What Should Be The Top 5 Is The Top 6 Because The Voice Mocks Me Once Again

“She's been singing it all along

But you were hearin' a different song”

--The White Stripes

Standards are standards, I get it, I really do. But I get so tired of the same songs what seems like year after year after year. OOOOOOH! Tina Turner! FRESH. (I like Tina Turner and I saw her live once and she was fantastic. That was 1982.) Creep!! EDGY. The Beatles! WHAT?!?!! NO WAY! Somewhere Over the Rainbow was my late brother-in-law's favorite song. I have strong memories of him every time I hear it and I cherish those feelings. It is a beautiful and timeless song. I never ever ever need to hear it again on The Voice. I just don't. This is where I am not a very good The Voice viewer because I'm not boiling with anticipation to hear how someone does with Alicia Keys. I don't mean to shit on anyone else's love of these songs. I JUST WANT TO HEAR SOMETHING ORIGINAL AT THIS POINT!

The downside of that is that it may be Sting. AARGH. I'm not going to rehash my completely normal and appropriate utter and distilled hatred of solo Sting, whom I sincerely wish falls off a cliff somewhere around seven hours into a tantric session and lands on a group of Russian children. I'm also not going to mention the self-hatred that occurs with Fields of Gold because I actually kind of like that song and I much prefer to keep my loathing as pure and focused as possible (I am able to distance that person from The Police. I contain multitudes). Thankfully it was boring. I think Joshua is a good singer and he has a very nice voice but it strikes me that Joshua wants his ceiling to be Gordon (not Hummingbird) Lightfoot. And that is great, I think Gordon Lightfoot is tremendous!! I will go further than necessary to tell you why The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald does not in any way deserve the disrespect it receives! But you know what? You better be able to write a damn fine song. Time will tell, I suppose. He reminds Deb of Art Garfunkel, another with a beautiful tone and no idea how to be successful without Paul Simon around to write the song.

That's true of all Voice contestants though. I think Sawyer is some sort of musical savant, but if he's not able to translate that to original stuff he's not going to make it big. Deb downloaded Simple Man. I listened to most of it with my eyes closed and he is so good. It is disconcerting to watch him stare into the distance, but it is apparent that the little girls understand.

Tell you what. The only thing that Kimberly Nichole's rehearsal segment did for me is make me want to hear Xtina do Creep. At least Kimberly's version was interesting even if I couldn't place what was weird about it other than my point at the beginning of this recap. It was bothering me for most of the song and I was jotting down notes trying to figure it out when Deb blurted out 'is this showtune-y?' That was part of it I guess, but for me it came down to the fact that I think I read the song differently than she did and when you think a story is this and someone else thinks it is that there is a natural dissonance between the two views. In the end as with so many things Deb summed it up, I thought it was a little, well, creepy.

Matt McAndrew turned either into exactly what I expected him to or nothing like I expected him to and I could not for the life of me decide which. Cee-lo was suitably unnerving, Gwen reliably talked fashion, though had a solid point when talking to India Carney about image because lord, that girl needs some kind of image more interesting than performing a recital.

My ranking this week: Sawyer, Kimberly, Meghan, Joshua, India, Koryn, Hannah & Cory. NAILED IT. Almost. Was quite disappointed with Koryn last week.

Let's take a look at the team you could have had, for better or for worse. If you (unlike your friendly recapper) had an optimum draft you might be looking at a roster of (points as of now):

First round: India or Sawyer – 17 points

Second round: Koryn or Joshua – 16 points

Third round: Corey Kent White – 12 points

Fourth round: Meghan Linsey – 16 points

Fifth round: Our Lil' Hannah – 10 points

Sixth round: Mia Z – 8 points

You would have 79 points. Hummingbird Lightfoot currently leads with 43. THE TROPHY WOULD BE YOURS.

Conversely, you might conceivably have picked:

First round: Jeremy Gaynor – 0 points

Second round: Paul Pfau – 2 points

Third round: Gabriel Wolfchild, Vance Smith or Michael Leier – 0 points

Fourth round: Briar Jonnee or James McNeice – 0 points

Fifth round: Jack Grigori, Bren'nae DeBarge or Brenna Yeager – 0 points

Sixth round: Well, everyone except Mia Z – 0 points

You would have 2 points. I would commission a trophy for that.

Something to think about while we are talking about scoring. I am thinking about putting up for vote a scoring tweak for next season. Basically, there needs to be a balance between being rewarded for having a team that is deep through the battles, and a team that may only get a member or two through the battles but those people go very deep into the competition. I'm leaning towards bumping up the points for the top 5/6 bonus, those last two rounds, and the winner. Kick it around in the comments if you'd like, I'll take as much feedback as you can provide and of course any future change will be voted on by all because we are not animals and this is a serious, dignified contest.

WHICH REMINDS ME. Because The Voice is a jerk there is not a top 5 like there was last year, there is a top 6 because The Voice hates me. Anyway, I've given the top 5 bonus points to the top 6 contestants. It was probably Adam's idea.

I cannot tell you how tired I was of Corey Kent White. If he would have won this contest and become a successful recording artist my opinion of America as a people would have dropped just a tiny bit more, and it is not like I'm bursting with optimism during the best of times. I will miss Hannah though.

I'm always excited to see a bunch of conversation about the show before the recap even goes up, but I'll be honest that I try to just skim it beforehand for the same reason that I don't read other recaps, trying to keep my hot takes pure. But Jim invited scenarios for a Hummingbird Lightfoot loss, so......

1. Meghan goes home next week, as does Sawyer Fredericks. Kimberly Nichole wins. Barry and the Ladies 49, Hummingbird Lightfoot 47.
2. Meghan goes home next week, as does India Carney. Sawyer Fredericks wins. Debbie Eaglesong 48, Hummingbird Lightfoot 47.

The suspense will be delicious next week, no? I can't wait to see who Koala Fluffybaby's magic blackboard saves!!

CHECKOUT THE STANDINGS!!

The Top 8 And Variations on a Theme

“I've not been really looking forward to the performance
But there's my cue and there's a question on your face
Fortunately I have come across an answer
Which is go away
And do not leave a trace”

                --The White Stripes

There are people who like Adam and I like these people just fine.  There are people who do not like Adam and I like those people just fine as well.  I’m sure there are people who either have a shrine to or want to actually murder Adam and it’s very possible I would like those people too (OK, that is a lie).   As you may know by now, I am in the camp of those who dislike him and I want to apologize to you who are in the liking him camp because it seems like I have to write at least one thing a year about what a total dick he is (and I’m going to keep this short because we’ve all read this before) – but you saw it yourselves last week, didn’t you?  It wasn’t his usual thing about finding the perfect song that is not in his contestant’s range and then just expect them to step up and hit it, it wasn’t his tendency to make any success his contestant has be all about him (and to be fair, that is not just Adam), but this, this my friends was something far different.  This was a coach giving up, dusting his hands off and casually tossing his people under a bus.  It’s as if a football coach said “ah, fuck it” and walked out at the end of the third quarter.  It is coachus interruptus.

Picture Blake after one of his singers perform.  He is on his feet clapping like he just learned the meaning of life.  Pharrell stands and delivers his wide eyed Gaze of Wonder.  Even Xtina gives her slightly arched eyebrow of appreciation.   In contrast, Adam says “yeah, so I thought you could hit that high note with power (that you’ve never really shown an ability to hit) but it just didn’t pay off”.  What the hell.  Blake’s guy forgot a lyric and Blake called him out on it – but not until he had already gushed about how fantastic his guy was and how he knew his fans would still stick with him.  I think Joshua should have flipped him off.

Enough of that.  How’d you guys like the producers?  I liked them and saw that as a sign of just how desperate NBC is to have a breakout star come out of this show to stop the main criticism.  But they were fascinating!  I don’t know what Mark Ronson takes but man I want some.  Everything he said was like some observation he had been pondering for months.  It is very interesting to see how a good producer can shape a song and the type of craftsmanship that The Voice shows so well.  I would like to see more like that.  Also am happy that we are at the point where the songs get longer.  Mostly.

What Deb could do without is the opening medley which never fails to have her hammering the fast forward button.  Unfortunately I was jotting something down so asked her to just let the Elton John medley play, and she was DYING (to be fair, it sounded awful to me too).  When I finally told her go ahead and forward she just said “that was truly a thing of horror.”

A BRUTAL WEEK FOR HUMMINGBIRD LIGHTFOOT.  Here’s how I ranked them this week:

Nobody picked Koryn Hawthorne to be in the finals.  You have to wonder, right?  I can’t think of anyone on a higher trajectory right now, like Chris Jamison last year after he figured it out.  She was just great though the melisma bothers me a little bit.

But here’s the thing.  You’ve got Koryn, Kimberly and India as big voiced women (I’m not counting Hannah or Meghan because they are different kinds of singers).  Who cancels who out?  I don’t think there is room for all three.  For the record I had Kimberly second and India third this week – all I ever write down for Kimberly is “she is dynamite”.  I had a note that India sounded very much a stage singer this week, mentioned it to my wife who reminded me that this was the song she auditioned for the stage which I had missed because I was writing something down but it must have stuck in the back of my mind.  Anyway, she did sound like the stage might just be her niche.

Sawyer is crazy talented and was goo but that was my least favorite showing from him.  I had Meghan after that but I don’t trust anything I think about Meghan.  Was that her boyfriend in the audience?  He was goofy looking!

Despite what I say about Adam I think he did have a point with Joshua – he came off as not being able to totally let loose, and every line started out as a kind of whisper, even when the tempo picked up.  I don’t know what the hell Adam was talking about though when he said “you’ve been kind of doing older stuff all along”.  Well, except for that other new song two weeks ago, yeah, totally old stuff.  Dick.

Deb:  I want Hannah gone so bad.  I thought she was fine, but she is a performer more than a singer and for an arrangement that was trying not to be so 80’s it totally failed because that was so 80’s it made me want to find my destructed acid wash and listen to Simple Minds.

I’m worried that Rob’s dad just showed back up in his life to cash in on that sweet sweet Voice experience.  I hope not and I was sorry to see him go because he seems like a super nice kid but man, that was boring.

Cory Kent White desperately needs some grit because he looked like a fratboy trying to be an outlaw.  But BOY I loved that song!  I just wish someone else had sung it.

Finally, Deanna, she of the lovely moment a couple weeks back faded away, whether from nerves or song choice or whatever – for me it was another example of a song (and performance) I’ve heard way too many times before.  Deb is sad because she loved the outfits they had her wearing.

So Jim loses two and is down to just Meghan Linsey.  Our teams still with two remaining are Debbie Eaglesong who is just hanging behind Barry (no name changes Ed!) and Koala Fluffybaby.  THIS IS GOING TO COME DOWN TO THE WIRE MY FRIENDS!!!

STANDINGS STANDINGS STANDINGS GET YOUR STANDINGS RIGHT HERE!

Live Week 2: Down to the Top Ten

“Why can’t you be nicer to me?”

                --The White Stripes

I assume we all have some kind of an internet presence.  I’ve been a member of an obscure sports simulation community for going on 15 years now and though I just lurked for awhile have managed to rack up over 12,000 posts during my time there, though the majority of those are from playing werewolf games.  I get tired of some of the personalities there, and sometimes I won’t show up for a few weeks at a time but it is a community to me.  People have died that I do not know if I’d met them on the street and I get sad because they were one of us and despite what it might say about our detached society today I consider many of those people friends due to our interactions over the years.  If I were to die I’ve told Deb I would like her to let that group know and I have no idea why that is important to me.

I put a lot of stock into what other people thought in the beginning of the internet years.  I got outraged with everyone else on Daily Kos during the early Bush years.  I played and ran dozens of four month Diplomacy games on AOL in the dial-up 90’s.  When we watched American Idol I discovered these huge 15 page show reviews on Television Without Pity that were catty and fun and that I got into.  I remember showing Deb one of them and her comment was “they seem kind of mean” and I didn’t understand that at all.  I’ve gone through an AV Club phase when the AV Club had a good writing staff and commented there for a few months.  I’ve followed the Gawker sites pretty frequently over the past year or so because snark can be fun, though again, it is very staff dependent and they’ve lost a lot of people as well, but it is hard to resist clicking on something like today’s Japanese Late-Night Show Makes Guys Sing Karaoke While Getting Handjobs.  I will watch the clip of that tonight because c’mon.

Once again I realize that Deb had it right all those years ago because I get tired of all these sites, and the more you hang with internet people the more you realize how sheltered and reactionary and insulated and disturbed and just plain mean they can be.  I don’t read comments like I used to or wade into political or societal discussions at all because just like the real world there are dark fetid caves and piranha filled waters and daily outrage feeding on daily outrage and frankly, it’s just gotten sort of exhausting.  So when I make fun of Brian Johnson or Meghan Linsey or whoever in these recaps I feel bad if I hear that they have internet haters and it hurts them or their confidence, because we are a people that wants anyone who dares to poke their head above the herd to realize that we are more than ready to pull them right back down.  We should be nicer to them, and although I probably won’t be I’m sorry that they are affected by the shitty things they read because after all, haters gonna hate.

Let’s rank the top 10, shall we?  Here is how I had them after the performances this week:

I did notice that Sawyer Fredericks does look just over the camera though what really struck me was how much he resembles Amanda Knox.  Was not happy with the song choice because as I’ve mentioned before when you do a song like Imagine you can’t really improve on the original so what is the point?  (There were lots of quibbles with song choices for both Deb and I this week).  Anyway, he turned the tables on that high note with that brilliant pause and it changed the entire song. 

Debbie’s affections wander.  She told Reba she loves her, and was sort of delighted that Reba pronounced guitar Git-Tar.  I told her that I saw Reba in concert with Kenny Rogers back in like 1981.  It’s not often I can surprise Deb.

Is Kimberly Nichole really from Seattle?  How did I not know this?  I swear I thought she was from Houston or something.  Anyway, Kimberly Nichole continues to be dynamite.

India Carney is still fantastic, though I was preoccupied with something during her performance so didn’t pay full attention.  Take Me to Church is a damn good song.  I liked her new look as well.

That was my favorite performance yet from Rob Taylor, I think it was because the falsetto was reined back so much. 

I don’t like Meghan Linsey.  She creeps me out.  But she did great.  My rankings on her will probably be lower than they should but eh, who cares?

Koryn Hawthorne seems older to me than the other high schoolish age kids and I’m not sure why.  She has been someone who I haven’t really noticed much so far this year but I really liked both her promo and that performance of Stronger.  She is getting better as the show goes along.

Did you notice that the promo for Mia Z. really played up the fact that HEY! She is a 16 year old girl so let’s not speak to the fact that she sings sexy as hell!  And then she goes all sexy Jagger with Miss You, and it was awesome except for that super high note that the judges all fawned over – I’m sure it is very hard to hit but was my least favorite part of that song.  I will miss her.  There’s more than a touch of Amy Winehouse in the way she sings and I hope I hear more from her which is not how I usually feel about The Voice contestants. I miss Amy Winehouse.

I love the song America and picked it for one of our Music Clubs that I forget the theme of.  When I closed my eyes I enjoyed Joshua Davis’ version of it.  When I opened my eyes I did not because he was very lounge-y and goofy looking.

It is a sign of progress that Deb did not actually flinch when Hannah was on screen.  We got a glimpse for where a little bit of Hannah comes from, and I laughed at the line “Mom, don’t be creepy!”  I like yet feel bad for Hannah.

Adam is horrible at song choice, always choosing a song that is going to be hard to perform and then expecting his singers to just step up.  I was super curious about Deanna Johnson this week and looked forward to her turn.  She seems small-town genuine but it was fascinating about how much she did not want to sing that song, and for good reason as it turned out because that was not a good performance.  I couldn't tell if it was the song itself or the Christian genre that she was wary of.

It was better than Cory Kent White though.  Deb:  “This is the country music I hate.”  I could not agree more.  I don’t think he sang it well either.  Clearly that is not gonna matter though.

Brian Johnson is a good singer.  But Brian Johnson’s ceiling is easy listening and I can’t see him ever becoming a compelling performer.  I wish him the best though as he is my last team member to shuffle off this year and Champion Bull becomes the second team out.  I should have known because I thought that was a stupid team name from the start.  Wait till next year!

Our top three are taking shape.  It looks like Hummingbird Lightfoot, Barry and the Ladies and Debbie Eaglesong are going to be fighting it out for the trophy with Sizzle & Fizzle down to one, but I do want to note that none other than Fluffy Koalababy has the potential to challenge with both Koryn and Hannah still in; and don't forget that KaraokeSongBookWorms still have India!  Do you want to know the rest?

CLICK HERE FOR THE STANDINGS THEN!

Biggest Week Of The Year -- From 20 To 12!

“I had opinions

That didn't matter”

--The White Stripes

The first live round has to be the Week Of The Season for The Voice, doesn't it? Three full days of shows, twenty singers performing live in a pair of two hour shows that, for The Voice, are pretty filler-free. Carson starts looking concerned around the hour mark and the stupid hashtag promo that is early in the broadcast falls by the wayside as the judges give the most useless positive propaganda feedback of the year and the clock tick tick ticks until by the end, of course, it is a rushed blur. It's a great time!

Whoever is doing the social media promotions for NBC needs to rethink their career direction. #Voiceboop. What the hell? Poking noses on video? The people that are going to do this are people that frankly I don't want anything to do with. At least Blake called it out for the nonsense it was. You want a hashtag, NBC? #TSAVFL. You're welcome. Although now that I think about it we need to get The Voice Fantasy League trademarked in order to monetize this sucker once someone happens upon it and tries to capitalize. We'll also need a spokesperson because there is no way in hell that I am going to be seen on camera in the Voice audience. Maybe Langdon? She could convince kids to sign up for exclusive league access for the low price of $20/season. USE YOUR PARENTS CARD, KIDS! We will all share in the TSAVFL bounty. If cash is involved I might even ease up on the recap swearing, though let's not get our hopes too high there.

That tangent reminds me to tell you a couple of things upfront. First, this might be long, befitting the Week Of The Season. Secondly, though you might think that life in the Pierce/Hutchins household is a merry carousel filled with wit and glamour, I am currently washing down the first two hours of a root canal with pain meds and beer, and my lovely wife is occupied at this very second with colonoscopy prep, so yeah, we are certainly living the dream tonight. The point is just to note that there could be a few tangents you'll have to forgive my indulgence of; and serves as a reminder that truly there is little I'm not willing to share with you.

To the shows! Let's take this by coach.

There is a goddamn REASON that Blake wins so many of these things. Cory Kent White. Grampa died. He's getting marriage proposals via twitter (possibly not heartfelt). Singing To Make You Feel My Love. Explaning his complete marketing strategy to Cory first thing in rehearsals. He uses the funny drunk persona to Columbo the fact that he tells you exactly what he is going to do and why it will work while he is doing it. All I could think of was why the hell did I not pick him in the bonus picks because OF COURSE he is going to be in the finals.

I had high hopes for Sarah Potenza though there were three strikes against her: singing first on the first night. I've thought a lot this week about what night and what order is optimum and though I've no conclusion, first on Monday cannot be a good thing. Then, condensing a song of epic scope and one where the slow build makes it so powerful is a challenge – if there is ever a song that needs to take its time and spread its wings it is Freebird. You can't condense it without making it sound odd and rushed and nowhere near as powerful. Finally, she slept in vans after eating tuna fish for dinner. All I could do for the next few minutes was imagine how nasty that van must have been.

Meghan Linsey apparently has internet haters. I admit to wanting to look but lately I'm trying to be better about not swimming in the more toxic pools of our modern lives so am not going to. I don't like her anyway, but that is because the desperation that surrounds her like a halo makes me uncomfortable. Brooke Adee had a date, seems very sweet, sang fine and showed that she needs some more training. And then there's Hannah. Deb still hates her and laughed when Hannah said that she'd never had a boyfriend. I've gotten protective about her (remember, this is what happens with me) and I felt sad for her. Her fragility just beneath the surface is a little heartbreaking, and I felt that in her performance she was a little embarrassed about being Crazy Eyes and was trying to tone it down a bit – which is a mistake. Her ability to be fully uninhibited is what makes her special.

I ranked all the teams before the selections. My rank for Blake's team was (actual in bold):

Cory, Sarah, Hannah, Brooke & Meghan. I was most wrong here. I think that Blake has the shallowest team because I cannot imagine Hannah & Meghan making say the top 8, but he has Cory and Cory has a damn fine shot at winning this thing. He certainly has the best coach.

Pharrell had fantastic shirts both nights. I would love either of those, though prints can be problematic, cliché or both on big men. It is a mistake to read too much into any filmed encounter but Pharrell seems genuinely impressed by Sawyer Fredericks. How could you not? I think the only thing that stops Sawyer in this competition is the fact that he is a sheltered 15 year old boy who is all of a sudden getting LOTS of attention. He reminds me a little bit of Kelly Leek from The Bad News Bears.

Chris Jamison looked good. I laughed when Carson asked “So, what are you doing?”. I don't remember what he replied, but I figured the true answer was, “Crushin' it!” Deb remembered his pants that he wore when he went sexy last season and then I realized that I did too. I suspect Chris is having a great year.

Anyway, boy, does Mia Z. look strong or what? She looks tiny even by the standard of tiny young women on The Voice, and she doesn't look to be relaxed on camera and as such doesn't project a lot of personality to me, but my god, she is sixteen. They are so young. But all that fades away when the music starts because I flat out love listening to her sing. And Ain't No Sunshine is a great song. SHE WENT IN THE LAST ROUND PEOPLE. I think it is a nice sleeper by Ed, who both got that pick and put her in his bonus.

Caitlin Caporale looked more focused. Where she talked in her intro about not chasing the career because she had no funds to move it came off as putting aside, possibly for good, your dream. Getting to the live rounds it was as if she wanted it again and had a sudden confidence. I did not know the Beyonce' song, but thought she sang very well. Koryn Hawthorne was so shaky at first, you could almost feel her trembling through the screen but she killed the last half of How Great Thou Art. Lowell Oakley changed from his awkward improv last week but didn't actually change that much and Pharrell was mostly done with him anyway.

My rank: Sawyer, Mia, Koryn/Caitlin, Lowell. I felt bad for Caitlin but she is fourth in that group which is a stronger one than I thought a couple weeks ago.

I took fewer notes on Tuesday's show, which again made me wonder which night was the better to be on. At first I thought that Sia's hat was odd and strange, but then I remembered that Daft Punk wears helmets and what is the difference? It felt like a small evolution.

Xtina looked like Good Elvira on Monday and had a much better look on Tuesday in that dress. I like that she has seemed more competitive this year, and in the vein seemed to already have in mind the singers she thought would go through. Clearly she likes India Carney by giving her one of her songs, and she should because India Carney is awesome and got the most bonus picks, six teams have her.

Have to confess that when NBC promoed “A Song That Has Never Been Licensed For The Voice Before!” I was expecting just a little bit more than 4 Non Blondes. But once again Kimberly Nichole just killed it and made a song I haven't even heard in twenty years sound vital. I don't know that she can win but I know that whenever she goes out it will seem a little bit unfair. Rob Taylor sang The Weeknd. Rob, don't read blogs!! We are full of bad things for you to get in your head right now.

You may remember that I was rethinking my stance on Sonic, but luckily she has a Twitter handle of @SonicArtOfBeing and once again reminded me that she was deaf and so I was super happy to be able to reclaim my dislike and jeer – but then Sonic got confused with the tempo (I'm assuming because of the hearing problem) and I felt like such an asshole. Not disappointed that she is gone though. Lexi Davila learned how unfortunate it is when the big note on your song doesn't work. Twice.

My rank: Kimberly, India, Rob, Lexi, Sonic. Nailed it! This team could win or be down to one quickly.

And then, as always, there is Adam. You can imagine my dismay as I found myself either agreeing with or approving decisions made by him, but I could balance that out by how much I hated that song they played first thing on Monday, Sugar. Deb pointed out that we have that Maroon 5 song. My wife finds a large amount of music and has an impressive track record, but it is my considered opinion that Sugar is a horrible thing. There were other things that didn't do much for me on Adam's team. Nathan Hermida for example. It's not his fault, he's just hit his limit in this lineup. Well, it's kind of his fault because he wasn't good, though I liked the little rap he did in the middle. But it was clear he overachieved to reach the live rounds.

I enjoy Tonya Boyd-Cannon and thought she deserved the top three. It was an interesting point that Adam brought up in rehearsal for Take Me to the Pilot, that it could be as close to gospel music that he (and I) got as a kid growing up in a white suburb. She was first up as well. Brian Johnson is also on my team so you'd think I'd pay attention but instead Deb and I spoke of macarons as he sang. I also figured out that he looks like a heavy Mr. Bean.

Who got my attention was Deanna Johnson singing Down to the River to Pray, a song I know well. When I first saw her my thought was nice, NBC. Put the nervous girl last. She was stunning. There isn't anything else to even say except nice bonus pick GAT and Deb's quote: “that dress is blowing my fucking mind.” But I liked Joshua Davis even more (barely but still and totally get if you have it the other way)! Deb's quote at the beginning of his segment: “did you see that baby? That got him 10,000 votes right there.” I didn't know the song Budapest but I liked it a ton and he was so good that when Deb asked me if we should go listen to the original I said “Why? I like this version.” (the original is good too but I'm not sure I like it better than Joshua's version). Christina had that sweet comment about him singing lullabys to his kids and it was one of the most genuine sounding things I've heard from her.

My rank: Joshua, Deanna, Tonya, Brian, Nathan. Another strong top two.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE TSAVFL???

The TSAVFL, my friends, is fascinating. We will start with a brief moment of silence for our first casualty. The end of Sarah Potenza spelled the end of Walla Walla Whoopemup. In an appreciated bid Tim asked me if there were any points for going out first. Alas, there are not. I am pouring out a 40 for him though I am pouring it into a glass because after all this is The Voice and I'm not wasting good beer. I thought with Cody and Sarah you would have gone further, but y'know, many of my opinions are wrong.

The one to beat currently is Hummingbird Lightfoot. Jim still has three singers left though I think Deanna and Rob are his main threats. I don't know what to think of Rob's chances. Barry and the Ladies are close behind in the standings with two solid singers, Kimberly and Mia. I love both of them so think they could both be finalists but I didn't pick either of them as a bonus and could be isn't will be. Debbie Eaglesong has what may be the strongest duo in Sawyer and Cory. I will tell you right now that if she picks the actual winner for the third straight year you will all hear about it. And Fluffy Koalababy just might be making a comeback for the ages if Koryn and Hannah can stay strong!

Karaoke SongBookWorms are down to one, but when that one is India Carney there are still plenty of points to be had, especially if bonus picks come through. Tied with Deb, Sizzle and Fizzle's hopes now ride on one Joshua Davis who could easily be Josh Kaufman. He could also be that singer/songwriter-y guy that flamed out last year and whose name I can't remember. Champion Bull is no such thing unless we are talking a different sort of bull because I am down to Mr. Bean.

I've said plenty but have one strategic maneuver to relate. Jim sent Deb an email suggesting that she pick all her own team for her bonus picks. At first Deb laughed it off but she kept coming back to it occasionally and finally decided why not! Always eager to instigate, I sent an email to Jim:

By the way, you successfully goaded Deb into picking her team for her bonus picks, you magnificent bastard. 

Jim replied:

Wow. Her arrogance is admirable.

Indeed it is. And people, Jim is clearly a master manipulator. Beware.

HEY!! STANDINGS ARE HERE!!

I Wanted To

Put a partial recap together just on Monday's show because I had a lot of notes on this, the Biggest Week For The Voice All Year but yeah, not going to happen.

Bonus picks are listed though in the standings so you can see who everyone picked.  And we will have SO MUCH to talk about probably tomorrow evening!

T.K.O. And BONUS PICK time!

“We don’t notice any time pass

We don’t notice anything”

                --The White Stripes

Deb’s alternate quote:

“Same as it ever was”

                --Talking Heads

As you might surmise from the above, there really wasn’t all that much to talk about from the end of the knockouts – the matchups themselves were pretty easy choices, though after all the trash talking I’ve done regarding montages at least NBC decided to show us those battles which I appreciate.  Clearly they're still firmly against any possible suspense by letting us know exactly when steals are coming but hey, small steps.

With regards to the TSAVFL the end of the knockouts mean two big things – GET ME YOUR BONUS PICKS BEFORE MONDAY’S SHOW!  As you by no doubt know by now, you send me your three picks for the finals, for each one you get correct you get an additional 4 bonus points.  This is going to be more beneficial to some than others as we look to be splitting fairly evenly into teams that are haves and teams that are have nots – I count myself in that latter description and have more than once looked forlornly at the TSAVFL trophy that unless something crazy happens will be moving on after this season.  But still, as we saw last year it is way harder to pick those three finalists than it seems like it would be, and 12 possible points are still 12 points.

The other thing was the 2 bonus points per singer that has made it through the battles to the live shows, which certainly helped delineate the have/have not line:  the teams above the line all had either three or four singers moving on, while those of us below are down to just one or two.

Like I said, there wasn’t much to talk about but some random lines from my notebook:

--India Carney against GOODBYE JOE TOLO

--Lexi Davila kind of came out of nowhere didn’t she?

-- Barry and The Ladies has become The Ladies.

--I had no idea there was a song called Tim McGraw.  Or that TAY TAY wrote it!

--Deb:  I love you Pharrell.

As ever, I love each and every one of you.  I was going to start rankings this week but don’t want you jumping on my picks so that will start next time.  Let’s get to the live rounds!!!

STANDINGS ARE HERE LIKE ALWAYS SO CLICK ALREADY