almost...
It's almost Christmas, almost bedtime, and NBC's Sing Off was almost a good show. Almost. Excuse me while I geek out. I got sucked in, and then I got disappointed by the result.
The good things about the show? 2/3 of the judges, for starters. While Nicole something-or-other from The Pussycat Dolls never really said much of value and was clearly there as eye candy, Sean Stockman of Boyz II Men had some decent things to say. And it's hard to go wrong with Ben Folds. He's just a cool guy, and his comments were generally right on the money. Clearly, he knows about music and singing. Thank you, Ben Folds, for raising the intelligence level of this show. Note to self: finally time to check out the Ben Folds a cappella album.
Also good: the concept. It was nice to hear these groups singing without the crutch of professional musicians on instruments. It was also interesting to know that they were mostly doing their own arrangements, aside from the combined group numbers, I assume. They managed to get some pretty good groups too, although I imagine plenty of better ones would come out of the woodwork for a second competition.
Here are my takes on some of the groups that got eliminated:
Face - The somewhat middle-aged guys who got kicked off first. They did the Bon Jovi song reasonably well, even if it "didn't hit hard enough," and I would have liked to see more from them. I think they partly got the shaft because they were less likeable or attractive.
Solo - Inner-city type kids, got eliminated next. They were clearly not in the same league as the others. (Charity case?) It was great experience for them, but they were mostly a group of soloists, not an ensemble.
Noteworthy - The Mormon girls from BYU. (I think that was their name.) I didn't mind them, but they had a disadvantage being girls. Men are just easier to listen to and less shrill.
Maxx Factor - The barbershop moms. I was a little surprised they made it as far as they did. The judges seemed to love them, but I just thought they sounded awkward and cheesy. They were very stylized, only had 4 voices at their disposal, and their sound didn't lend itself well to the style of the show.
SoCals - One of only two co-ed groups. They compared themselves to Glee and even did a couple of songs that were covered on the show. It was a little too obvious, and unfortunately, Glee is much more polished. The SoCals were a little too ambitious at times with their arrangements and showed their weaknesses. I wouldn't have minded them staying around longer, though.
Voices of Lee - The other co-ed group, from a conservative liberal arts college. Rough start, but they got better. They also apparently switched their main soloist to the more attractive girl and used her a whole lot more after that first show. (Hmm...) By the end, they were smooth but a little too sugary sweet at times for me.
Which brings me to the final two: Beelzebubs and Nota. Well-styled, fun East Coast college guys vs. the Puerto Ricans who were guaranteed to break into a Latin beat in the middle of any song. I'd have thought that the choice would have been clear.
But first, highlights from the final show. The voting had already taken place since the previous one, so it was really just performances and results.
Group number U2 song - meh. Didn't really like the arrangement.
Natasha Bedingfield and Voices of Lee, "Pocket Full of Sunshine" - would have been better with more rehearsal. Natasha got behind at the end of each chorus. If you're going to take liberties with the tempo, you have to rehearse them or conduct them. Otherwise, your backup will go on without you, and you will be behind. Twice. She saved it, but it was awkward.
Nicole Scherzinger (Pussycat Doll) and Beelzebubs - underused the Bubs. Didn't much like Nicole, but whatevs.
Smokey Robinson with Nota - smooth and innocuous.
Bobby McFerrin and all three groups, improv - pretty awesome. Bobby looks pretty good too.
Boyz II Men reunion - apparently they lost their bass guy, so there's just the three of them now. A cappella was a little rough. Their older stuff is not meant for only three voices, and clearly they need a bass to keep themselves in tune.
Ben Folds and the final two groups - fun and entertaining. They snuck in a piano, but at least he wasn't really using the pedal... (does that count for something?) Can't believe he played like that standing up the whole time.
And the winner was... Nota. I wasn't a big fan, as you may have guessed. The Latin break-down thing that they did in pretty much every song got a little old. The judges seemed to take it as "making the song their own" or "putting the Nota twist on it," but I just felt that they were relying on a gimmick. It would have been fine if they hadn't done it so often. My other big problem with them was that their arrangements were off sometimes. In more than one well-known song there was a chord that was just plain wrong. Did they just not know the song? Did someone sing the wrong note and change the chord? Did they do it on purpose? It was weird. I blame lazy or inaccurate arranging. And finally, they were more frequently out of tune and had less musicality in their solos than the other finalists.
The winner should have been... The Beelzebubs. Song choices were always fun ("Sweet Caroline," "Come Sail Away," Flo Rida's "Right Round"), staging was creative ("Magical Mystery Tour"), they had tons of personality, and they were able to do gorgeous ballads with a killer blend when they needed to (The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes"). I also really liked that they featured several members as soloists in different songs, rather than just one or two all the time. Granted, Nota was only about 4-5 people, and Bubs probably had around 12-15.
My most petty reason for not liking Nota is actually the fault of the host, Nick Lachey. Hint: if a group's name is in Spanish, make an effort to pronounce it correctly. I'd rather not vote for a group called "No Duh." Oh wait, I didn't bother voting anyway.
I guess I shouldn't be too surprised at the results. I was disappointed last week when Russell got first place over Jakob on a pretty "meh" season of So You Think You Can Dance.
So close.
The good things about the show? 2/3 of the judges, for starters. While Nicole something-or-other from The Pussycat Dolls never really said much of value and was clearly there as eye candy, Sean Stockman of Boyz II Men had some decent things to say. And it's hard to go wrong with Ben Folds. He's just a cool guy, and his comments were generally right on the money. Clearly, he knows about music and singing. Thank you, Ben Folds, for raising the intelligence level of this show. Note to self: finally time to check out the Ben Folds a cappella album.
Also good: the concept. It was nice to hear these groups singing without the crutch of professional musicians on instruments. It was also interesting to know that they were mostly doing their own arrangements, aside from the combined group numbers, I assume. They managed to get some pretty good groups too, although I imagine plenty of better ones would come out of the woodwork for a second competition.
Here are my takes on some of the groups that got eliminated:
Face - The somewhat middle-aged guys who got kicked off first. They did the Bon Jovi song reasonably well, even if it "didn't hit hard enough," and I would have liked to see more from them. I think they partly got the shaft because they were less likeable or attractive.
Solo - Inner-city type kids, got eliminated next. They were clearly not in the same league as the others. (Charity case?) It was great experience for them, but they were mostly a group of soloists, not an ensemble.
Noteworthy - The Mormon girls from BYU. (I think that was their name.) I didn't mind them, but they had a disadvantage being girls. Men are just easier to listen to and less shrill.
Maxx Factor - The barbershop moms. I was a little surprised they made it as far as they did. The judges seemed to love them, but I just thought they sounded awkward and cheesy. They were very stylized, only had 4 voices at their disposal, and their sound didn't lend itself well to the style of the show.
SoCals - One of only two co-ed groups. They compared themselves to Glee and even did a couple of songs that were covered on the show. It was a little too obvious, and unfortunately, Glee is much more polished. The SoCals were a little too ambitious at times with their arrangements and showed their weaknesses. I wouldn't have minded them staying around longer, though.
Voices of Lee - The other co-ed group, from a conservative liberal arts college. Rough start, but they got better. They also apparently switched their main soloist to the more attractive girl and used her a whole lot more after that first show. (Hmm...) By the end, they were smooth but a little too sugary sweet at times for me.
Which brings me to the final two: Beelzebubs and Nota. Well-styled, fun East Coast college guys vs. the Puerto Ricans who were guaranteed to break into a Latin beat in the middle of any song. I'd have thought that the choice would have been clear.
But first, highlights from the final show. The voting had already taken place since the previous one, so it was really just performances and results.
Group number U2 song - meh. Didn't really like the arrangement.
Natasha Bedingfield and Voices of Lee, "Pocket Full of Sunshine" - would have been better with more rehearsal. Natasha got behind at the end of each chorus. If you're going to take liberties with the tempo, you have to rehearse them or conduct them. Otherwise, your backup will go on without you, and you will be behind. Twice. She saved it, but it was awkward.
Nicole Scherzinger (Pussycat Doll) and Beelzebubs - underused the Bubs. Didn't much like Nicole, but whatevs.
Smokey Robinson with Nota - smooth and innocuous.
Bobby McFerrin and all three groups, improv - pretty awesome. Bobby looks pretty good too.
Boyz II Men reunion - apparently they lost their bass guy, so there's just the three of them now. A cappella was a little rough. Their older stuff is not meant for only three voices, and clearly they need a bass to keep themselves in tune.
Ben Folds and the final two groups - fun and entertaining. They snuck in a piano, but at least he wasn't really using the pedal... (does that count for something?) Can't believe he played like that standing up the whole time.
And the winner was... Nota. I wasn't a big fan, as you may have guessed. The Latin break-down thing that they did in pretty much every song got a little old. The judges seemed to take it as "making the song their own" or "putting the Nota twist on it," but I just felt that they were relying on a gimmick. It would have been fine if they hadn't done it so often. My other big problem with them was that their arrangements were off sometimes. In more than one well-known song there was a chord that was just plain wrong. Did they just not know the song? Did someone sing the wrong note and change the chord? Did they do it on purpose? It was weird. I blame lazy or inaccurate arranging. And finally, they were more frequently out of tune and had less musicality in their solos than the other finalists.
The winner should have been... The Beelzebubs. Song choices were always fun ("Sweet Caroline," "Come Sail Away," Flo Rida's "Right Round"), staging was creative ("Magical Mystery Tour"), they had tons of personality, and they were able to do gorgeous ballads with a killer blend when they needed to (The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes"). I also really liked that they featured several members as soloists in different songs, rather than just one or two all the time. Granted, Nota was only about 4-5 people, and Bubs probably had around 12-15.
My most petty reason for not liking Nota is actually the fault of the host, Nick Lachey. Hint: if a group's name is in Spanish, make an effort to pronounce it correctly. I'd rather not vote for a group called "No Duh." Oh wait, I didn't bother voting anyway.
I guess I shouldn't be too surprised at the results. I was disappointed last week when Russell got first place over Jakob on a pretty "meh" season of So You Think You Can Dance.
So close.