'The Voice' Top 10 Recap: Oh Madi Dear, You Know You're Still Number One

On Monday, Season 9 of The Voice – or as I prefer to fondly call it, The Jeffery & Madi Show – continued apace. Sure, the coaches may have lavished their highest praise on Team Adam’s chosen one, Jordan Smith, but don’t count out Jeffery Austin and Madi Davis just yet. If they can survive next week’s bloodbath (when five of the remaining top nine will go home in one brutal fell swoop) and fast-track to the finale, either of them could very well become this season’s “upset” victor. And I won’t be upset at all.

Here’s Monday’s top 10 recap:

Jeffery Austin (Team Gwen)

Last week, Jeffery got the “pimp spot,” was amazing… and still only peaked at #27 on the iTunes chart. This week, he was in the “death spot,” singing first, and singing a song that his coach Gwen Stefani warned him was little-known, Labrinth’s “Jealous.” It’s needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway: I was worried.

But then Jeffery hit the stage with his soothing, soothing vocals, and suddenly I felt all calm and gooey inside. All was well. Who cares if a lot of people don’t know this song? There was a time when no one knew Adele’s “Hello,” either, and 4 million people still bought it. A good song is a good song is a good song.

Jeffery’s voice was gorgeous, and his emoting felt genuine and raw – emanating from a real place, building slowly and dramatically, perfectly paced. It took a while for him to reach that emotional climax, but it was worth the wait. I hope America’s voters took the time, had the patience to watch the whole performance, and paid rapt attention – because if they didn’t, they missed one of the very best performances of this season.

“That was once again a moment where we were transported from the competition and just taken directly to what you’re doing,” gushed Adam Levine. “I probably haven’t been more wrapped up in a performance this entire season,” raved Blake Shelton. “I didn’t want it to end. I was transported to this place, this space. It was so beautiful… That could be easily the record you make,” said Gwen.

And that is a record I would easily purchase.

Emily Ann Roberts (Team Blake)

Seventeen-year-old Emily continued to successfully brand herself as an old-soul’d old-schooler with a tasteful Patsy Cline cover this week, “She’s Got You.” I don’t think Emily had the late, great Patsy’s gravitas and grit (or life experience, of course) – and coming off of Jeffery’s emotional gut-punch, this subdued performance fell a little flat. It didn’t really seem like Emily’s heart was aching and breaking.

But I appreciated her effort. I always will give props to a budding young artist who respects her elders and knows her history – especially in country music, a genre currently dominated by Auto-Tuned dudebros hollering on and on about trucks and chicks and beer. Country radio could really use more singers like Emily in the mix.

“It’s unbelievable that you’re 17 years old and you sing with such an old soul, talented and focused beyond your years. That could have been somebody from 20 or 30 years ago,” said an impressed Pharrell Williams. “I can’t stop smiling right now. My heart is pounding. That was so good… I want people at home to know I have never had a better collaborator in nine seasons than Emily Ann… She is so smart and knows who she is as an artist. You have had incredible performances, but that was your best performance so far,” added an elated Blake.

Braiden Sunshine (Team Gwen)

I really think 15-year-old Braiden – unlike some other, more self-possessed youngsters on the show this season, like Madi and Emily – has no idea who he is yet, or what type of artist he wants to be. He has flip-flopped from Blues Traveler to Michael Bublé to Styx to Spandau Ballet, and he’s never seemed entirely comfortable with any of those performances. What the kid needs is guidance from his much older and supposedly much wiser coach, but Gwen seems to think the solution for everything is just to give her contestants makeovers. It hasn’t worked for poor Korin Bukowski, and Gwen’s suggestion that Braiden cut his curly locks this week didn’t make his performance of Imagine Dragons’ alt-rock monster hit “Radioactive” any more convincing.

This was a mostly solid vocal, aside from a ragged note towards the end, but early on Braiden missed the breathy gasp in the chorus – one of the most dramatic and distinctive parts of this song – and the entire performance was lacking in drama from that point onward. This was simply way too big a song for little Braiden to take on.

This coaches all loved this, however. Adam praised Braiden’s “balls” – a facepalming and squirmy moment that pretty much threw off the coaches for the remainder of this segment. Blake called Braiden a “throwback to the ‘80s” – which wasn’t really a compliment, considering that Braiden had made a conscientious effort with this song choice to seem modern for once. Gwen called Braiden “punk-rock” (um, no) and spent most of her critique just praising Braiden’s new haircut. I wish one of the coaches had had the “balls” to be honest about Braiden, for once.

Shelby Brown (Team Adam)

Shelby had a rough time on iTunes last week, charting dead last with her risky Lady Gaga cover. I have a feeling she will fare better this week with her heartfelt tribute to her late grandfather, Vince Gill’s “Go Rest High on That Mountain” (the song was actually played at her grandpa’s memorial service). Surely this was a performance that connected more deeply with her core country fanbase (that churchy stage backdrop probably didn’t hurt, either), and this gospel-tinged ballad definitely showcased the heft of Shelby’s powerful, booming voice.

Sure, maybe the sentimental backstory was a little manipulative. But it was real. “It’s like you connected to the intention of the person who wrote that song… what you sang in here tonight and the way you connected to the lyrics, everybody in here could feel this was easily your best moment on this show,” said Pharrell. “Every single week, you get better and better and better. We are all so proud of you,” said Adam.

If ever Shelby had a shot at iTunes top 10 glory, this would be it. I wish her luck.

Korin Bukowski (Team Gwen)

After two consecutive brushes with near-elimination, Twitter Save survivor/indie ingénue/hapless Gwen Stefani makeover victim Korin came raging back this week with an interesting and unexpected song choice: Selena Gomez’s melodramatic breakup anthem “Same Old Love.” My first impression was how much she sounded like Gwen on this song, especially in the chorus. It was actually uncanny. But despite that weird mimicry, this was my favorite Korin performance in weeks. Her little baby voice and tentativeness were gone, and she was just going for it. Good for her. Korin might escape elimination again this week, and this time, the reprieve would be deserved.

“I feel like today was your moment,” said Pharrell. “I can’t believe you did that. You went to an elevator with this one, and you went up. That was crazy. I didn’t expect that,” said Gwen. (Side note: It’s not really an encouraging sign when your own coach tells you she didn’t expect you to do well, is it?)

Maybe Korin had this new attitude because at this point, she had nothing to lose. But my theory is she got her mojo back when Gwen let her have her old hair color back. It was like Gwen had stripped away all of Korin’s personality when she stripped her hair platinum earlier this season.

Amy Vachal (Team Adam)

Amy joked that she hoped this week’s performance would help her become the “sixth member” of *NSYNC, but really, she continued her season-long audition to be the next member of Postmodern Jukebox with this jazzy, scatty, sexy cover of “Bye, Bye, Bye.” And I totally think PMJ should give her a job. After a brief lapse when Amy got a little ho-hum and sleepy earlier this season, she’s quickly turned it all around with a recent string of iTunes-charting creative covers, and this one was another triumph. Amy may not have the biggest voice this season, but she often makes the biggest artistic statements.

“This is cool. What we figured out together is the ability to maximize the creative capacity you can have on the show with songs that are not your own. For anyone that’s writing songs, singing songs. I think that with you, Amy, we have been able to really maximize that and show people that there are a million different ways a great song can be a great song and you’re so good at it,” said Adam. After that mouthful, there wasn’t any time left for Blake or Pharrell to chime in – but Adam said it all, really.

Jordan Smith (Team Adam)

Oh, I remember the halcyon days of American Idol Season 7, when people weren’t completely tired of “Hallelujah” and Jason Castro’s cover could send both the Leonard Cohen original and Jeff Buckley’s remake to the upper reaches of the iTunes chart. But since then, the song has been covered on singing competitions so often that it has its own YouTube supercut, and even Leonard Cohen has argued that people should stop covering it. So even when a stunning evangelical singer like Jordan the Unicorn performs it, the song’s impact is sadly lost.

I tried to divorce myself from the overdone song’s long history on Idol, X Factor, and The Voice itself. (Blake mentioned Matthew Schuler’s glorious version from The Voice Season 5, then blasphemously, incorrectly claimed Jordan’s was better. Nope.) And I had to admit, Jordan had the voice for this classic. He took it to church, as they say in the biz. But the praise that followed felt like too much, and not just because of Blake’s Schuler dis. Host Carson Daly said, “It almost feels like the finals!” Adam claimed Jordan is one of the best singers in the world. The blatant pimping of Jordan Smith is frankly beginning to wear on my nerves. I haven’t seen anything like it since Cassadee Pope was on the show six seasons ago. All the pimping worked back then, of course. Will it work this time? We shall see…

Zach Seabaugh (Team Blake)

Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” could have been a disastrous song choice for the vocally challenged Zach, who is no Freddie Mercury. And this was a far-from-perfect performance. A couple of Zach’s cheesy dance moves were giving me horrific flashbacks to Evan McKeel’s awkward, doomed Twitter Save performance last week, and Zach also flubbed a line in the verse (he seemed to forget, for a moment, that the microphone needed to be somewhere near his mouth). If this was an obvious, desperate attempt to recreate the flukey magic of Zach’s breakout “Brand-New Girlfriend” performance, it missed the mark.

But the '50s vibe of this playful Queen ditty did allow Zach to tap into his inner Elvis again, in a way he hadn’t in recent weeks. So overall, this was my second-favorite Zach performance since… well, since “Brand-New Girlfriend.”

But then, of course, came all the excessive praise. While I always appreciate Blake’s enthusiasm and support for his contestants – he truly is a bigger cheerleader than any of the other coaches, and that may have something to do with his stellar Voice track record – it was a little much (actually a lot much) when he boasted: “I’m going out on a limb here, way out on a limb… Best performance ever. I’ll see you in the finals.”

Um, no. Crazy little thing called Blake, amirite?

Madi Davis (Team Pharrell)

Early-MTV party staple “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” has the potential to veer right into novelty territory (the otherwise awesome Joey Cook struggled with it on American Idol last season). But Madi somehow made it sound like the saddest, sweetest song in the world, tapping into the lyrics (originally written by Robert Hazard, reinterpreted by pop trailblazer Cyndi Lauper) and turning into it a poignant feminist lament. When Madi longingly belted, “I wanna be the one to walk in the sun,” I actually got choked up. (And usually “Time After Time” is the Lauper song that makes me cry.). This was gorgeous and special.

“It’s just entertaining and fun. That was a really weird, cool, awesome version of the song,” said Adam, who really should have been more effusive with his praise after wildly salivating all over Jordan and Braiden all damn night. Pharrell was more on the money, of course: “That was sick. I’m about to buy it, download it. I would love for everybody at home to go on iTunes and buy this record right now. That was amazing. Seriously. You picked a song. You arranged it. You had a sax player. Where is your brain to be 16 years old to be coming up with these things? It’s amazing.”

Yep. This beautiful girl should not be hidden away from the rest of the world. She needs to be the one to walk in the sun. She’s a star.

Barrett Baber (Team Blake)

Like Emily, Barrett went vintage country this week, with “I’d Just Love to Lay You Down” by Conway Twitty. And he kept it simple, just a man and his guitar. This was a welcome 180 from his corny, affected, all-frills-no-thrills “Delta Dawn” performance last week, and I imagine that this number, in the coveted pimp spot, will help Barrett recapture his iTunes glory and make the top 10. This was the real Barrett Baber, and this was good stuff.

“That was my favorite performance from you in a while. I felt like you were getting back to your roots… I finally saw that thing I saw when I first heard you sing again,” said Adam, speaking for probably all of America. “So freakin’ good, man. I have never heard you sing better than that. I agree with Adam. That’s the best you have performed on this show so far,” said a proud Blake.

So now, it is prediction time. On Tuesday, two singers will be up for elimination, and after a Twitter Save showdown, one will go home. I’m predicting those bottom two will Braiden (even though I’m always wrong about him and he’s always safe, somehow) and Korin (just because of her unlucky track record; she was actually good this week). Can Korin be saved a third time? Watch this space.

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