The Voice season seven only had eight blank spaces this week, but 10 contestants. And after another intense performance from Taylor Swift, two strong contestants, Reagan James and Anita Antoinette, were sent back home.
This week kicked off with a performance from Adam Levine and his three remaining team members, Damien, Matt McAndrew and Chris Jamison, who tackled the rock anthem "Only the Good Die Young." The performance was strong, with Levine leading the pack and his shockingly strong team following suit.
Like I mentioned last week, Levine started off this season with a seemingly weak batch of singers, but he was able to trim the fat better than anyone else and he's left with the most consistent trio. That was proved again this week, when all three of his men moved on to the top eight, with Matt McAndrew's performance of "Fix You" giving him the second free spot, despite its warbling nature.
Chris Jamison was similarly weak on Monday night (Nov. 24), but he was able to squeak through with the sixth saved spot thanks to a so-so performance of the Mark Ronson/Bruno Mars team up "Uptown Funk." Perhaps the strongest performance from Team Adam this week, Damien's "You and I," was the last to get through to the top eight, but he was safe nonetheless.
Despite the relative weakness of every performance on Monday night, the right seven made it through with America's vote. Craig Wayne Boyd, after absolutely stunning the audience with a touching, ballad take on Johnny Cash's "I Walk The Line," was the first to get called out. Luke Wade, Taylor John Williams and DaNica Shirey also made it through after continuing to be strong performers.
That means that once again, Ryan Sill was in the bottom three after absolutely butchering Muse's "Starlight." He joined the relatively strong Anita Antoinette and Reagan James down at the bottom.
Despite usually pulling out strong performances, song choice destroyed Anita and Reagan this week. Reagan took on too much with Iggy Azalea's "Fancy," tackling both a sing-speaking rap and Charli XCX's hook. In addition to being breathless, Reagan also was a little weak in her lower register, as she is wont to do, landing her in the bottom. And though Anita was nice and loose during her performance of "Let Her Go," the reggae arrangement of the Passenger song was perhaps a little too off for the majority of The Voice's audience.
For the save, Reagan performed Nelly Furtado's breakthrough hit "I'm Like a Bird," which was not exactly in her wheelhouse. The octave was just a little too low for her and she sounded worse than ever - not exactly what you need for the save.
Anita also picked a bum song choice, taking on Jason Mraz's "The Remedy." She wasn't really singing nor speaking, instead Anita was just sort of floating through. If she really wanted to stun and try and go for the save, she should have gone for a raw reggae song, which is obviously her strong suit. Whoever thought this was a good idea was clearly in the wrong, with Anita not really proving why she deserved to stay on the show.
Enter in Ryan Sill. OK, this guy is just not an amazing singer, but he is king of the Twitter save. He picks the best songs for his voice - nothing with much range, nothing with much volume and something with a slower tempo. YAWN. So, he took on Howie Day's "Collide," and was fittingly soft and sweet. Of the three, Ryan pulled out the best save performance, but that isn't saying much considering how bum Reagan and Anita were.
Ryan's relatively good performance and relatively youthful good looks made him a shoo-in for the Twitter save, and he lives to see another day on The Voice.
