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Swapping Beverly and Begoña    

💥THREE💥   Head of Household: Cassandra Shahinfar - [X][X][][][][][][][][] Janelle Pierzina - [X][X][X][X][X][X][X][X][X][] Jun Song - [][][][][][][][][][] Rachel Reilly - [][][][][][][][][][]   Janelle   ROUND RULES (Please copy with your vote): 5 votes per day, 1 hour apart. For each vote, you can vote for 1 houseguest and put an X in their box.  Once a houseguest received 10 X's, they are eliminated from the competition.  The last houseguest standing is the head of household of the round

2     Head of Household: Cassandra Shahinfar - [X][X][][][][][][][][] Janelle Pierzina - [X][X][X][X][X][X][X][X][][] Jun Song - [][][][][][][][][][] Rachel Reilly - [][][][][][][][][][]   Janelle   ROUND RULES (Please copy with your vote): 5 votes per day, 1 hour apart. For each vote, you can vote for 1 houseguest and put an X in their box.  Once a houseguest received 10 X's, they are eliminated from the competition.  The last houseguest standing is the head of household of the round  

Scoreboard @FloorWax - 12 (+4) @Adam Bruce - 5 (+2) @Dai - 4 @Someone648 - 4 @thevoiceisthetop - 4 @allistr - 1 @TyDSC - 1   here's the updated score for batch #6! i'm thinking about maybe setting a few ground rules for the competition moving forward which i'll update you all on when i write out the clues for the next batch. at the very least, i'm glad the heavy presence of early-to-midseason contestants in the lower tiers of this ranking is keeping things challenging! im sure things will be a little easier on the guessing side of things as we approach the batches with auditions from season 13 and onwards, but, until then, i'm glad to educate y'all on some of the lesser-known performances in the show's history 🙂    well done to everyone who's been climbing their way up the leaderboard! the next batch of clues will be out before you know it, but, until then, would love to hear people's thoughts as always, especially as we're starting to see a few more auditions that seem to be more well-liked by the community at large ranking lower : p

159. Chris Crump (Season 9) "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran     The fun thing about cobbling together an intricate retrospective of nearly two hundred auditions over the course of thirteen years is that sometimes, amidst the most revered performances in the show's history, there's always going to be the performances with next to no recognizability to those who missed out on a certain season. Having missed out on Season 9 back in The Voice's heyday, this was, truthfully, the first time I had ever even heard of Chris Crump, who might not be breaking any records in this particular ranking, but hey, he might be a contender for one of the most unfortunately named contestants on this list, at least.   All of this to say Chris' rendition of (in my opinion) one of Ed Sheeran's most palatable hits was solid, but unspectacular. The whisper-like quality of his voice when he began the song definitely played into an inherent intimacy behind the lyric, but the way the lyrics themselves were rendered borderline unintelligible meant the first verse rang as shaky and a little timid. The chorus was definitely where he began to really open up – he's got a nice little cry in his upper register, and there were a few clean little runs sprinkled in there for emphasis – though I can't say it wasn't distracting that he decided to wear his guitar once he hit the chorus, rather than keep playing. There's definitely something appealing in the clarity of his higher notes, but, at the end of the day, Chris' audition was a somewhat indistinctive performance underscored with a little bit of anxious energy, and the combination of "indistinctive" and "nervous" is never a promising one for anyone who's looking to last in a competition like this.    Clue Breakdown 159. I didn't love this one, nor did I hate them – that's the simple truth. According to Chris Crump's The Voice website biography, he grew up performing with Simple Truth, his family's traveling gospel band. Point: @Adam Bruce   158. Morgan Taylor (Season 22) "Cuz I Love You" by Lizzo     One of the things I've never really loved about the seasons with a higher four-chair count is that these seasons spend a lot of energy towards trying to generate excitement for the vocalists – and the vocals – with the prestigious honor of earning the respect of the entire coaching panel. It feels like an exercise of excess, sure, but it also feels like the show goes out of its way to look past the dichotomy between the coaches' experiences with a certain performance and the audience's view from beyond the screen   Case in point: Morgan Taylor, whose episode-closing rendition of a Lizzo song was so crackly and strained that I have to wonder if the poor girl was under the weather when her performance was filmed. Truly, if it were the case of only a voice crack or two, it wouldn't be nearly as noticeable as it is when it sounds as though her voice is breaking every few seconds, too often to be an intentional vocal choice. Beyond what sounds like a hell of a lot of strain, Morgan's got a really rich tone – her belting is really clean when she's able to do so without interruption – but her approach to the song is a little too pristine for a song like "Cuz I Love You", which calls for the kind of self-aware swagger Morgan simply fails to showcase in this performance. I can't help but feel as though a lot of the character inherent to the original song was scrubbed clean, in a sense – she didn't even replace Lizzo's name with her own during the "little bit of Lizzo and some more" lyric, which feels like a bit of a transgression in a post-Tamara Jade world, no?   At the very least, when Morgan sounds on during this performance, she sounds on, hence why I had a hard time ranking her low. At the end of the day, though, this audition ended up being a seesaw between really pretty mezzo-range belts and falterings near the top of Morgan's range – what could've been a moment ended up falling short amidst one of the least fitting song choices we've seen on the list so far.    Clue Breakdown 158. Could this be the fastest a certain coach's genre-baiting has failed to work? Refers to Morgan politely shooting Blake down when he asked if she was a country singer. This... probably could apply to more than a few different contestants, though.  Point: @FloorWax   157. Worth the Wait (Season 19) "When Will I Be Loved" by The Everly Brothers / Linda Ronstadt version     Worth the Wait might be the holder of the crown for "fastest four-chair turn" in the show's history thus far, possibly beating out Anthony Riley for this... prestigious honor, I guess? I don't know, it might've been a little more impressive had this audition not been the paragon of auditions that start great and go absolutely nowhere afterwards.    It's hard to be tough on this audition when we're seeing, as an audience, is a mom relishing in the opportunity to sing on a stage as big as that of The Voice with two of her daughters. It's incredibly compelling! It's just a shame, because this might be the most arcless audition we've seen so far – a performance that just doesn't elevate or evolve over the course of 90 seconds. Especially for a rendition of "When Will I Be Loved" that paints within the lines of Linda Ronstadt's version – and one where none of the voices are particularly distinctive beyond Mia having a little more time to shine – this audition suffers greatly from the lack of a trajectory. It's hard to appreciate the tight harmonies when they feel so melodically consistent across the performance, and you can't really lean too far into the energy of the song when the joy percolating between these three kind of contradicts the yearning behind the original lyric.   In a world where we've seen what trios are capable of when they're creative and engaging – Girl Named Tom, The Bundys, and even Sorelle at their best - Worth the Wait's audition, by comparison, comes off as an ardent headbopper and nothing more. It's effect for the purposes of being an audition, and, honestly, it's clear the trio's intentions weren't necessarily to blow everyone out of the water, which I really love for them. Ultimately, though, there's some stiff competition for this ranking, and they just didn't quite stack up in that regard.   Clue Breakdown 157. Sometimes the things that bring us together have the power to break us apart. A few years after competing together on The Voice, Mia and Jacy Matthews – the two daughters – auditioned as separate contestants for Season 23 of American Idol, during which Jacy was cut shortly after auditions, while Mia made it all the way to the Top 10... all while their mother stood by the sidelines this time around.  Point: @FloorWax   156. Cody Wickline (Season 😎 "He Stopped Loving Her Today" by George Jones     Oh, wow, that's a really good song choice for a country artist leaning into heart-wrenching storytelling within his artistry, for sure. I can't wait to be able to understand the lyrics he's singing so I can fully immerse myself in the heart of the narrative!     ... Yeah, it's kind of hard to be moved by a song that's so narratively driven when the singer – however beautiful is tone may be in the best parts of his range – is so enunciation-challenged during this performance that the lyrics are next to impossible to understand. Between the somewhat froggy husk of his tone and his mush-mouthed delivery, the performance just comes off as really pleasant to the ear, but in a way that's too garbled for a song that hinges on the lyrics to tell the story. Maybe I was distracted by the world's tinniest instrumental in the background – seriously, it sounded like those strings on the chorus were being played on an old Casio – but, though I can appreciate the strength of his vocals, my inability to connect with his delivery kept me at an arm's length through the duration of the performance. We'll see later down the line – with country singers who rank higher on the list – as to why this plays so much into Cody's lower placement.   Clue Breakdown 156. This contestant might've accidentally manifested their fate in the competition... night of, even. Refers to the title of his Knockout song, "'Til My Last Day". You'll never guess who got eliminated that round.  Point: @FloorWax   155. Whitney Myer (Season 2) "No One" by Alicia Keys     Sigh. This one hurts to throw into the lower tiers of this list, because I really wanted to like this audition more than I did. Another member of the "early season performer who got cut in the prelives" lineup of forgotten contestants, Whitney hit the ground running with an upbeat re-arrangement of an Alicia Keys number that feels pulled right out of a Scary Pockets video. If the first 30 seconds of this audition was consistent with the quality of the performance in its entirety, not only would this performance be the highest ranking of its season, but it probably would've snagged a spot in the upper half of this ranking. It's really great!...   ... Then a few chairs start turning, Whitney hits the chorus, and the vocal starts to veer off of a cliff. What started as a tasteful, smooth acceleration of a modern R&B classic started to grow overwhelmed with aggressive embellishments, losing a lot of the inherent laidback-ness of the song at its core. With how tremulous her belting is near the end, she almost sounds out of breath, which wouldn't be too out of question considering the way she's working the stage, but, regardless, her vocal starts to really lose steam as a result. By the very end, she's completely out of gas, which is such a shame when her audition started so strong. Whitney's "No One" is the pinnacle of "great on paper", but the lack of vocal precision and lyrical intention kept it from standing on a sturdy pair of legs from start to finish, leaving one of the most interesting auditions of Season 2 ultimately unrealized.    Clue Breakdown 155. Props for staying optimistic even when drama started to mess with their momentum. A reference to her song choices during the competition: "No One" ("Everything's gonna be alright...") and "No More Drama".  Point: @Adam Bruce   154. Bryan Keith (Season 3) "It Will Rain" by Bruno Mars     In case it hasn't been entirely clear over the course of the last dozen or so singers, the B-tier of this ranking is chockfull of auditions with a great deal of things to like that, through some means, end up falling flat because of a smattering of smaller issues, leaving them out to dry when they're directly compared to the vast ocean of competition at hand. Bryan Keith's "It Will Rain" is yet another example of one of these auditions, one rendered a little forgettable because of the ways in which it misses the mark across ninety seconds of singing.    The positives are definitely here; Bryan's got a natural growl banked into his delivery that sounds strong and clear, where other raspy voices may come off as affected or  overwhelming. He's got a really distinct tone, and it sounds really great when he's able to nail the notes head-on ("how long my knees are on the floor" is probably my favorite individual moment here). Conversely, however, trained ears will quickly pick up how often Bryan goes flat on the peaks of the chorus, how much he struggles to remain in the pocket of a song that seems a little too far out of his comfortable range, how distractingly he scoops the notes that seem to veer towards imprecision in the long run... no matter how many stronger moments he has to his name, they always seem to be counterbalanced by these falterings. His tone helps him a lot here, keeping him afloat in the moments that really matter most in selling his performance skills, but, still, a different song – or even a lower key – could've availed itself greatly towards a true moment for a singer with a lot to offer vocally.    (Side note: His little fist pump when Adam turns is very funny.)   Clue Breakdown 154. Es difícil superar las cuatro nominaciones al Grammy. Bryan Keith's father is Oscar Hernández, the founder and music director of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra and a four-time Grammy nominee. Point: @FloorWax