Well that was an utterly boring Battle Round. Every time there was a Steal, I thought… why? And then realize, oh, they were Stolen because there was not anyone better. At least it was boring until the final episode where the top four singers on my Blind Audition Power Rankings were left to perform. Or so I thought. We finally got someone worthy of a Steal. Except Livia was on Team Alicia and Alicia was the only one who had a Steal left so we knew that was not happening.
This has been my main complaint since they have introduced the Steals is that it screws over anyone who goes late because clearly the coaches use their Steals early. I have long thought the solution is to give the coaches unlimited Steals with the caveat that they can only take two of them into the Knockouts (and from the Knockouts, one Steal to the Playoffs). Then after the round, you set it up like the Twitter Save where all that coach’s Steals in rapid succession perform one last Save Me song then the coach picks two. So win-win, we get the best talent advancing (assuming the coaches pick wisely which is not always the case) and hopefully no one goes home prematurely.
But after Livia was inexplicably was sent home, you would think that was the last bit of fireworks of the season because we knew Alicia was going to Steal whoever last the last Battle, but first we got I thought would be a routine Montage, the first ever transgendered dude on the show got montaged off the show after an awkward three second clip, Blake picked between two novelty acts, then the big shocker was left for the end, Carson announced Hannah Goebel left the show “for personal reason.” Wait, what?
Hannah was number two on my Power Ranking, and when the pairing was announced, I though Hannah vs. Alexa was the biggest mismatch on Team Kelly. The thing is, this has only happened once with someone leaving the show and that turned out someone left to enter rehab and that singer ended up dying not much later. Hannah did mention on social media that night that she is well and still has her voice but it is vague on what exactly made her leave. She did stay around late enough to record her Battle song for iTunes so whatever happened did happened quickly. So hopefully she is truly doing well. And if the personal reason was something out of her control they let her try out again because she was one of the few standouts this season. But here is my rankings of those that will be going to the Knockouts.
1. Terrence Cunningham (Team Alicia) – He topped my list after the Blinds and no reason to have him fall even if this performance was quite subdued. I may have even picked Livia instead.
2. Spensha Baker (Team Blake) – Blake’s black chick who wanted to sing country last season came off as a novelty, but Spensha comes off as much more genuine. She can win.
3. Drew Cole (Team Adam) – I wrote Drew off as a novelty in the Blinds, but that was really good.
4. Wilkes (Team Blake) – A couple seasons ago Lauren Duski sang a cool country version of a nineties song and then Blake had her sing mostly boring country songs. Wilkes auditioned with a nineties rock song but I hope does not make him sing boring country songs every week.
5. Britton Buchanan (Team Alicia) – Had he had been doing Christian death metal, I may have thought it was Landry Clarke up there.
6. Rayshun LaMarr (Team Adam) – That was one of the Battles where it not even worth picking, they were both good, enough to advance, but neither will make much dent in the Live Shows.
7. Tish Haynes Keys (Team
8. Jordyn Simone (Team
9. Kelsea Johnson (Team Alicia) – Seriously, why did they dress and style them the same? Toss a coin.
10. Johnny Bliss (Team Alicia) – Montage win… yawn, and yet another Asian chick gets montaged off the show.
11. Dallas Caroline (Team
12. Pryor Baird (Team Blake) – Tom Petty is one of the greats and has a large enough catalogue that he should be sung every season, but this song really is not made for competition show. I am still waiting for someone cool enough to sing It’s Good to Be King.
13. Mia Boostrom (Team Adam) – Interesting voice but needs better songs.
14. Reid Umstattd (Team Adam) – Well that was kind of shocking but Reid actually benefited from having to sing out his comfort zone, made it look like a high degree of difficulty.
15. Jaclyn Lovey (Team
16. Miya Bass (Team
17. D.R. King (Team Kelly) – Nothing more disappointing than hearing someone singing Sign of the Times and turning out not to be the Prince song. Not only that, this was the second straight season for the song, which is not worthy of a crappy song like this. I guess D.R. did as well as he could.
18. Kyla Jade (Team Blake) – Poor Kyla. Usually whenever Blake picks a crappy pop song in the Battles it usually gets montaged especially when it is a mixed matched one Kyla would have been better off having people seen ten seconds or less of this.
19. Brynn Cartelli (Team Kelly) – Well that was kind of creepy giving a song about sex to a twenty something dude and a fourteen year old girl.
20. Dylan Hartigan (Team
21. Gary Edwards (Team Adam) – Montage win… yawn. And probably for the best, the three seconds we saw was extremely awkward.
22. Jackie Verna (Team Adam) – Honestly, I kind of wish both singers in the Battle went home.
23. Jorge Eduardo (Team Kelly) – I think knocked Kelly for being inexpienced by going with her heard over her head, but picking the boring dude with the guitar is the most shroud thing you can do on this show. Meh.
24. Alexa Cappelli (Team Kelly) – Montage win by forfeit… double yawn.
25. Kaleb Lee (Team
26. Justin Kilgore (Team Kelly) – I am not sure what was more shocking, that Kelly picked him or that Blake did not Steal Molly.
27. Jackie Foster (Team
28. Christiana Danielle (Team Alicia) – It is weird Kings of Leon does not get used very often on the show, Sex on Fire was sung the first season but I cannot remember anyone since. As for the performance, I was kind of meh on both, too sleepy.
29. Sharane Calister (Team Alicia) – I was not familiar with that song and hope never to hear from it again.
30. Austin Giorgio (Team Blake) – Montage win… yawn.
31. Jamilla (Team Kelly) – Double montage win… yawn.
32. Jaron Strom (Team Blake) – Montage win… yawn.
Alright, let’s go ahead and put these ranking into a mathematical equation to see who has the strongest team:
Alicia – 155
Adam – 150
Blake – 131
Kelly – 92
Yeah Kelly’s inexperience is showing with one of the weakest teams in memory. I like Tish, but she is going nowhere. Caleb was the biggest waste of a Steal. Plus there was a couple of questionable Battle Round pairing and picks But Alicia pairing two of her five Blind Auditions do not seem to be hurting yet. But all you need it one person to win, and she has the best of the season right now. But who cares what I think, here is how the Battles ranked on iTunes.
1. D.R. King and Jackie Foster (57)
2. Britton Buchanan and Jaclyn Lovey (59)
3. Livia Faith and Terrence Cunningham (85)
4. Justin Kilgore and Molly Stevens (91)
5. Brynn Cartelli and Dylan Hartigan (95)
6. Davison and Reid Umstattd (108)
7. Christiana Danielle and Shana Halligan (153)
8. Amber Sauer and Jorge Eduardo (181)
9. Drew Cole and Miya Bass (182)
10. Rayshun LaMarr and Tish Haynes Keys (190)
11. Jordyn Simone and Kelsea Johnson (228)
12. Jordan Kirkdorffer and Wilkes (297)
13. Kaleb Lee and Pryor Baird (332)
14. Jamai and Sharane Calister (335)
15. Jackie Verna and Stephanie Skipper (390)
16. Dallas Caroline and Spensha Baker (492)
17. Genesis Diaz and Mia Boostrom (519)
18. JessLee and Kyla Jade (653)
19. Terrence Cunningham (966)
20. Christiana Danielle (1000)
21. Brynn Cartelli (1075)
22. Jaclyn Lovey (1086)
23. Alexa Cappelli and Hannah Goebel (1387)
24. Austin Giorgio and Brett Hunter (1401)
25. Livia Faith (1441)
And if you average the peaks of those who charted on both the Battles and the Blind Auditions, here is how they rank:
1. Terrence Cunningham (67)
2. Britton Buchanan (142.5)
3. Christiana Danielle (151)
4. Brynn Cartelli (153)
5. Jaclyn Lovey (166.5)
6. Justin Kilgore (168.5)
7. Drew Cole (177.5)
8. Jorge Eduardo (203.5)
9. Rayshun LaMarr (327.5)
10. Prior Baird (374.5)
11. Dylan Hartigan (376)
12. Reid Umstattd (414.5)
13. Kelsea Johnson (421.5)
14. Wilkes (428)
15. Sharane Calister (434)
16. Dallas Caroline (526.5)
17. D.R. King (548.5)
18. Spensha Baker (582.5)
19. Jackie Verna (606)
20. Jackie Foster (626)
21. Kaleb Lee (629)
One shocking thing about this list, the two people who sat atop the Battle Round iTunes chart, D.R. and Jackie F. are both in the bottom five of the combined list. Then over ten singers who either did not make the top 1500 for either their Battle of Blind Audition seem pretty high. Here is how the teams rank mathematically:
Alicia – 61
Kelly – 54
Blake - 52
Adam - 43
Alicia is dominating with the top three spots. If those three are her team going into Top 12, she could dominate the Live Shows too. Of course keep in mind last year’s winner Chloe did not make a dent in iTunes until the Knockouts. Speaking of the Knoutout Round, the show did not release the pairings this year (other than the three you can spot in the promos). But we are getting a new twist where Coaches can “Save” an artist they did not pick which sounds like the Coach’s Comeback but it happens in real time and much like the Saves, the people who perform late get screwed.
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