The Finalists are Set

“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 4^th 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.

YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE STANDINGS!!!