“Well I can’t help but wonder at this time next year,
Will we be drinking Dom Perignon or reheated beer?”
--The
White Stripes
Nate Reuss is back with a song so generic they have to put
the name of it in lights behind him to let people know exactly what it is
called (it didn’t work if I am any measure because I’ve completely forgotten it
already). Deb’s only comment was “is
that his mom’s jacket?”
There are few The Voice moments more hilariously awkward
than the home visits, and my god what a difference between the various
trips! Abbeville Louisana goes all out
for Koryn, her high school is genuinely excited for her, she gets one of three
keys to the cities that were given away.
Sawyer goes home to Fultonville New York, also gets a key and has a parade at the Fonda
Speedway where it appears that every fourteen year old girl in town is there to
see him. This is a perfect test case of
how powerful the tween voting bloc is though we know he is getting plenty of
mom (and Deb) votes also. Meghan’s
welcoming party is at home with her dogs and then somehow Naomi Judd totters in
like Liza Minelli in Arrested Development and later Meghan puts on a show at
her old club. India is greeted by her
acapella group, who have all pitched in to get her an actual replica UCLA jersey,
so they went all out. But India then got
the last laugh jumping on a plane in order to claim BOTH NYC & LA home,
which you would think might give her a bigger vote advantage than say Joshua
and Travers City Michigan – though say what you will, Travers City also broke
out the key to the city and apparently every grade schooler and senior citizen
in the area. Let’s rank the home visit
enthusiasm because that is exactly what we do here at the ol’ TSAVFL:
1)
Koryn
2)
Sawyer
3)
Joshua
4)
Meghan
5)
India.
Poor India. I just looked it up
and I can get a replica UCLA basketball jersey for $65.
It has taken years and was not even a question I knew I had
but just last night I finally figured out exactly Randy Jackson was talking about
all that time when he would say “it was just ‘aight for me dog, but you did
your thing so good job.” It is not
necessary to mention who I thought this about.
The lovely Deb now believes that my Adam bias has gotten to
the point where it colors everything he does.
She thought this after I mentioned what a stupid pick he made giving
Joshua that Bonnie Raitt song. It’s a
good song but it is exactly what he’s been doing for the past month and as has
so often been the case it mainly made me want to hear the original. But then he got to pick his own song, Masterpiece, and it was instantly the
best thing he’s done since Budapest. I really liked that performance.
We were at polar opposites on Koryn’s two songs. Though I hadn’t ever thought of One as having any sort of social justice
meaning (I just heard it as a love song though again Deb disagrees), I thought
she killed it and even got the tunnel o’lights to walk through as she sung. Deb hated it.
On the other hand, though I am ignorant of the technical term here, what
distracts me about Koryn is that she will turn on what I can only describe as a
vocal strobe light with her notes vibrating annoyingly. It starts to sound like a bleat to me and as
a result her second song really did not work for me at all. Deb loved it.
We’re usually more on the same page with these things so that was
interesting.
Deb wondered aloud about how and when Meghan became the best
female singer in the competition. That
first song by Sam Smith looked like the beginning of a Bonnie Tyler video and
was solid but I was more interested in her cover of George Jones’ Tennessee Whiskey, because it got me
thinking about how and where she fits as a performer. Country and western music comes from the
blues but the connection these days isn’t all that apparent. She doesn’t like to sing “country” but rather
more R&B/soul. Is there an opening
for an Amy Winehouse type in the country world?
That seems to be the sort of niche she could fill. I wonder if one of the reasons she bugs me is
that of all the contestants, she is the one who seems to want/need it the most – but that isn’t a reason to not like
someone, hell, I’m as competitive as anyone.
Deb asked me if now that I know she loves dogs does that change my
feelings about her? I don’t know. Those looked like asshole dogs.
I missed the name of India’s second song, but I liked it and
the performance even though once again, it was dramatic but emotionally flat
for me. I’m sorry she had to leave but I
think she went as far as she could.
Still see her as someone whose future is on the stage and there’s plenty
of career to be made there.
I also missed the name of Sawyer’s second song but I liked
his first one far better. For the
record, Deb hated his dancers this week as well. That second round in general was a strong one. This has turned out to be a good year.
My rankings:
First
song
|
Second
song
|
Koryn
|
Joshua
|
Sawyer
|
Meghan
|
Meghan
|
India
|
Joshua
|
Sawyer
|
India
|
Koryn
|
A round of applause for Hummingbird Lightfoot, who will be
the TSAVFL Champion for this year with a seven point lead heading into the
finals! Congratulations are also in
order to our two teams still in a dogfight for second place, Debbie Eaglesong
and Sizzle & Fizzle. I remind you
all, if Sawyer wins this thing and Debbie still ends up in second after picking
the actual winner again you are all going to hear from her. Barring a Koryn Hawthorne win Barry
and the Ladies will eke out fourth place over KaraokeSongBookWorms, who
got a big 8 points in the bonus picks to jump over Fluffy Koalababy who can
still snag 4th with the aforementioned Koryn win. Out of respect we shall not speak of Champion
Bull or Walla Walla Whoopemup.
As always, I love each and every one of you.
