QC ranks the Blind Auditions [9-1 posted lol]

[QueenCami]

25. Neil Salsich

 

Neil brings a ton of joy to this performance which reminds me a lot of Todd Tilghman's blind audition. In many ways, actually, Neil reminds me of Todd: a @Teraginn snowflake, cool vocal texture, and 4-chair turn that opens the blind auditions. I actually really like this audition, but I think it landed here mainly because I preferred other song choices, vocal styles, genres, or overall performances. Nonetheless, his yodels showed some impressive range, plus I really appreciate the cool vocal texture he had. Furthermore, his montaged battle solo performance was incredible. Looking forward to hearing more of him through the rest of the show! (Hopefully my positive comments spare me from a roasting by Teraginn for what in hindsight seems like too low a ranking for him.)

 

HINT: "After this contestant performed, three other contestants in the same episode issued a response." [Points awarded: N/A]

 

He sang about the "Honky Tonk Blues," then Ross sang "Blue Ain't Your Color," Michael B. sang "Save Your Tears," and NOIVAS sang "A Change Is Gonna Come" -- all of which are songs that tangentially address the topic of sadness due to a major life change.

 

24. ALI

 

ALI starts off her performance in an unorthodox way, singing some lines from the chorus before jumping back to the beginning of the song. Nonetheless, it worked, as she convinced multiple coaches to turn. She has some really impressive runs, as well as a really powerful voice. Although I think that this song choice didn't give her an opportunity to show off her power as much as other song choices would have, there were enough glimpses of her power in there that I would've been pretty convinced to turn my chair, if I were a coach. Furthermore, I really loved some of her vocal choices, like her run at the very end of the song. Congrats to ALI on making it on The Voice!

 

HINT: "Hate to break it to you, but you’re not unique…" [Points awarded: N/A, FloorWax's justification wasn't similar enough for me to justify giving points?]

 

Once again, I'm not going to just be mean to contestants.  This isn't to point out an inadequacy about her, but rather to comment on the unnatural number of names similar to ALI from this season: ALI, Allie, Alison, Alyssa.

 

23. Laura Littleton

 

Listening to this again, I hate myself. I have no idea why I decided to place this in the middle of the ranking because it very clearly belongs in the top 15 at the very least, and probably higher. Not only does Laura bring a creative touch to a terrible singer's song, but also she shows off some really impressive vocals throughout her blind audition. Her vibrato makes her sound very unique and she also hits some impressively powerful notes. I love her climbing "Oh" note right before she goes into a softer part of her voice. The contrast is stunning. Truly a perfect match of excellent arrangement, vocal skill, unique sound (and terrible song). Furthermore, Laura's personality shined through in her talk with the coaches. I'm so proud of her for overcoming depression (if I'm remembering this wrong from her package this will be so embarrassing) and I'm so glad that she got on this stage. She is such a light and I am a big fan of hers!

 

HINT: "Well that’s an oxymoron! Plus another literary device? English teachers must love you!" [Points Awarded: @FloorWax]

 

Laura's last name is Littleton, which, when broken up into "little ton," is an oxymoron.

 

22. Ross Clayton

 

 

Don't know why I didn't like this on my first few listens, but it's a perfectly competent cover of a good song. Yes, it lacks some of the character in Jim Ranger's cover, and it lacks the presence of women in Brennen vs. Gracee's montage, but he still does a great job on the song and actually hits some impressive notes. His extended "ain't" at the end was genuinely impressive and came as a surprise to me. Also, his "you don't need thaaat guy" was really great. I think that because I liked Jim's cover so much it was hard to enjoy this as much at first, but trying to listen to this objectively, it's genuinely a strong performance that deserves multiple chair turns.

 

HINT: "Not sure how YOU would see that anyway…" [Points awarded: @FloorWax @nytsch]

 

Okay I was so proud of this hint LMAO. Glad y'all got it (and frankly a little surprised you got it so fast!). Anyway, your reasoning was correct; he has orange-tinted glasses but sings about blue not being someone's color.

[QueenCami]

New hints! Also, do y'all want the points system to continue, or no? FloorWax is obviously going to win anyway LMAO.

 

@nytsch @erik g @Cookie73 @Gustavo527 @Hsamid @allistr @FloorWax @Someone648 @allistr @jarmon @VintageVoice @Hamza Tufail @AliXRose

 

18. America’s Best Dance Crew, Season 4.

19. 6300.

20. Waves.

21. I guess he chose singing over chess.

[QueenCami]

wait this pun is so cringe let me fix the title i hate myself

 

 

 

[FloorWax]

I was so sure the Ross hint was misleading  

 

I don’t know how I feel about ALI being this high. I found her audition to be pretty messy. But I guess some people really enjoyed her runs.

[QueenCami]

omg u r on it!!!! you weren't lying when you said the "Filipino honor student in [you] was ravenous"  

 

 

 

[QueenCami]

1 minute ago, FloorWax said:

I was so sure the Ross hint was misleading  

 

I don’t know how I feel about ALI being this high. I found her audition to be pretty messy. But I guess some people really enjoyed her runs.

lowkey have no idea what was going on when i initially made these rankings because, redoing the top 21, there have been some major mixups. definitely some people i'd swap out of the bottom 20 into the top 21.

[allistr]

33 minutes ago, QueenCami said:

New hints! Also, do y'all want the points system to continue, or no? FloorWax is obviously going to win anyway LMAO.

 

@nytsch @erik g @Cookie73 @Gustavo527 @Hsamid @allistr @FloorWax @Someone648 @allistr @jarmon @VintageVoice @Hamza Tufail @AliXRose

 

18. America’s Best Dance Crew, Season 4.

19. 6300.

20. Waves.

21. I guess he chose singing over chess.

21 is Magnus (Magnus Carlsen)

[FloorWax]

49 minutes ago, QueenCami said:

lowkey have no idea what was going on when i initially made these rankings because, redoing the top 21, there have been some major mixups. definitely some people i'd swap out of the bottom 20 into the top 21.

 

you’re like the most indecisive user on this forum so i kinda figured this would be a struggle for you 

[VintageVoice]

3 hours ago, QueenCami said:

 

18. America’s Best Dance Crew, Season 4.

19. 6300.

20. Waves.

21. I guess he chose singing over chess

18. Ryley Tate Wilson (Dancing on My Own is often shortened to DOMO on here, and former Voice contestant DOMO made an appearance on S4 of America’s Best Dance Crew)

19. ???

20. ???

21. Magnus (Magnus Carlsen is a chess grandmaster, as @TheVoiceFan2 mentioned in their guess)

[FloorWax]

I’ll just let y’all take this round, all I could come up with was Waves = Kason because Kason has wavy hair 

[Cookie73]

Neil is the only person I would have much higher

 

Also, I am interested to hear which artists you wish you wanted higher (maybe I’ll agree with a few of those). I think listening to performances over and over again is a great way to ensure that ratings are accurate, and listening to performances back to back when struggling to decide is also a great strategy. This is how I usually come up with my order for the ranking performances thread. Even then, my list might change after I see more performances from contestants (some performances have grown on me more with time, but that might be if I become more used to their tone.

[erik g]

i dont have enough brain cells for these clues

[QueenCami]

the two unguessed ones are hard, on the basis of the clues not being very good. “waves” was 100% meant to be confusing and i imagine y’all won’t be particularly satisfied with my explanation but i like being a little mean so it’s ok

 

 no confirmation on the other two

[nytsch]

I’d have Ali lower I wanted to like it but it didn’t sound good to me, thankfully I liked her battle way more.

 

Laura has a winning personality but personally I don’t think she needed to be any higher 

 

Ross ehhhh, I mean I definitely wouldn’t have him above Neil but to each their own

[QueenCami]

3 hours ago, nytsch said:

Laura has a winning personality but personally I don’t think she needed to be any higher 

that was uncalled for!

 

also i get what u mean w Neil and Ross.. not sure how or why it happened but it did. that being said, neither were top 10 for me so at the end of the day the specific ranking matters less than generally where they placed i think. 

 

but my rankings definitely change with time because i would’ve placed Ross much lower earlier on i think so lowkey just depends on my mood and how much i’ve overplayed a performance LMAO

[allistr]

14 hours ago, allistr said:

19. 6300

Something tells me this is Kason... 6300 days ago was almost the day when American Idol season 5 started airing, and Chris Daughtry was a contestant of that season.

[QueenCami]

32 minutes ago, allistr said:

Something tells me this is Kason... 6300 days ago was almost the day when American Idol season 5 started airing, and Chris Daughtry was a contestant of that season.

i’ll give you a hint: the units for this number is not a length of time, but it is something very closely related. you very likely wouldn’t encounter these units organically; they don’t have a real mathematical meaning.

[allistr]

21 minutes ago, QueenCami said:

i’ll give you a hint: the units for this number is not a length of time, but it is something very closely related. you very likely wouldn’t encounter these units organically; they don’t have a real mathematical meaning.

Bye /j

[QueenCami]

1 hour ago, allistr said:

Bye /j

if you want me to take the hint back i will /j

[allistr]

On 4/13/2023 at 4:52 PM, QueenCami said:

19. 6300.

20. Waves.

 

[FloorWax]

On 4/14/2023 at 9:28 AM, QueenCami said:

i’ll give you a hint: the units for this number is not a length of time, but it is something very closely related. you very likely wouldn’t encounter these units organically; they don’t have a real mathematical meaning.

 

Y’all 6300 is the product of the ages of the Sorelle sisters I can’t believe QueenCami thought of this 

[FloorWax]

I rewatched their pre-audition segment to make sure and the ages were listed as 15, 20, and 21. 

 

15 x 20 x 21 = 6300  

[QueenCami]

21. Magnus

 

I probably would've turned right after Chance, on the first run. I am a massive fan of male singers who can get to low notes and have good runs (part of the reason I enjoyed Kique last season). Magnus shows off both of those skills in this performance well, although the low note he went for seemed a little artificially low and slightly forced. That, combined with a few issues with pitch, have knocked Magnus down to #21, but that doesn't mean I'm not a fan -- aside from the pitch issues, this is one of my top auditions. Magnus definitely has one of the best voices in the competition, to my ear, as he continued to prove in the battle rounds. 

 

HINT: "I guess he chose singing over chess." [congrats to @allistr on getting this first!]

 

Magnus Carlsen, current world champion at (classical?) chess, decided to sit out of the 2023 championship for the title, which is in progress right now. At the same time, someone named Magnus auditions for The Voice. Coincidence? Yeah, probably. 

 

Also, an unfortunate result of this is that, since Magnus' stage name is just Magnus, if you try to look up Magnus to listen to his performance (as I have done), then you'll instead find a bunch of videos about Magnus Carlsen.

 

20. Tasha Jessen

 

Tasha has a really pretty voice! However, I feel like her voice felt really thin throughout this performance, particularly at the beginning. Furthermore, her head voice was quite weak. Generally, I feel like there were quite a few times in this performance during which I felt like her voice just didn't sound as good as it could have, plus I don't think I loved all of her vocal choices (o-o-o-o-o-oh, go on, in particular). With my criticisms out of the way, this is genuinely a performance I really enjoy! Her high notes are quite impressive, and since this is a song I already really like in the first place, it's very easy to enjoy. If I got to pick, this would be a solid 2-chair turn; she had some solid vocal moments but also slight misses that I think compounded enough to not merit 3 or more turns. I will say, Tasha improved a ton in the battles, delivering some great moments, though she had a similar issue with weakness particularly at the beginning of the song. Hopefully she's able to work on that going into the knockouts and potentially playoffs / live shows.

 

HINT: "Waves." 

 

Both of Tasha's song choices, "River" and "Tracks of My Tears," refer to water flowing. Although "waves" isn't an exact interpretation of that, they both call to mind similar ideas. This was meant to be a red herring for NariYella, who very notably waved to Niall during her blind audition, but I think y'all figured I wouldn't have her at 20. 

 

19. Sorelle

 

Interestingly, this performance was at 6th in my initial rankings, but it's dropped quite a bit. That's not to say I don't like it, but I think what happened is that I liked it so much that I overplayed it and now it's lost its shine. Nonetheless, I'll still share all of the things that made me like it so much in the first place. First of all, their harmonies were extremely tight, and unlike other trios we've had in the past, they're all going for genuinely challenging notes instead of going for a more folksy, angelic vibe. Second, all of them can hold their own as soloists, imo. The youngest and oldest sisters both have this insane belting rage and imo would certainly get chair turns on their own. The middle sister is, interestingly, extremely different from the other two, with a Gwen-like tone that makes Sorelle's sound much more interesting as a whole; a duo without the middle sister would certainly be incomplete. Finally, although I thought the layering of the vocals was a bit odd at first, I feel like it added to the joyous and chaotic energy of the performance, which is the big reason why I like it so much. Of course, it's vocally quite impressive, especially the high notes the youngest sister is hitting, but more than that, there's a lot of joy in this performance which is a big deal to me. It's a shame that I played this as much as I did because I don't enjoy it as much anymore, but I think this is a great pick-me-up cover to listen to.

 

HINT: "6300." [congrats to @FloorWax on figuring this out first!]

 

The sisters are 15, 20, and 21. The product of this is 6300. My bonus hint was referring to the fact that the number actually represents 6300 years^3, and although years^3 is related to a length of time, it isn't one.

 

18. Ryley-Tate Wilson

 

Yeah, this is a strong performance. I think the beginning is really nice although I'm not sure I would've turned as quickly as the coaches. I think that a lot of the stuff he does after the beginning are vocally impressive, but don't fit the song. The runs feel very excessive and I also very much disagree with the coaches saying that his runs sounded "intuitive" -- to me, they sounded practiced and rigid. That's not a bad thing; in fact, that's what's to be expected when someone is preparing for a blind audition. However, I don't think this performance was as emotionally-driven as the coaches were making it out to be. It felt rehearsed and lacking connection, to some extent. Nonetheless, I think it's worth saying that Ryley is an extremely strong vocalist and generally sounds good, just in the context of this song and this performance, I think less would be better. (FWIW I thought this performance was extremely strong when I heard it the first time, so maybe I'm just being a hater?)

 

HINT: "America’s Best Dance Crew, Season 4." [congrats to @VintageVoice on being the first to figure this out!]

 

DOMO, a previous The Voice contestant, was on America's Best Dance Crew, Season 4. DOMO is an abbreviation for Ryley's blind auditions song, "Dancing On My Own."

[QueenCami]

31 minutes ago, FloorWax said:

 

Y’all 6300 is the product of the ages of the Sorelle sisters I can’t believe QueenCami thought of this 

LMAOOOOO ill try to come up with something even weirder for the next set im excited that u got this though

[QueenCami]

set 6 is posted! as of set 6 onward there will be no points because im lazy. @FloorWax wins the points competition obviously LMAO

 

i will still try to keep track of who gets the hints first and acknowledge that, but i also don't want to stifle R&D wrt my clues by saying that you can only guess once or whatever, like with the previous points system.

 

@nytsch @erik g @Cookie73 @Gustavo527 @Hsamid @allistr @FloorWax @Someone648 @allistr @jarmon @VintageVoice @Hamza Tufail @AliXRose