The problem I see with idol is that they are going to populate the top 12 or top 24 or whatever it is now with a bunch of 16-17 year old singers. They just can't help themselves and most of them aren't even that enthralling to begin with.

Just as an example, they cut this 26 year old female who just did a very nice version of I will always love you in her audition but she didn't make it past the group rounds yet Eban Rosencrantzfeldchangeyourlastname made it. C'mon...

The only singer I can think of off the top my head is the Wolfman and I hope he made it past the groups.

Wolfman got eliminated in the first Hollywood round I think.

That's what I'm talking about. Just sick. I'm not asking for a Taylor Hicks to win (I"D NEVER). Let's just get some adult singers again in the competition.

Well to be fair I'd eliminate him too. I like his first audition a lot, but he dropped the ball in Hollywood. Though I'm seeing a lot of WTF choices with eliminating people that are clearly better over some head-scratching choices.

Episode 4 Run-down

Ducky - I thought he was OK, then I forgot about him by the end of the episode. No (would not push my button for him). (4/10)

Jonathas - Usher-lite. Doesn't have the consistency in his voice to be smooth. Dips flat too much. Can't believe 2 judges picked him. (3/10) No

Monique Benabou - Shouty and screechy. (3/10) No

Naia Kete - She's really good. She has a distinct voice and stands out. Not perfect but her voice is quite colorful. (9/10) YES, within first two lines.

Erick Macek - Sounded whiny in parts, flat in others. (2.5/10) No

Charlotte Sometimes - I liked this a lot. She sounded like a Russian singer at times but she has quite a few elements to her voice. (9/10) YES, by end of first verse.

Tony Vincent - I HATE this song but he rose above the schlock and karaoke-ness of it all. Like his voice and the dramatics he does with it. (7/10) YES, right before chorus.

Anthony Evans - I like his tone but he didn't stand out with his voice enough. (5.5/10) No

Jamie Lono - I like his voice. There's this coolness factor about it. If there's one thing I don't like is that he goes quiet near the end of the line. He needs to work on that. (9/10) YES, within first two lines of singing.

Dylan Chambers - Got a good voice but wrong wrong song choice. If there was ever a bad song choice, this was it. (3.5/10) No

Nathan Anderson (snippet) - NO!

Luna Searles (snippet) - Seemed too shouty. NO!

Adam Lasher (snippet) - HELL NO!

Justin Hopkins - Doesn't seem to have much of a voice. Mediocre. (4.5/10) No

Nicolle Galyon - Song choice almost screwed her but she has a nice voice. Don't know what Blake was listening to but I'd take her over almost pitch perfect country girl that sang Stay. (7/10) YES, by end of first verse.

Ashley de la Rosa (snippet) - Okay. NO

Jordan Rager (snippet) - Would like to hear more. But from that snippet, NO.

Karla Davis (snippet) - Has great tone. From that snippet alone, YES.

AlyX (snippet) - Meh. NO

Eric Tipton - Okay. I would have liked him to hear him do another song because I think this song doesn't suit his voice. (6/10) No.

Mathai - Totally get her. Great confidence in vocals and performance. Nice melisma parts. Liked it a lot. (8.5/10) YES, right after Adam.

Overall, much better show than last week's.

Orlando had the best audition this season. Amazing! Sera (woman who sang Alicia Keys) and WADE were really good too.

So, checking the scoreboard, here's how many I liked and would pick from each coach.

Blake - 5 (Naia Kete, Lex Land, Jordis Unga, Charlotte Sometimes, Brian Fuente)
Christina - 2 (Chris Mann, Sera Hill)
Cee-Lo - 5 (Jamar Rogers, Angie Johnson, Jamie Lono, Tony Vincent, WADE)
Adam - 9 (Tony Lucca, Angel Taylor, Chris Cauley, Katrina Parker, Mathai, Karla Davis, Nicolle Galyon, Whitney Myer, Orlando Napier)

Adam has the strongest team again. It sucks that at least 3 of my favourites from Adam's team goes home next week. This season, I like 21/48 contestants based on their audition. Not bad!

I'm watching. Really like it so far. Love the judges interaction. Cee Lo and his cat scenes make me laugh every time. Better than Idol for sure because of the judges.

I love this show. I'm genuinely excited to watch it every week.

I can't believe Blake chose raelynn. Adlai was much better vocally and I don't care how unique Levine thinks her performance was. This is still a vocal competition and she lost in performance, presentation and vocals. Gosh. Blake messed up.

I don't believe it. I'm sorry but a broadway style singer isn't winning this competition. Christina wtf?!

LOL. Epic fail. But Blake showed last year he's clueless. Dia had it in her bag. He's by far the worst coach IMHO.

Adam sucks at picking in the battle rounds. Chris Cauley >> Tony Lucca. I am so glad Adley is gone. Couldn't stand her pageant mama. Anthony Evans was robbed. He was so much better than Jesse during the battle round performance. Angie was also robbed. I guess slutting up the competition is better than good singing. The only good thing tonight was Chris Mann going through.

Brian Fuente got screwed over. Stupid Blake.

This is why I hate battle rounds.

so, I'm sorry, how long are these battle rounds gonna take?!?! Painful to watch one battle every 30 minutes due to backstories and crap interviews. AI over this anyday!

Ya. The BG segment is gimmiky. I would prefer they trim them down without having them go head to head against other singers because the judges keep putting real good people against other good singers and/or making a terrible pick for the winner imo.

I think it would be more fun if the other judges had to pick the winner. As usually the other three pretty much agree on a better singer than the coach himself.

So this.

4 weeks. And then probably 6 weeks of finals. (Eliminate 1 from every coach each week.)

Thoughts on the battles:

Chris/Tony Lucca - Thought Chris was more natural and carried the song more. I really like Lucca though as much almost anyone and understood them appreciating them putting his heart into it, so I'm not upset he's still in

Adley/Railynn - I agree with Blake that while Adley is a better singer, she has no feel for connecting with it personally. Railynn while flawed is a more interesting performer for that reason and would've gotten my vote

Chris/Monique - This one killed me, I think Chris deserved it but Monique was easily top 5 of the day and the best female by far to me and really understood how to sell the song. Honestly if they have a twist where 2 people get back in or w/e, I think Monique has a chance to win the show

Angie/Chessa - Horrendous, they're both even worse versions of Adley by thinking singing comes down to yelling the right notes. I hated them both during the BAs and even more in this performance. I liked Angie more for her looks and slightly more clear voice

Brian/Jordis - Ouch... karaoke night material. Jordis is more likeable I suppose. Right now Ducky must be thinking "WTF" at Brian getting his button pushed instead of him for a 'rock' spot.

Anthony/Jesse - Close to a tie as it can get but I never forgot I was watching a singer with Jesse, while Anthony made me believe the song more, so Anthony for me

I enjoyed that episode but it was tainted badly by the pairs they chose. I would say the 6 best singers in no order were Chris, Lucca, Chris Mann, Monique, Anthony and Jesse and the 4 worst were Angie, Chessa, Brian, Jordis so that's as tough as you can get for a distribution. Nonetheless in the long run if one of those 6 best beat their harder competition they would be set up to last a long time in the live rounds by having a lot of lame ducks to smash (a guy like Jesse can sleepwalk to the top 10 now), so eh

Thoughts below.

- This show is better than Idol
- Cee-Lo needs to pop out his cat more
- Xtina got fat
- Blake doesn't like 'belters'...and that's why he went with Rae Lynn
- Nothin' to say about Adam. He makes sense. Why does his music suck so bad, tho?
- The WG(WG?) singing U2 was second best...not by much tho
- Free Fallin' shouldn't be sung by anyone ever
- I don't understand the Cheesa appeal? She's extremely unattractive, her parents are loonies (they moved to LA when you were a kid to help you pursue a singing career?), and her voice is eerily deep.
- Oh, hey Josh Groban! Seriously -- opera dude sucks. He not only oversang the (much better) female, but whenever he was harmonizing, he like deliberately went off key? I swear he changed the key of the song midway through.
- The idea, tho, of Xtina picking 'Power of Love'...she clearly just wants them to choke so she can show them who's boss!

ooh i see that libs and shack are also fans of cee-lo's cat.

Sera vs Geoff - I preferred Geoff but neither were incredibly interesting or good at selling the song emotionally. Chain of Fools needs to be retired from this and Idol, etc. No way to make it interesting anymore

Charlotte vs Lex - Liked the style of both, I prefer Lex's vocal tone but it's obvious she needs a few more years to gain confidence. Would've picked Lex but I like Charlotte more than most

Juliet vs Sarah - Sarah did well under the circumstances, basically she never had a chance with how much more that the song fit Juliet, who killed it.

Kim vs Whitney - Both extremely talented, Whitney had far more stage presence but Kim's vocal tone was better. Edge to Kim

Lee vs Lindsey - Couldn't get into either. Lee's vocal "style" seems ungenuine and forced. Lindsay was just boring here despite her BA performance. I thought Lee was better but would've picked Lindsey based on her past

Jamie vs Jamar - Jamie seems like a nice guy but like Lex isn't made of hard enough stuff yet for this show. This was just a blowout in Jamar's favor.

Once again it seems like the best and worst performances happens in pairs. Probably not a coincidence at this point - Must be the song choice. It's a lot harder to adapt Heart Shaped Box to this form than Stay With Me or Pumped Up Kicks

Battle Rounds - Night 3

Nathan Parrett vs. Pip - Stupid Adam, I hated this match-up. More on that later. I didn't care for either one but if I had to choose between one, I would have picked Pip. Nathan's voice is mediocre while Pip has some tones that are nice to listen to.

Erin Martin vs. The Shields Brothers - Entertaining. I LOL'd several times during the song. It was totally obvious that Cee-Lo was gonna pick Erin. Vocally and performance-wise for me, The Shields Brothers took this.

Jermaine Paul vs. AlyX - AlyX dominated and overshadowed Jermaine by far. I really don't know what Blake was thinking here. AlyX.

Jonathas vs. Ashley De La Rosa - Ashley overpowered Jonathas and she really tried to stand out. Jonathas struggled and was off-key most of the song. Ashley's pitch wasn't the greatest but Jonathas did nothing to showcase his voice whereas Ashley did some awesome notes/runs with her voice. I also think she might be one to watch out for. Ashley hands down.

Katrina Parker vs. Angel Taylor - If you don't want to choose, why put them together, Adam? You put two weaker singers in Nathan Parrett and Pip head to head but you decided that Katrina should go up against Angel. It's really sad that Angel got cut because she doesn't deserve to get cut over the other two tonight. Back to the battle, Katrina stood out a lot with her voice. She was really good and she tried to push her voice. Angel's voice got lost in the song a bit. Katrina hands down.

Erin Willett vs. Gwen Sebastien - I thought Gwen's voice had more ring to it and was more pronounced. Erin's voice isn't standout great or unique enough to make it. It sucks that her dad died at the time but I think Blake gave it to her out of pity. Gwen for me.

3-3 record this episode.

Last 4 of Adam's singers yet to battle are Mathai, Orlando Napier, Karla Davis and Nicolle Galyon. And I really like all of them. Shoot. Naia vs. Jordan Rager on Team Blake. I really like both of them too. Why do the judges do this?

Despite not picking her in the battle in last night's episode, Blake hired Gwen Sebastian to join his touring band. Very cool.

http://www.countryweekly.com/news/blake ... r-his-band

Yay Pip!
Erin was horrible. I still don't understand how the thing she does is considered singing.

I agree, actually.

The matchup between The Shields Bros. and Erin was painful. Her personality is also kind of gross...I suspect she will be bounced quickly in the live shows.