jork

Hoping Tae Lewis does the TikTok song next week. Shoutout to J-Kwon while we're at it:

12. Nadege. She isn't the type to garner votes anyway, but I thought her light voice wasn't on good display in "Clocks" to begin with. Her affect even on headphones is just kind of too cool for school, and frankly detached from the audience. You just don't feel anything except the ambience. She looks marketable, she sings current stuff, blink twice and maybe there's a bit of SZA here and there, but voting audience aside, this is very eh. 11. Serenity. She's very young, is going for pop music and obviously is in the journey of self-discovery. I actually like that she's going for kind of the angsty, hard-hitting pop songs (Unfaithful, Lose You To Love Me). I really like her swagger, there's that attitude in there, but I'm not sure that finger-pointing and scrunched-up faces would fly well with this audience as well. She's way more interesting than Nadege but even if she does her personal best that might be get under 20% on the app or something. 10. Zoe. Can't see the audience taking to her true Evermore, LOTR-cottage core style. Also think she's a bit too preppy for this audience as well. She's not young and wide-eyed enough, her voice stops in the mids, and she doesn't have a deep story to tell. Even if she does stuff from the folkier sides of country, Swifties barely watch the show (despite trying to get her clones on). 9. Tae. He'll quickly lose out votes to rock 'n' roll man and Caleb Johnson acolyte Josh Sanders, because the dude is just very...surface level. There's some earnestness in portraying the good times, he's a very good performer for the bro country style. But that's the thing. Bro-country. He feels straight out of the 2013 playbook. But he'll ride those country votes and beat out others in even worse vote-based genres. So that's how they do it down in NY. 8. L. L definitely has a story to tell, but compared to the rockier sides of Beverly McClellan, her poppier lilt might be more of a turnoff for votes. Asher's more likely to pull heartstrings and rouse votes, and Josh is a "country" male frontrunner. 7. Maddi. It's hard to see Maddi getting votes because the stuff she thrives in are up-tempo joints that showcase her hip-hop patois. She's not really cut out for this voting audience. It's not like-for-like, but comparing her with Grimmie (who brought her fanbase along because her season was far closer to the youtube era), she's clearly less emotionally resonant, and a lot more hip-hoppy in nature. I like what she represents, and the show is clearly going out of their way to promote her, but this show's audience caps her here. 6. Bryan. I actually think Bryan might undercut himself on this show by being too much of a chameleon. Dude kind of dabbles in everything. He's done Maroon 5 "Moves Like Jagger"-adjacent type sounds, he's done the Owl City electronica, he's obviously a church viber, a frontman rocker. He's all things to all people. The style he's subsisted on in this show is frontman arena-rock, with the God card in his back pocket. But the whole Africa, OneRepublic stuff feels like a cop-out because we know he's better than that, and it feels like tribute band stuff rather than making it into his own. It's about playing to the audience rather than helping us understand what Bryan's about. Might not matter because he brings the energy on the show, but there are vote getters up top. 5. Asher. Asher's tendency is to put his distinctive baritone to seamless high note transitions on emotional, reminisce-y type weepers from female artists. He's incredibly polished where he can just spam that same style over and over again and it can have the same equal vote effect, just because it's so unique in this sphere. He can do Adele, Sia, frankly Peabo Bryson and Lea Salonga are likely in the cards. But he lacks some of the voting intangibles the others have, and doing sad ballads all the time gets a tad tiresome. I mean, surely the core audience wants to feel some happiness, right? 4. Josh. It's hilarious to see Josh's backstory includes his venture into the J-Lo version of AI, where he played an Elvis look-alike in Burning Love and was Caleb Johnson's backing singer. Those NC dudes sure were fun back in their 20s. As he's aged he's followed a common story of becoming a pastor, having a lot of children, but even then...you still see vestiges of his former self in his performances. There's quite a bit of bro country - "Wild As Her", "Whiskey On You", by one hit wonders. Kind of weird that those songs are being performed by a pastor. I was going to make a quip that he might win this show on purely on disposable bro-country. But the dude just hasn't really let loose, or even shown an emotional side. He's a "performer", but you barely seem to know the guy from his performances (that baseball cap cover doesn't help, although if he reversed it as a snapback that might). This puts him a cut below country dudes who actually did that, and chose songs better for showcasing the voice. It just feels very disposable. 3. Madison. I gave into instincts putting Madison this high, even over Josh, but I can easily see them switching just because the ease of genre voting. It's just a matter of - will enough of the core audience care about Madison's sensibilities and joyous, emotional lilt over just robotically voting for anything that's country enough? Think Madison has enough of that DNA where an optimized version, or even an 80% version, can pull enough votes. She's remarkably mature musically for her age, and has chosen enough smooth 70s songs for the core to relate. She lacks a standout differentiator in sound - she's kind of "evenly nice" sounding throughout - so I wonder if that limits the top end upside. But there's enough here. 2. Nathan. I totally can see this guy dark-horsing, er, D-Smooth'ing it, er, Cam-Wess'ing it into a top 4 finish. Look, the audience votes on fairly simple terms, but most of all authenticity, and if they relate to it. No doubt Nathan's honed his craft. He can probably do all his retro throwback stuff in his sleep while bending on one knee, doing the splits and wielding the mic stand like a sword. There's not too much variance in his style whatsoever, but he's a playboy, er..playful, and in a show where you often can't see personality even in up-tempo stuff because everything's put on, that counts for a lot. Also...TPTB really seems to love him too. 1. Karen. I think what distinguishes Karen from say, Grace West and Morgan Myles, is her Louisiana realness. She's shown that playful '90 s side (Jo Dee Messina) but can also embody herself in emotional songs (see the Lainey Wilson performance). Myles had a lot of country pop tendencies, and while Grace was an old soul and throwbacky, she was also in that age bracket (early 20s female) that made it hard for the audience to totally embrace her. Karen seems incredibly self-assured, will choose proper song choices for herself, and her regional stylings shine through in everything she does. I think she'll break this mold and be our winner.

Chance: Maddi Jane: "Agora Hills" (Doja Cat) "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off" (Ella Eyre f/ Teraginn and Jermaine Stewart) Nadége: "Ooo La La La" (Teena Marie) Serenity Arce: "Six Feet Under" (Billie Eilish) Shan and Day: Karen Waldrup: "Born To Fly" (Sara Evans) Madison Curbelo: "Can We Still Be Friends?" (Todd Rundgren f/ Vonda Shepard and Mandy Moore) Tae Lewis: "Why Things Happen" (Jimmie Allen f/ Darius Rucker and Charley Pride) John: Bryan Olesen: "Stacy's Mom" (Fountains Of Wayne) Nathan Chester: "The Hustle" (Van McCoy) Zoe Levert: "Super Shy" (NewJeans) Reba: Asher HaVon: "Don't Wanna Try" (Frankie J) Josh Sanders: "Cruise" (Florida-Georgia Line) L. Rodgers: "Just Like A Pill" (P!nk)

That song definitely suited her, and she performed it well. This matters zilch on the show, but she has that pop youthfulness and some of those intonations and swagger that Chance almost certainly picked up on. Yeah, the judges also picked up on it; her personality shown on the song, the hand gestures, the conviction in the eyes, etc. she definitely related to it. If the dude fronts a record label, it's not surprising he'd try to advance her. He made similar comments on Sorelle about being a featured artist on recordings, which was kind of a backhanded diss but hilarious nonetheless. As an aside, is this the only Selena song that people sing on these shows? Granted, a lot of her 2010s work is dance and electronic, and you can't see anyone singing "Slow Down", "Stars Dance", or her work with The Scene like "Love You Like a Love Song". Although this has always been hilarious:

I like Zoe's whole aesthetic of Swifty's Folklore/Evermore era, with the whole chamber/folk pop, Tokienesque, escapist cottage-core vibe. "Iris" suited her very well. Think she got pigeonholed into country because this whole show is being sucked into the event horizon of country. So anything that seems adjacent gets presumed as such, and Zoe's Louisiana roots give the judges the perfect alibi. Of course, anything that seems too intricate beyond traditional country and church-influenced R&B won't get votes. Tae and Zoe's FB numbers both reflect that. Nathan Chester's Motown splits was the best part of his performance. His playfulness really stands out, but he is earnest, sincere who gives it his all. He's incredibly throwback-y to 1960s Motown, back when R&B was really joyous and fun-loving. Madison put together a performance that spotlighted her voice and storytelling. Her voice has a really pleasant quality for audiophiles, and she sounds polished and current. She definitely has the formulation of a possible winner. Comparing her to winner pop girl contemporaries - ie Chloe Kohanski and Gina Miles. Chloe with her rasp and love for 80s music endeared her to core voters, while Gina had a distinctive throaty cry that poured emotion in the right places. Madison might be less distinct, but she's clear as a bell, emotive and can sell the storyline. We'll see how this goes.

Yeah, so the theme of this season to cater a ton more to radio tendencies. There's a lot of people trying to emulate the hot sounds of the past five years. And bringing Chance the Rapper and Saweetie on board confirms this is the case on the adviser-side. Tae Lewis, of course, being one of them. Always suspected that Tae's sound was firmly ensconced in the 2011-2013 sounds of bro country. His pre-show stuff reflects it, that what he really wants to talk about is sunlight, moonlight, big trucks, hot girls, never-ending parties. "Runnin Outta Moonlight" is bro-country. It's funny, Blake Shelton was also a big during that period, but generally went out of his way (or the show went out of their way) to cast more traditional types on the show. Probably because he recognizes the older cohort won't like the stuff we're seeing now. With Reba (and now Dan + Shay) on the show, TPTB are definitely greenlighting more of the bro-country acts without pushback (and maybe even encouragement). Dan + Shay entered country music during the bro-country era, so they are directly informed by it. Tae and Josh Sanders are definitely fairly stereotypical bro-country. Television is already irrelevant, but hard to imagine boomers or X'ers liking or caring about this stuff.

Let the rap overlords infiltrate the show! I'd expect to see Jack Harlow if we see Saweetie here - but I bet she'd offer some advice on crunk to Karen Waldrup. Let's meld Louisiana with some southern hip hop! As for why D&S chose Saweetie - totally not surprised. Shay was a hip hop head as the featured singer for rappers in the aughts long before he believed country was an easier way out to showcase his pop vocals. As millennials, these dudes grew up listening to the hip hop that dominated the mainstream in the 2000s and early 2010s.

Showmanship, eclecticism: 1) Bryan Olesen 2) Nathan Chester The makes you feel something sort of singing: 1) Asher HaVon 2) Karen Waldrup 3) L 4) Olivia Rubini 5) RLETTO 6) Jackie Romeo Contemporary sound upside: 1) Maddi Jane 2) Nadege 3) Josh Sanders 4) Anya 5) Kyle Schuesler 6) Madison Curbelo 7) Zoe Levert Tae Lewis 9) Serenity Arce Niche 1) Mafe 2) Kamalei 3) Justin and Jeremy

Wouldn't put it past Chance to give RLETTO "Lil Boo Thang" eventually, and force him to shoot shots like 2K over the audience's heads.

I think anytime you get a native Hawaiian to sing "All Of Me", most tend to do well because they exude an aura of thankfulness, gratitude, ohana, spirit animal. Hawaii loves their go-to songs, and "All Of Me" is almost in every playlist. For that, it was somewhat predictable for Kamalei to choose that song, and he gave a predictable performance. Good, but just isolating the vocals, I feel I've heard this many times over all over the Big Island in my trips there. But we all get enraptured by the connection of man to the song, and so he's a good bet to get through (as a steal, likely). He needs to show a little more Iam Tongi songwriter and dig deeper than just surface level, though, but not sure he has that capability, or whether the Voice will even allow that to happen. As it is, he's just there for the vibe of his people. Maddi's here to bring the ingenuity for this show. Yeah, we cast pop songs and starlets as a dime a dozen, but in this show, people who perform like her and choose songs like this are literally endangered species. Nearly extinct, and certainly as the voting rounds go they eventually will be. One of the last vestiges of the youtube era, she'll harken back to the days of Grimmie, but she has more performer swag. Maddi can put 120% into crafting the song and building up for the high notes and look comfortable doing this, but even Kamalei coasting through a meaningful song likely will garner more votes. It's how the votes typically play out. Maddi's here to mobilize her fanbase from the early days, but have they grown up past this and have limited care factor now? For this round, Chance likes crafting pop starlets (see Sorelle), and Maddi's too unique in this show, so she's likely to be kept.

Other notes from yesterday's show - Josh Sanders sure is showcasing himself as that next anonymous country singer who will have a #1 on country radio. Kudos for actually singing super modern songs, between Nate Smith, Bailey Zimmerman and Corey Kent. Doubt the audience even knows what these songs even are. While we're here, what's up with the love for "Wild as Her?" Granted, Corey Kent was an alum and he's cashin on royalties, but there seems to be a special place for Wi-wi-wiiii-iiii-iii-iii-i-i on this show. It's almost like that daring bad-boy bro-country thing TPTB wants to break away from the old school monotony. Almost expected TPTB to give Sanders special contact lenses that allowed him to shoot red-eyed laser beams like in the MV. With song choices like that, I can't see Sanders even making the top 5, even if 1974 Dixieland might be the switcheroo. Bet dude's gonna do Warren Zeiders' "Pretty Little Poison" at some point, and the audience will pull a collective shrug emoji. Almost expected Ashley Bryant to do the Cole Swindell remix of that song, but he did prop back up that '90s gem into gen Z relevance. Reba came into prominence in the '90s so not surprising she'd draw from that well for Ashley. Olivia has a piercing voice - her style is kinda this '70s pop voice on '70s songs. Ronstadt, bluejeanbaby-L.A.lady, I'm sure she's gonna keep drawing from that well. I actually liked Anya's song choice. She kinda had that Billie Eilish glom-emo voice and is embodying that whole dark pop stuff of the late 2010s. TikTok is great at bringing back songs that never hit it big (AURORA's 2014 release was met with zero reception, but in 2021 it got into the charts). Again, audience says "what is this" but this fits Anya's vibe well.

The Voice sure has a boomer exec who loves the obscure songs in the late 70s/early 80s. Going from D-Smooth's Bobby Caldwell, to Mac Royal's sweaty-as-all-hell Teddy Pendergrass, and now Nathan Chester doing one-hit wonder Elvin Bishop? One could presume exec loved his Guardians of the Galaxy, but that's a stretch. That song fits Chester's personality perfectly. He rocks the mic stand, always bends the knee and proposes at the end of each of his songs, and he's very animated and memorable. All those years perfecting his craft to those trips to Alaska/Mexico have clearly done wonders. Sure, dude has a retro feel, but every R&B dude who makes it far does on this show. He's certainly better than Val, who came off as predictable and a dime a dozen on the show. Dani has a really cool vibe and image, and it's unfortunate she's let go. Perhaps she's a bit too low key for the judges, but you can tell she's very musical. Unfortunate. Her songs were more decent, but where was Marcy Playground x Aaliyah? Needed to go hipster mode. Serenity went pure pop and did a meh job of Rihanna's "Disturbia" era in the late aughts, so Chance clearly chose based on potential. But going from Sam Fischer to Rihanna/Selena means she's going pop princess.

The show's positioning Asher (along with Val) to bring the old school vibes on the show. He's got the effortless ad-libbing, runs and ability to scale high and low on songs about jilted love. He's the sort of performer the show loves. Tae's pre-Voice work all screams black Keith Urban. Seriously, if you listen to some of his work, play the track, and ask your buddies who this is, they might say Keith Urban. Dude seems super influenced by him, from the voice, the lilt, down to the subject matter. It made complete sense he auditioned with Urban. Dude's a former New Yorker, summer night, red cup, backwards ball-cap loving hipster. With the vacuum left by Jimmie Allen, he might be able to enter that space, especially if gen Z decides they need a gen Z person to represent Keith Urban sounds for them. Dude's sincere and will do everything in his power to hide his bro-country influences on the show, but he's played the game well by choosing sentimental songs, showing range and parlaying his unique aesthetic to make it farther and farther. Props to that.

Putting some pieces together on knockout results based on what's been said - 1) John must really have a hankering for Taylor Swift, or the Sound of Music. I like Zoe's work on socials and her jamming to "The Bones" was cute, but not really votebait. Jackie was stolen by Reba on this performance. Didn't Nathan Chester get a lot of hype in pre-show promos? Not surprised he made it far. Dude kinda reminds me of a singing Preacher Lawson, and seems to have a cool hip factor which will be completely masked on this show. John predictably will choose Val here with "Sweet Love" over Preacher, but good on Val for overcoming fake spoilers and making it to this point. Sounds like Zoe, Gene, and Val are the advancers, Asher Havon is stolen from Reba, and Bryan VOTA obviously with the playoff pass. 3) If Team Chance is looking like Dani Stacy, RLETTO, and Selena-er Serenity, Arce, and a stolen Kyle Schuesler, and playoff pass Nadège, that's interesting. RLETTO 's portraying the sensitive side on the show, but off show seems like he can ride the atmospheric beat like Bryson Tiller (then again, Ray Uriel's pre-show stuff had some of that, and he completely became uninteresting in the show). I'm guessing the Voice doesn't prioritize singers who proactively "want to make it big on pop", a switcheroo from 10 years ago - hence the Maddi elimination. But pairing Maddi against Dani is basically begging for that. Serenity takes the younger Maddi pop spot. Voice loves their pop more innocent. 4) D+S's stolen Olivia Rubini does "Tiny Dancer". Karen Waldrup seems like a lock, either Frank or Anya?, Madison got the playoff pass. D+S steals Nathan Chester from John seemingly. 5) Reba's Tae Lewis sings "Nothin' On You" by Dan+, er... I mean Cody Johnson, in the knockouts? Reba advances Justin and Jeremy, Tae Lewis?, Josh Sanders? here, Jackie Romeo with the steal, and L Rodgers already got the playoff pass. Knowing what we know now, from the Hollywood Press Junket - I'm guessing they were there for the playoffs? 1) Kyle Schuesler, a team Chance steal , plays harmonica, seems to be eliminated?. Chance's playoff pass, Nadège, flips a Coldplay song after doing some Daniel Caesar x Lauryn Hill. Chance's 16 year old Serenity Arce goes heartthrob on the universe by promising the world and making everyone fall for it. Huge standing ovation for Serenity, on a song the Voice loves, but everyone gets eliminated on. Kudos to going from loving outlaws, to Sam Fischer, to Capaldi, to Selena. 2) Reba's L Rodgers sings P!nk. And good job on Megan Thee Stallion for recommending Coldplay and Selena to this crew. Reba's Justin and Jeremy had harmonies on point. Can't find this 1974 "Dixieland" song - it's a male country artist. It's hard to see it being Josh Sanders given that he's sang disposable commercial modern country, but it seems kinda likely. Good job going for the unknown dude Nate Smith to a 1974 song.

It's funny about "Half Of My Heart" - that was the jam back in college days. John Mayer himself conceived of the idea of him being Tom Petty and TSwift being his Stevie Nicks, but that song barely has Swift, and certainly doesn't have the constant duet interplay of "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around". It's a very good song however, and you can tell it's very personal to Mayer and he's always at his element with his mid-tempo bluesy dream-state vibe. It's good to hear it on the show. But it's absolutely hilarious this was given to Anya and AJ. In theory, bluesy stuff fits both of them, but probably not this song because it's not personal to them. You probably need a legit songwriter with lived experiences to tell this story, and that's rarely on this show. Although TSwift and Mayer had a huge age gap when they sang it, it was mostly Mayer for most of it. Here, they were actually duetting, age gap exists, believability in the two embracing the lyrics is nonexistent. In whatever limited time we saw AJ treat it like a jaunt, probably because he knows this is a sabotage song. He also seemed to have a weirdly deferential style in what little we saw, with Anya carrying the song, which is hilarious if we swapped it with TSwift carrying the song and Mayer's on background vocals. Anya certainly put the Olivia Rodrigo spin on this one. It's unfortunate that the idea of AJ seemed better than the execution, but AJ always had pop sensibilities that seemed to undercut the folky core he represented himself as, and that might have confused the coaches. The battles are really a test for whichever contestant wants it more, sabotage song or not. It's also a test for deferential personalities. Ashley Bryant won off-genre against Elyscia, but also had the higher memorability/care factor with the vocal tinge/acrobatics. I'm guessing Bryan Olesen is in for Team Legend for the long haul? This really seem like a girl's season; I think Olesen, like AJ Harvey, has too much of an omnivorous style to paint a cohesive image for voters. He's gonna bite off more than he can chew at some point, even though his recorded work in his prime was awesome (and non-vote bait material, ironically). Schuesler gives the appearance of someone people might vote for, lookin' like Laine Hardy and having a performance style like a less distinct Noah Mac. He's got good musical taste, but I think he needs a tad more seasoning. He's not consistent throughout his musical choices, and his battle style was deferential. He might make the voting rounds because short of R&B belters, they need someone like him to round the genre numbers. I rep Huntington Beach, but historically, SoCal doesn't do anything for voters.