The Voice 2012 – Quarterfinals Performance Episode Review

Reviews, Shows

Time for another installment of The Voice, y’all! This week four artists from Christina and four from Team Blake were performing, and since I think they both have really strong teams this season I was excited to see how it would all go down. Click through for a full recap of the performances!

Team Blake – RaeLynn – “She’s Country”

So, I do like a lot of country music. I blast Carrie Underwood, I have attempted Taylor Swift at karaoke and I know who Sugarland and The Band Perry are. So it’s not a genre thing that’s preventing me from liking RaeLynn, even though this song was a little less crossover than what I usually go for. I just think little RaeLynn is in over her head here. If we were playing The Voice vs. American Idol, I’d say Skylar Laine has it over RaeLynn. There’s something about RaeLynn’s voice that really bugs me.

Team Christina – Jesse Campbell – “Halo”

This is a tough song, even for a singer as talented as Jesse. First of all, it’s sung by a woman and sounded like it might be too high for Jesse. Second of all, that woman is Beyonce and she’s a pretty damn good singer. I liked that this song choice made Jesse seem a bit hipper though, and the fact that he was singing it to his daughter made him even more likable than he already is. My concerns about the song choice were moot – he was amazing. Freakin’. Amazing.

Team Blake – Jordis Unga – “A Little Bit Stronger”

A country song? Really? I had my hesitations about this song choice, since I know Jordis can do rock and soul so well. And honestly, I found the performance rather dull. I had such high hopes for Jordis in this competition based on her appearance on Rock Star INXS, but she hasn’t quite lived up to them. This was OK, but nothing special.

Team Christina’s Group Performance – “Fighter”

Oh my. Christina, you know I love you. You know I do. But these swimsuits you perform in? It needs to stop. You’re better than this. Ashley really impressed me in the group performance because she held her own following Christina, and Jesse sounded good on “Stronger” as well. It was a little more awkward for Lindsay and Chris, but I think they did the best they could on that song.

Team Christina – Ashley De La Rosa – “Foolish Games”

A Jewel song? Really? I had my hesitations about this song choice (see what I just did there?) since what saved Ashley before was her ability to really rock out and ooze stage presence. But then I heard the new rendition, and it was like a totally different song. I actually really, really liked this performance. I loved the staging, the arrangement, and Ashley’s vocals. It was a job very well done. I feel like a record label could really make something of Ashley.

Team Blake – Erin Willett – “Set Fire To The Rain”

I get annoyed with people covering Adele songs all the time, but I have really liked Erin all along and I was pretty confident she’d do the song justice. I wish they’d found Erin a dress that fits better, but she sounded great. It wasn’t quite as powerful as Adele’s version and you always have to wonder if it’s a good idea to be a pale shadow of the original, but I think overall she did an admirable job.

Team Christina – Lindsey Pavao – “Part of Me”

Lindsey was originally going to do a Rihanna mash-up that had me kind of intrigued, and I was worried that a Katy Perry song I’d never really heard of wouldn’t be the best way to display her talents. And I’ve gotta say, I didn’t really like it. The song bored me, and I didn’t really understand what she was going for with it. Lindsey is not a pop star. Towards the end it sounded off pitch, and it just overall was not Lindsey’s strongest performance. I hope she sticks around anyway, because we know she can do better.

Team Blake’s Group Performance – “Heartache Tonight”

My initial thoughts during this performance were that Jordis sounded great, RaeLynn made me want to cut my own ears off, Jermaine sounded great, Blake did a nice job of keeping himself in the background and letting his team shine (take note, Xtina), Blake also looked weirdly stiff and uncomfortable as though he didn’t know the words to the song, and I didn’t notice Erin as much as I would’ve liked. They should have given all of RaeLynn’s parts to her.

Team Blake – Jermaine Paul – “Against All Odds”

Ugh, can someone get me a count on how many times this song has been covered on reality TV singing competition shows? Oh hey, Wikipedia can! We’re at once on Canadian Idol, SEVEN TIMES on American Idol. It’s time to retire this choice. Jermaine is a great singer, but I felt like he oversang this song. There were a lot of runs, and the true melody kind of got lost in there.

Team Christina – Chris Mann- Viva La Vida

I thought this was a fantastic song choice for Chris because it’s not opera, but it can show off his soaring voice. During his rehearsal I had trouble deciding if Chris was merely impressed with Christina, or falling in love with her. But he was gazing at her. It was funny. Chris’s performance was very theatrical and opera-like, but I enjoyed that. I thought it was a really strong performance.

Eliminations!

My favorites from tonight were Jesse Campbell, Ashley de la Rosa and Chris Man. I felt like there were a lot of average performances tonight, which was disappointing because I expected to be blown away.

At the end of the episode, Blake and Christina each had to eliminate someone. If I were Blake I’d quickly eliminate RaeLynn and never look back, but I knew he wouldn’t do that. So instead I thought maybe he’d eliminate Jordis. I thought Christina might eliminate Chris Mann because he’s sort of niche, although I thought Lindsey performed the worst of her four team members.

Christina was up first, and she surprised me by eliminating Jesse. I was disappointed because I think he delivered a stronger performance that Lindsey did, but Christina had four great singers and I would have been disappointed to see any of them go. If Christina was thinking about winning, perhaps she thought she had a better chance with the other three.

Blake was next, and he didn’t surprise me when he eliminated Jordis. It’s too bad because I know Jordis is capable of delivering performances I love, but unfortunately we didn’t really get to see it on this show. Blake kind of took the easy way out by saying he was sticking with America’s vote though, don’t you think? Own your decision, man!

Tomorrow night we’ll find out which person from each team received the most votes from America, and the remaining two will deliver last chance performances. I’m looking forward to it!


You can follow Jill at her blog, couchtimewithjill.com, or on Twitter @jillemader Jill has been an avid fan of TV since the age of two, when she was so obsessed with Zoobilee Zoo that her mother lied and told her it had been canceled. Despite that setback, she grew up to be a television aficionado and pop culture addict.