Thanks Mira, for getting me totally hooked on this show! Round 1 of Night 4 had the groups put together a "superstar medley," which led to some pretty varied results.
On the Rocks - Elton John
So last time I declared my love for Peter of to-be-eliminated Groove for Thought. Now I totally have a thing for the Peter in this group! Loved his solo on "Kyrie" last time and continued to love him with "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" tonight. The judges never seem to mention this, I guess because it's secondary, but these guys have pretty great choreography. They cover the stage and change up their formations and I think they've been getting much cleaner and tighter.
Committed - Usher
Good choice for them, as I think gospel voices transition really well to R&B. They had fantastic transitions between songs and their harmonies are just sick. I personally don't really like Usher so I can't say I loved this but I so respect their talents.
Street Corner Symphony - The Beatles
"Eleanor Rigby" is my favorite Beatles song but I kind of hate when people try to cover it because it just never sounds quite right. No exception here. The rest was really good though...it was nice to hear some of the other guys get their solo moments during "Help" and Jeremy was great as usual with "Hey Jude."
Backbeats - Lady Gaga
The judges are really in love with Courtney, huh? I thought the "Paparazzi" segment was the best, "Poker Face" was way too fast and had too much going on, and "Just Dance" was fine but nothing special.
Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town - Otis Redding
This was very, how do you say it, "in the pocket." This was very classic, no percussion or beatboxing but still sounded wonderfully full. Again, nice to hear someone else besides Jerry take the solo in the middle section (don't know the name of the song...I admit ignorance on this genre of music).
Aaaand On The Rocks is eliminated??? Sigh, I was just starting to really like them. LOVED their quippy last words referencing all three judges and "The Final Countdown" as their "swan song."
Ok, Round 2: Judges' Request.
Committed - "Let's Stay Together" by Al Green
Loved this. Very clean and restrained with great trading off of the vocals. It's like Talk of the Town: the Next Generation.
Street Corner Symphony - "Down on the Corner" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
If Nashville is full of these kind of guys, in the words of Liz Lemon, "I want to go to there." They're just so laid back and cool and this was a great choice for them. They're so great when they get into the choruses and sound like they're just...jamming.
Backbeats - "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac
The judges are really going for the classics huh? I know I've been kind of down on Backbeats in general but this was really quite good. Kenton being the "cello" kind of cracked me up a little bit and how they started crying at the end was a little ridiculous but Joanna is always great and they didn't make it too complicated.
Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town - "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals
Pretty fantastic...almost haunting. It's kind of hard to say bad things about them...
Ugh, fakeout with the second elimination. It was slightly cruel to make Talk of the Town think that they had gotten eliminated for that split second.
Odds and Ends:
- Opening song was alright. "Use Somebody" still my favorite so far.
- This is neither here nor there, but my favorite color is purple, so I love how much purple all the groups are wearing, especially the guys!
- Liked the little holiday song segments.
- Ben Folds is awesome. So is his Sing-Off blog.
- Not going to vote, but not sure who I'd vote for anyway.
- Bizarrely enough, I think this is the most on-time blog I've ever written...
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