FloorWax reviews every TVUS Winner's Journey (Season 22 Posted!)

[allistr]

 

33 minutes ago, FloorWax said:

Anddddd this series is back from it's near one-month hiatus. Let's finish the home stretch.

 

Season 23 Blinds:

Neil Salsich - For what was probably the audition I was most hyped for prior to Season 23, this was the furthest thing from a disappointment. Neil's tone is pure ear candy to me, and the way he manipulated his voice in this audition was masterful. It's not often that someone impresses me by doing upbeat, but even with a seemingly uncompetitive song choice, Neil managed to showcase different parts of his voice and turn all four chairs. That's my snowflake right there.

Kala Banham - I wasn't as hot on this audition as most people when it first aired, and even now, it's probably my least favorite performance from Kala's run. There were gorgeous moments, for sure, but I don't think I'll ever warm up to that arrangement. I respect it though.

Kate Cosentino - I remember my face just lighting up when I realized Kate was doing the Lianne La Havas version of the song. While she didn't quite live up to Lianne (let's be real, who can?), I still think she did a great job with it. Also, stream her Note to Self EP on Spotify, it's good stuff.

JB Somers - Now this was a Joni Mitchell cover I could full get behind. JB reminded me so much of another singer I love, James Blake, and it wasn't just the initials. His tone is to die for! He sang this song with such feeling, and that's really all I could ask for when covering "A Case Of You". I said before that this was probably my favorite audition of the season, and I think that still holds true. It's a shame he didn't last very long, I wanted to hear more.

Rachel Christine - "Uninvited" is a top tier pick for an audition, and in my book, Rachel did it justice! While I agree with Kelly that she could've used a little more firepower, I thought she did just enough to make the song choice worth it. Rachel is a contestant who I don't think quite lived up to her potential, but at least she left us with one of the few competent Alanis covers on this show.

Cait Martin - I didn't expect this to be as gorgeous as it was, and I SWEAR that pun wasn't intended. Cait clearly has some power behind her voice, but it's so refreshing to see a singer like her focus on their tender side to start. This was just lovely the whole way through.

NariYella - This audition always frustrated me, because while the great parts are SPECTACULAR, some of the vocal imperfections really hold it back. She would do an incredible run, then squeeze out some uncomfortable-sounding belts, do another great run, and then go right back to the voice cracks waiting to happen. It makes the performance lose momentum, and it irks me because this could have been a modern Voice classic had she executed it a little better. As it is, it's an above average audition, but it could have been more.

Neil - I saw his cover of that song before and it was amazing with the uses of falsettos and rasps, and this still held true in his Blind Audition. Something about him really stood out to me compared to most other country auditions.
Kala - I really like her as a contestant, but I have to agree with you here. This was my least favorite performance in her entire run, and this proves that she keeps getting better every round *still salty about what is about to come*
Kate - The savior of her episode (besides Tiana). This is really folksy and refreshing, despite not living up to Lianne's version. It's sad that she never reached the level of her audition in her next two rounds.
JB - A pleasant surprise of the season, no cap. 
Rachel - Really fresh song choice, she really did well here. In spite of the vocal issues at the last part, I'd skip it because she really has tastes with the song.
Cait - Agreed about her audition being gorgeous. One of the top-tier auditions of this season.
NariYella - I think this song is too big for her. The good parts are okay, but there are so many inconsistencies that bring her down. Kyla Jade still ate.

Edited September 6, 2023 by allistr

[FloorWax]

Since I decided to leave all the Semifinalists for later, I didn't end up with much to cover for the Battle round. Here's a few performances I wanted to highlight.

Kylee vs Mary Kate - Hands down, my favorite Battle of the season. I'm not even the biggest fan of the song, but damn if Kylee and MK didn't make it sound like heaven. The individual parts were very strong, and the harmonies were just delightful. I feel like Mary Kate won this one by a sliver, but I don't think Blake's decision ended up mattering in the long run anyway.

NariYella vs Chloe - Underrated alert! Modern RnB is always welcomed on this show, and I don't think any coach other than Chance could have come up with this specific song choice. Both ladies looked and sounded stunning here. NariYella's fuller voice was the bigger standout, but Chloe's airy vocals added SO MUCH to their harmonies. Reminded me a little of Vanessa vs Autumn in that sense, which is a huge compliment. Revisit this, I implore you.

Kate vs Tiana - This performance was total chaos. It seemed like both girls were much more focused on choreography and attitude than their actual vocals. Kate and Tiana's voices weren't blending very well either. To top it off, the battle even resulted in a flabbergasting steal. Yet... I can't bring myself to dislike this? Say what you want about their vocals, but this was entertainment. No one is beating Karli vs Addison anyway, might as well do the original and have fun with it.

[Hamza Tufail]

I think I didn't like JB's performance as much as some of y'all did. NariYella's performance wasn't that great either. Rachel's blind is underrated, and so is Kate's. I'm not a big fan of Kala's tone, but she did a great job. Neil was amazing. Cait was Fantastic.

[Hamza Tufail]

Kylee Vs MaryKate was def one of the highlights of the season. I really loved it. I choose Mary by a hair, but both were super good.

[nytsch]

This doesn’t really apply to @FloorWaxbut on a site that strongly prefers female artists I feel like JB is a little… idk if overrated is the right word but yeah? He was good (and I liked it more on repeated listens) but as far as male auditions go I think Neil for example was much better. I wouldn’t expect people to prefer him because the genre and song I guess but I would probably rate his audition an A or A- now.

 

I enjoyed Rachel’s audition a lot too, too bad I didn’t like the rest of her performances that much.

[nytsch]

Also I’m a Kylee girl (she’s the powerhouse indie vocalist I didn’t know I needed) but Marykate won the battle imo

[Hsamid]

- Nariyella's auditions is near the top in what could have been great performances. If she nailed those belts I bet we'd be talking about it as one of the best of the season.

 

- JB was very good, awesome tone. I do think the headvoice was a bit lacking at parts and imo its the weakest version on the show (says more to the quality of the other versions though)

 

- agreed about Neil, imo it's his best performance on the show. though his battle might have surpassed it if it was longer

 

 

 

 

[erik g]

19 hours ago, nytsch said:

Also I’m a Kylee girl (she’s the powerhouse indie vocalist I didn’t know I needed) but Marykate won the battle imo

Agreed

[Hamza Tufail]

I think it'd be great if we finish this up before the next season starts.

[FloorWax]

46 minutes ago, Hamza Tufail said:

I think it'd be great if we finish this up before the next season starts.

 

I think it’d be great if I had the time to do this 

 

It’s gonna be completed EVENTUALLY, but don’t expect it to be anytime soon. Also, I’ll probably have to relisten to all of the runs for the final ranking.

[FloorWax]

Finally we have the long awaited update of this long overdue series! I decided to just do Knockouts and Playoffs together so I'm hitting two birds with one stone.

Tasha Jessen - I've always felt like Tasha's voice wasn't quite big enough for a song like "Take Me To Church", but she did surprisingly well with it all things considered. Not exactly a "wow" moment, but deserving of moving on. "Here" was another one that went better than expected, but just falls a little short. There were great moments here and there but it was overall too inconsistent to be worthy of advancing.

Jamar Langley - His version of "Cruisin" was certainly not up to the level of Zaxai's, but I think it's still a respectable rendition. I heard shades of D'Angelo in there. Where I think Jamar shined more however, is on his B.B. King cover in the Playoffs. It seemed like he was freest with his artistry in that performance, and the result was spectacular. Wouldn't have picked him over Kala or Sorelle that night, but at least he went out on a high note.

Rachel Christine - "Rhiannon" seemed like a promising song choice for Rachel, but she didn't really take it to the next level. Her upper belts are pretty thin, and so the climactic parts lacked some punch. As with Jamar, I was a bigger fan of her Playoff. The gentle Paramore ballad highlighted her tone, and I actually thought she was the best on her team besides Grace. We all know who ended up making it through instead though.

Cait Martin - Cait's KO was absolutely stunning, one of the few highlights of a rather weak round. Her emotion was palpable, and her head voice especially was gorgeous. It seemed like she would be a lock to advance on Team Kelly after that but... her Playoff was a miss. Not terrible, but it seemed like she was struggling with both the high notes and the low notes. "Alone" should just be avoided even by the strongest of singers, it seems.

Kala Banham - This was my personal favorite KO of the season. "Iris" is a fantastic song choice, and I was so happy that Kala did it justice. It was incredible how she built up that performance, from the breathy verse to the impassioned final chorus. There were imperfections, but they only added to the emotion of the song imo. And then there's her Playoff. Absolute freaking perfection. "My Funny Valentine" was haunting, elegant, and pitch-perfect all the same. It is utterly flabbergasting that she got sent home after giving what was probably the best performance of the season. Tainted my perception of Chance as a coach, that's for sure.

Neil Salsich - After waiting what seemed like eternity for a second fully aired performance from Neil, I (and Teraginn) was ravenous. Thankfully, his KO was more than enough to satiate my hunger. The song choice was a blast, and Neil brought it vocally as I expected him to. One of my favorites of the round, that's for sure. As for the PO, I kind of wish he sang something less repetitive, but he did good. It was just too lowkey to justify picking him, a KO steal, over original members Holly and D. Smooth. God I wish we got more of Neil, but I'll have to take what I can get.

 

See y'all in two weeks for the next writeup! Lmao.

[nytsch]

Yeah I can't really say I was upset about Tasha not advancing but she would've been my 3rd choice on Team Niall I think.

 

I still stick to preferring Cait's KO but maybe it's just down to me being tired of Iris lol? Kala's PO was great and well deserving of the praise it gets but after some time away from the season I think my favorite that round was actually D. Smooth. Gina was really good too.

[QueenCami]

my unpop opinion about playoffs is that neither gina nor ryley met the expectations that people set up for them i think?

 

also this was already said but i liked cait's po performance lol

[Rodney]

22 minutes ago, QueenCami said:

my unpop opinion about playoffs is that neither gina nor ryley met the expectations that people set up for them i think?

Given their high percentages . . . I really don't think you're right about that.  They surpassed those expectations.

[Hsamid]

I actually really like Tasha's KO. I'd go as far to say it's my 2nd favourite version of take me to church on the show. She doesn't have the grit so I wouldn't say it's the best fit for her voice. But she sang it competently and with enough power imo.

 

 

For Kala, her KO is my least favourite performance of hers. But I still really like it. I was initially weary of the song choice but she made it her own. The only part I didn't like was her belts. Again, for this particular song I really like the grit and angst and Kala's belts are quite thin. I do prefer Cait's KO. Her PO however, still remains my favourite performance of the season, and I do think her rendition stands out quite a bit even when comparing it to other singing competitions.

 

Jamar had an interesting tone, but he covered songs that were done better in the past so i wasn't invested in his journey as much.

 

Neil had the unfortunate luck of going against 2 contestants that arguably peaked in the playoffs (d. Smooth, Holly) and im not sure he could have done anything to beat those performances. He would have been my 3rd choice though.

 

 

[QueenCami]

14 minutes ago, Rodney said:

Given their high percentages . . . I really don't think you're right about that.  They surpassed those expectations.

ah thank you for pointing that out. i don't mean that they didn't meet audience expectations. i mean that i was underwhelmed by what i watched after reading people's positive responses to them. it's really amazing how high their percentages were, particularly gina's.

[QueenCami]

3 minutes ago, Hsamid said:

I actually really like Tasha's KO. I'd go as far to say it's my 2nd favourite version of take me to church on the show. She doesn't have the grit so I wouldn't say it's the best fit for her voice. But she sang it competently and with enough power imo.

 

 

For Kala, her KO is my least favourite performance of hers. But I still really like it. I was initially weary of the song choice but she made it her own. The only part I didn't like was her belts. Again, for this particular song I really like the grit and angst and Kala's belts are quite thin. I do prefer Cait's KO. Her PO however, still remains my favourite performance of the season, and I do think her rendition stands out quite a bit even when comparing it to other singing competitions.

 

Jamar had an interesting tone, but he covered songs that were done better in the past so i wasn't invested in his journey as much.

 

Neil had the unfortunate luck of going against 2 contestants that arguably peaked in the playoffs (d. Smooth, Holly) and im not sure he could have done anything to beat those performances. He would have been my 3rd choice though.

 

 

ok 100% agree on the first two points. loved tasha's KO too, she was definitely very powerful there.

 

and same on Kala's KO not working too much for me. i think it was a bit too rushed for me

[nytsch]

Yeah, D Smooth and Gina were my 2 favorites of the POs but I stand by them both being a snooze fest in the SF. Imo of course… we’ll get there when we get there lol

[FloorWax]

Now I guess I have to talk about Ray Uriel. But why does one need to talk about Ray Uriel? We can instead talk about more riveting stuff such as college calculus. Did y’all know that for a curve to have a horizontal tangent line at its y-intercept, then the value of its derivative when x is equal to 0 must also be 0? Yeah, me neither.

 

Oh, and false cognates, that’s another thing to think about. False cognates are when two similar-looking words in two different languages have completely different meanings. A great example is the Spanish word “éxito” seemingly being related to the English word “exit”, even though the former actually translates to success. Another example I can think of in Tagalog is the word “delikado” which means “dangerous” in Filipino, even if the Spanish word it originated from, “delicado”, means “delicate”.

 

It’s so odd how far your mind can wander when trying to talk about something so lacking in substance. What was I even talking about anyway? This is IDF… and I’m on my thread… I’m on to the Semifinalists… So there’s Gina, Grace, NOIVAS, D. Smooth, Holly, Ryley, Sorelle, and someone else. By process of elimination, it’s someone from Team Chance, so who did he pick in the Playoffs. Well, I know he didn’t pick Kala, so… who tf did he pick over Kala? It’s uh *looks at Wikipedia* OH YEAH it’s Ray. Meh.

[Misirlou]

16 minutes ago, FloorWax said:

Now I guess I have to talk about Ray Uriel. But why does one need to talk about Ray Uriel? We can instead talk about more riveting stuff such as college calculus. Did y’all know that for a curve to have a horizontal tangent line at its y-intercept, then the value of its derivative when x is equal to 0 must also be 0? Yeah, me neither.

 

Oh, and false cognates, that’s another thing to think about. False cognates are when two similar-looking words in two different languages have completely different meanings. A great example is the Spanish word “éxito” seemingly being related to the English word “exit”, even though the former actually translates to success. Another example I can think of in Tagalog is the word “delikado” which means “dangerous” in Filipino, even if the Spanish word it originated from, “delicado”, means “delicate”.

 

It’s so odd how far your mind can wander when trying to talk about something so lacking in substance. What was I even talking about anyway? This is IDF… and I’m on my thread… I’m on to the Semifinalists… So there’s Gina, Grace, NOIVAS, D. Smooth, Holly, Ryley, Sorelle, and someone else. By process of elimination, it’s someone from Team Chance, so who did he pick in the Playoffs. Well, I know he didn’t pick Kala, so… who tf did he pick over Kala? It’s uh *looks at Wikipedia* OH YEAH it’s Ray. Meh.

You didn´t even say he was bad or that he couldn´t sing, yet this is much more harsh than that lol. Damn.

 

Honestly, I agree, he basically sleepwalked his way through the season, any other coach would have dropped him (or probably not turned around).

 

He´s not bad, but terribly uninteresting.

[QueenMae16]

54 minutes ago, FloorWax said:

Now I guess I have to talk about Ray Uriel. But why does one need to talk about Ray Uriel? We can instead talk about more riveting stuff such as college calculus. Did y’all know that for a curve to have a horizontal tangent line at its y-intercept, then the value of its derivative when x is equal to 0 must also be 0? Yeah, me neither.

 

Oh, and false cognates, that’s another thing to think about. False cognates are when two similar-looking words in two different languages have completely different meanings. A great example is the Spanish word “éxito” seemingly being related to the English word “exit”, even though the former actually translates to success. Another example I can think of in Tagalog is the word “delikado” which means “dangerous” in Filipino, even if the Spanish word it originated from, “delicado”, means “delicate”.

 

It’s so odd how far your mind can wander when trying to talk about something so lacking in substance. What was I even talking about anyway? This is IDF… and I’m on my thread… I’m on to the Semifinalists… So there’s Gina, Grace, NOIVAS, D. Smooth, Holly, Ryley, Sorelle, and someone else. By process of elimination, it’s someone from Team Chance, so who did he pick in the Playoffs. Well, I know he didn’t pick Kala, so… who tf did he pick over Kala? It’s uh *looks at Wikipedia* OH YEAH it’s Ray. Meh.

This was one of the funniest things I read, lmfao.

 

Ray was the definition of battle fodder, yet he made Top 8 

[nytsch]

I will say his Essence performance was kinda interesting in concept if not in execution and that’s all I got lol

[Rodney]

40 minutes ago, nytsch said:

I will say his Essence performance was kinda interesting in concept if not in execution and that’s all I got lol

See, I actually thought that "Essence" was his best performance.  But yeah, aside from that, it's criminal that Kala and Jamar got passed over for him in the Playoffs.

Edited October 2, 2023 by Rodney

[QueenCami]

Ray reminded me a little of Brayden in that it felt like their ways of singing were “lazy,” like they weren’t trying. I think it might be related to enunciation.

[Hamza Tufail]

2 hours ago, FloorWax said:

Now I guess I have to talk about Ray Uriel. But why does one need to talk about Ray Uriel? We can instead talk about more riveting stuff such as college calculus. Did y’all know that for a curve to have a horizontal tangent line at its y-intercept, then the value of its derivative when x is equal to 0 must also be 0? Yeah, me neither.

 

Oh, and false cognates, that’s another thing to think about. False cognates are when two similar-looking words in two different languages have completely different meanings. A great example is the Spanish word “éxito” seemingly being related to the English word “exit”, even though the former actually translates to success. Another example I can think of in Tagalog is the word “delikado” which means “dangerous” in Filipino, even if the Spanish word it originated from, “delicado”, means “delicate”.

 

It’s so odd how far your mind can wander when trying to talk about something so lacking in substance. What was I even talking about anyway? This is IDF… and I’m on my thread… I’m on to the Semifinalists… So there’s Gina, Grace, NOIVAS, D. Smooth, Holly, Ryley, Sorelle, and someone else. By process of elimination, it’s someone from Team Chance, so who did he pick in the Playoffs. Well, I know he didn’t pick Kala, so… who tf did he pick over Kala? It’s uh *looks at Wikipedia* OH YEAH it’s Ray. Meh.