The Voice Recap, First Week of Battle Rounds

We finally get to the battle rounds, my favorite part of the show! Christina and Blake's teams got to go twice this week, so that means Cee Lo and Adam's teams will have two battle rounds next week. I loved seeing some of the singers get a little intimidated, it made the competitions better and bought out the best in them.

Team Adam

Adam chose former Mouseketeer Tony Lucca to sing against Chris Cauley with U2's "Beautiful Day." Tony said those were some big "Grammy shoes to fill," and he was right. Chris wanted to sing with someone else, he was well aware of Tony's talents. Adam warned Tony to not try so hard when he was going for his big note in the song. I have to say this is why I wouldn't have picked Tony because every time he went for it you could hear him straining. They got some good advice from Adam's mentors Alanis Morrisette and Robin Thicke before it was time to hit the stage. I thought Chris did a better job with the song, his notes were clear and he wasn't doing that weird, janky thing with his leg the way Tony was. The other coaches liked them both but ultimately Adam went with Tony.

Team Cee Lo

Cee picked Cheesa and Angie Johnson to sing "Total Eclipse of The Heart." My first thought was don't f*** up my song. From the get go, Angie seemed bothered by Cheesey (i'm going to call her that from now on). She didn't like that she was singing louder than her, and then changed how she was singing. Angie didn't get that little Cheesey was just trying to sike her out, it worked. I thought Cee Lo picked some great mentors this year in Babyface and Ne-Yo, especially in the latter. When it came time for the two to sing, I didn't like the way Cheesey started off the song but she ended up singing it better. Adam said there were no losers with this round but everyone was leaning towards Cheesey and that's who Cee Lo picked to continue on.

Team Blake 

Sigh. Okay, so I didn't think that Blake had the best match-ups of the night, in fact they were kind of boring. First, there was Adley Stump and Raelynn singing Tom Petty's "Free Fallin." Adley noticed that Rae was struggling with the song, and was kind of intimidated by her and used that to her advantage. In the ring, it was pretty clear who Blake should choose. Rae started off the song on a seriously shaky note and didn't get any better by the end. Adley simply overpowered and outsung her, but in the end Blake chose Raelynn to go on. Although that shouldn't have been much of a surprise, seeing as how his wife and one of his mentors, Miranda Lambert, sent a special phone message to Adley. Blake also said that she reminded him of a young ML. I hope Miranda made him sleep on the couch for that one.

Blake's second battle was with Brian Fuente and Jordis Unga singing Alanis Morrisette's "Ironic." I was hoping Alanis would have snuck over from her mentoring duties with Adam's team to see how these two would butc...err--sing her song. During rehearsals, Brian had a hard time finding the right key and if I'm not mistaken, Blake was sort of laughing at him. On a bit of a side note, I don't agree with Kelly Clarkson's politics at all, but she makes a great mentor for Blake's team. Better than his wife, actually. I didn't like the way Jordis chose to sing the song, and I think it kind of threw Brian off a bit. He seemed to miss his cue with the second verse and started late. I think that cost him the win.  Blake picks Jordis.

Team Christina

I thought Xtina had the best battles of the night, or at least the most exciting. First up was Opera singer Chris Mann vs Monique Benabou singing Celine Dion's "Power Of Love." At the start of this I was rooting for Chris and his very well put together outfits. He came prepared, sartorially at least. While singing with Xtina and Lionel Richie, he hit a bad note because of nerves, I think. Jewel, who also makes a great mentor, told Monique that she could have a bit of an advantage which made Monique cry. During the song Chris didn't even have to try to out-sing her. I still don't know why Chrissy chose this song and decided to have someone who has a softer voice like Monique go against someone like Chris. His voice is made for power ballads like this. Chris ends up being Christina's first choice.

Thankfully, they saved the best battle for last. Jesse Campbell went head to head with preacher's kid Anthony Evans singing Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You." I wasn't sure about the song choice at first but this ended up being perfect for their voices. We were all excited for the scream-off but first, rehearsals. Jesse was hitting notes all over the place and Christina was definitely impressed. Anthony on the other hand came off a bit threatened, pressed even. When it was time to throw down they both bought it! Well, take a look!

So, Jesse goes on to the next round and next week.  I hope to see more singers bring it the way they did tonight.