The battle rounds kept getting worse with the exception of the grand finale between host Carson Daly's former in house band guitarist Justin Hopkins and Broadway veteran Tony Vincent. What these final battle rounds proved was the sheer absurdity of the battle round format and how the judges just use it (well, most of the time with some boneheaded exceptions here and there) to get rid of their weaker contestants going into the live rounds. Other than that, there are really just a handful of artists in the competition worth mentioning as realistic contenders for the crown. Having said that, it probably comes as no shock that my waning attention span (and otherwise abundant patience) was on notice this time around so hopefully I hid it passably in the follow breakdowns of the live rounds.
James Massone v.s. WADE
"True Colors" (Cyndi Lauper)
Team Cee Lo
Winner: James Massone
This battle bored me to tears the second Cee Lo announced the match-up. It didn't disappoint. There was absolutely no emotion, no connecting to the song, and the winner of this round was never going to get far in the live round. Do I even have to go into how terrible this round was?
Nicolle Gaylon v.s. Mathai
"Love Song" (Sara Bareilles)
Team Adam
Winner: Mathai
Nicolle seemed to be physically incapable of singing without her piano but Adam finally got fed up enough to take it away from her which I couldn't have agreed with more. Then again, I couldn't disagree more with Adam about the song choice. I found this performance and song choice in general to be incredibly boring and uninspired. It completely limited both singers' range of emotions and they both seemed uneasy about bringing anything to the table themselves and Mathai's "winning" will undoubtedly be going home early in the live rounds.
Moses v.s. The Line
"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (The Rolling Stones)
Team Christina
Winner: Moses
I did not get this one at all. The turning point for me with Christina Aguilera was when I saw her with The Rolling Stones. It was at that time I began to seriously rethink her and I have thought of her a million times more favorably as an artist since then but I just did not understand her pairing these two together. I will say something in Moses' defense however. For an MC he held his ground vocally speaking as best he could have hoped to. Vocally I'd go with The Line but performance wise I'd have to go with Moses so I felt like Christina got it right in terms of who would be more viable moving forward.
Karla Davis v.s. Orlando Napier
"Easy" (The Commodores)
Team Adam
Winner: Karla Davis
When Adam Levine initially chose Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl", Orlando didn't even know the song! What is wrong with this generation?!! So they flipped it to a Commodores song (probably since Lionel Ritchie is one of the guest mentors this season) and so guest mentor Robin Thicke helped out the music history challenged Napier and I must say that he has been an outstanding mentor in my opinion. He has given very clear and specific feedback and his command of music theory is evident. Karla's motivation for coming on the show was apparently to be more independent in the creative direction of her music. I do think that Adam might have just slightly gotten it right but truthfully it wasn't a great performance overall like Christina alluded to.
Jordan Rager v.s. Naia Kete
"I'm Yours" (Jason Mraz)
Team Blake
Winner:
Boy. Where to even start with this one? So Blake starts off by saying they were doing "a song called 'I'm Yours' by Jason Mraz" as if it's some obscure pop song from yesteryear instead of the much more recently and ridiculously overexposed songs in existence. And then Jordan said he didn't even know he knew it. Seriously?!!! And on top of that he comes out and calls Blake's wife "hot" to the TV which is ridiculously creepy. There's no doubt that this match-up favored Naia going into it and perhaps Blake, despite being a country singer, felt like he already filled that quota with Rae Lynn (I'll leave the Rae Lynn-Adley Stump debate aside for the moment) and was afraid of Rae Lynn and Jordan splitting any possible country vote. I think that Naia is on a good day more interesting and would have a better chance of advancing on the live shows and I think that's what Blake ultimately factored in despite his saying that Naia had some issues and then saying all thing were basically even.
Tony Vincent v.s. Justin Hopkins
"Faithfully" (Journey)
Team Cee Lo
Winner: Tony Vincent
It seemed like a clear cut advantage for Tony Vincent but I have to say that I think that Justin Hopkins did a lot better against Tony than I would have anticipated but at the end of the day Tony was still my pick because of both the performance and his overall upside. I came away with newfound respect for the "dirtiness" in Justin's voice that Adam referenced. While Cee Lo was referencing his own "personal package" (whatever the hell that means) I still felt that Cee Lo would ultimately still give Tony the nod.
They truly did save the best battle for last but then again that wasn't all that hard to do. The last one was the only one worth talking about, really. Of all the singers tonight, Tony Vincent is the only one who probably has a realistic chance of winning it all and next week we find out how the singers stack up on the live stage.
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