‘The Sing-Off’ season 4, episode 2 review: Still fun … but the life of the party?
We love a good party anthem, and we also love “The Sing-Off.” So shouldn’t the two things, when combined, create some sort of fantastic combination? In the end, we feel a little bit mixed about that after watching the new episode from Tuesday night. After getting off to some great starts, most of the vocal groups started to back down a little bit. Only one or two really improved their standing from week one, and we attribute some of that to possibly Week 1 adrenaline and the groups having a little more time to work on those songs.
We’re going to, starting today, apply the formula that we use for other singing shows to this one in that we’re ranking the performances from our least-favorite to the one that we enjoyed the most. From there, we’ll share the results and the ultimate sing-off performance.
9. Element, “Raise Your Glass” – We really wanted to like this performance more than we did. There are just not any standout vocalists among the ladies, and that makes it difficult to find a “wow” moment in a song that really requires a few of them. We just did not have the same sort of fun we were expecting to.
8. Calle Sol, “Livin’ la Vida Loca” – There’s a lot of dance in here, but not really the best vocals. But the biggest problem was that on a night that is about trying to party, they almost started this Ricky Martin hit off like it was a dirge.
7. Home Free, “Life Is a Highway” – Musically, this was a nice, solid performance. That guy with the bass voice just single-handedly went all “Mortal Kombat” on that guy from Restless Road. As for the dancing … well, they should never do that again.
6. AcoUstiKats, “Hey Ya!” – This is the show’s ultimate hot mess act. It could probably lose about four or five people and nobody would notice, and we see them more right now as an entertaining novelty than a serious threat to last more than just a few more episodes.
5. Vocal Rush, “Gonna Make You Sweat” – This isn’t an easy song to to do, but there was so much energy and enthusiasm throughout all of this. The rap was also a little bit cheesy.
4. Street Corner Renaissance, “Do You Love Me” – The dancing was a little questionable, but the big thing about these guys is that they are legitimately seasoned. We believe them when they sing, and the arrangement was a welcome slice of nostalgia.
3. Ten, “Hot in Here” – This is such a bold song choice for this sort of show, but it worked well. There was energy, good harmonies, and a great feeling of chemistry between all of the group members. You can never discount enough a group that seemingly loves to perform together, and these folks show that.
2. The Filharmonic, “This Is How We Do It” – So much energy and fun in just a few minutes. This seems to be the producers’ favorite right now based on where they are being placed in the show, though it’s not like we particularly mind or anything so long as they continue to be a walking tribute to the nineties.
1. VoicePlay, “Play That Funky Music” – A million times better than their first performance, VoicePlay was legitimately funky here through and through. Their leading lady rapped and sang to perfection, and it’s like her backup group were like a fun little band of nerds trying their best to look cool.
Ultimate Sing-Off – Calle Sol vs. AcoUstiKats. This would not have been our choice, but we understand that this was a message by the (excellent) judges to the rest of the groups that just coming out and doing fun performances with questionable vocals was not enough for this show. Neither group was particularly good in doing Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger,” a song that made no sense for either one of them to do. But, it was clear that Calle Sol was the worse off of the two, and would be sent home by the judges. Episode Grade: B.
If you want to read some more scoop from “The Sing-Off,” just be sure to click here. We’ll have our take on the next all-new episode of the show online soon.
Photo: NBC