Meanwhile, sign up now to secure some further news related to all we cover, sent right to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)