The Voice Review: Join The Pip Rally!

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It was a good night for Adam Levine on The Voice. Not only did the Maroon 5er gather four new team members, and remind us all that he won last year's competition yet again, but he proved that he is easily the best at stating his case to the contestants.

Levine uses rational, eloquent and convincing arguments to persuade youngsters - with all celebrity coaches staring them in the face - to join Team Adam. Blake's witty insults, Christina's embarrassing attempts to match and Cee Lo's "take me or leave me" attitude have yet to contend with Levine's abilities as a "salesman."

Let's take a look at the performances from the third installment of the Blind Auditions by breaking down The Voice Teams...

Pip's Blind Audition

Pip singing "House of the Rising Sun"

Team Adam

Current Members
Tony Lucca, Kim Yarbrough, Angel Taylor.

New Additions
Adam's great night began with a boy named Pip. Yes, just Pip. The bowtie-wearing 19-year old belted out a great version of "House of the Rising Sun" that got all four of the judges to turn around, a feat that went unmatched for the entire episode. The kid's performance was very strong, if not exceptional, and he will do well on Team Adam.

Katrina Parker, who was sick for two years because of mold in her house, sang "One of Us" and managed to get Adam to turn his chair. She has a very unique tone, but it wasn't one of my favorite performances of the night. Obviously, the other three judges agreed with me.

Chris Cauley, on the other hand, was one of the better acts. Cee Lo stated that it was the best of the night, if you take the entire performance into account, and I agree with that argument. Cauley's "Grenade" was really good all along the way, but at no point did I have to jump out of my seat. It was a very strong performance, but lacked the peaks of some of the others... like Pip.

Team Adam also picked up Nathan Parrett, who we saw very little of during the episode. Adam's success rate sky rocketed, as he now has seven team members on only 12 turn arounds for 58.3%.

Team Xtina

Current Members
Jesse Campbell, Chris Mann, The Line, Lindsey Pavao.

New Additions
Christina's big addition to the squad this week was Geoff McBride. The 51-year old - who has to wear sunglasses due to a boxing injury - tickled both Xtina's and Cee Lo's fancies with his version of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground."

It's not really the same sound, because McBride doesn’t sound all that much like gospel, but Christina now has two older, bald, mustached African-Americans on her team with Jesse Campbell already on the roster. It should make for an obvious Battle Round pairing, don't you think?

Xtina also picked up Moses Stone, a rapper who we didn't get much of a look at. Christina came back down to Earth on her success rate, as she now has six team members on 12 turnarounds for 50%.

Team Cee Lo

Current Members
Juliet Simms, Jamar Rogers, Angie Johnson.

New Additions
Sarah Golden opened the episode with our first truly "blind audition."  We could not see what she looked like, and by the time we saw her, I wasn't surprised at all. If The Voice wants this to be an interesting way to do an audition, don't just fuzz out the contestant's face. Keep her completely off camera just like the coaches experience it. Oh, and do it with someone who sounds much more different than she looks. This wasn't one of those times.

Sarah's rendition of "You and I" was good enough to get both Cee Lo and Blake to turn around, but I thought she really had a lot of room for improvement on the chorus.

Purrrfect the Cat was definitely not the strangest thing about Team Cee Lo after Erin Martin chose him over Blake. This girl's audition was the weirdest thing I've seen in quite some time. Her voice was certainly interesting, and reminiscent of a couple of Blake's girls from last year (Dia, Xenia), but it was also reminiscent of Kristen Wiig's Bjork impression on Saturday Night Live. Needless to say, I laughed throughout.

Finally, Team Cee Lo picked up the kid who pahks his cah in the yahd. Since I am a New Englander I feel like James Massone is one of my long lost classmates with how thick his Boston accent is. It wasn't present in his singing, though, as he impressed three out of four judges with his "Find Your Love." He seems like the type of singer that will improve over the course of a season, and the sincerity with which he graciously accepted the coaches' compliments are a good sign for this member of Team Cee Lo.

His success rate improved a bit, but Cee Lo's still in last place with six team members on 18 turn arounds. That's a rate of 33%.

Erin Martin's Blind Audition

Erin Martin singing her 'quirky' rendition of "Hey There Delilah"

Team Blake

Current Members
RaeLynn, Gwen Sebastian, Jermaine Paul.

New Additions
I said to myself that it was going to be very sad if nobody turned around for Erin Willett, because her dad is dying of cancer. Thankfully, Blake enjoyed her strong vocal during "I Want You Back." More fun than the performance, though, was Carson Daly jumping up and down like a little school girl when Blake hit his button. Go back on your DVRs and watch it.

The Voice ended its two hours of auditions with Jordis Unga. Her version of "Maybe I'm Amazed" was good, but I think the song selection was better than the singing itself. After Blake, Christina, and Cee Lo all turned around, the first made the smart decision to use the fact that Dia Frampton is touring with him as a marketing tool. It worked.

Blake also picked up Brian Fuente, who we saw very little of during the episode. Blake now has six contestants on 15 turn arounds, which is good enough for a 40% success rate.

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Elley Duhe, David Grace, and Winter Rae were also showcased but none were chosen by our coaches. The last of the three, however, is friends with Perez Hilton, so she has that going for her.

Who was your favorite blind audition of the night? Which coach are you cheering for? And whose team looks like it stacks up the best so far? Check out the best jabs of the episode in our The Voice quotes page, and see all the contestants at our The Voice photos page.

Review

Editor Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
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Dan Forcella is a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow him on Twitter.

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