The Sing-Off Season 2, Episode 5
The finale starts off with an all-group rendering of Annie Lennox’s “Put A Little Love In Your Heart.” This song, and particularly sing-alongs there to will always have a soft spot in my heart based Bill Murray 80s Christmas favorite Scrooged, so I’ll give a pass. Inoffensive vocals all around, if a significant cheese factor. These group numbers do, at least get a bit more manageable as the number of groups dwindles. Even the judges get involved, complete with Ben Folds’s vocal percussion insertion at the close.
Boyz II Men, complete with judge Shawn Stockman saddle up with Committed for a performance of “Motown Philly.” The older gentlemen drop an “N-bomb”—take that live TV!—en route to a pretty slick recalling of their glory days, taking front stage with the boys of Committed backing them up more than ably. I’m sorry Committed didn’t get more of a chance to shine, but it was still cool to see these like-minded acts perform together.
The Whiffenpoofs sing an out of sorts sampling of Michael Buble’s “Haven’t Met You Yet” from the stands. Maybe they just didn’t have time to do so, but the guys just didn’t quite seem to find their groove on it.
Sara Bareilles teams up with The Backbeats to sing her “King of Anything.” Bareilles is the soloist of course, but this is a better treatment for the group than the previous number. A bit of an understated sound from the group, but the perc is quite good and they take advantage of some good opportunities to works the stage behind her—it’s much more like a regular a cappella performance, just with a high profile soloist. Nice mini-crescendo at the end, building to the assemblage of collegiate arc behind Sara. Nice.
Jerry Lawson draws the short straw and has not just Talk of the Town but Nicole Scherzinger join him for “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” It’s a bit said to see Jerry with the cane. Adding that to a gravellier than usual voice, I hope the elder statesman is doing all right. Nicole is OK, but a bit exposed as a not-particularly-good singer. Nonetheless for the sake of theatrics, it’s a good song choice and Jerry plays off Nicole pretty well with his “mmm hmms” when she sings. The bridge, complete with a slick side step from the group offers up a neat moment. Slightly out of synch ending.
Eleventh Hour sings a sampling of Justin Beiber’s “Baby.” Nice sound to start—maybe nicer than when they were on stage, but the sound quickly goes a bit awry headed into the commercials. Maybe this snippet style is just destined for failure.
Ben Folds joins Street Corner Symphony on stage for “Gone.” Around the country, dozens of a cappella groups are writhing with envy. How cool is this? The groups a little subdued, but Ben Folds is kind of a dream a cappella soloist—so charismatic, showing a remarkable ability to work the stage away from his usual live performance piano. The group builds its sound nicely headed into the bridge, and Ben makes the uber-classy call to step aside to let their front man get the solo for that bridge. Highly entertaining moment as the guys walk away and the crowd starts to cheer before they launch into the end of the song. This was one of the finest performances of the season, period.
Groove for Thought pulls off a snippet of “Cooler Than Me” quite cleanly.
Sheryl Crow joins The Backbeats, and Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town for her new song. “Long Road Home.” Catchy song, but a little folksy for the groups involved—I think Street Corner Symphony would have been the more natural fit for it. Jerry Lawson gets a nice chance to embrace some down-home style with Sheryl at the end, though, for a fine finish.
Neil Diamond teams up with Committed and Street Corner Symphony for “Ain’t No Sunshine.” Great as this song is, the sheer volume of performers who have covered it (besides the number of American Idol hopefuls who have tried it) I’m a little over it. Great group build on the “I know, I know, I knows,” very good perc, and a nice backing solo from the Street Cerner Symphony lead guy. Otherwise, the guys make the most of what they have to work with, but it’s very much a spotlight song for the soloist.
Nick Lachey plays front man for all the remaining groups for a rendition of “What Christmas Means To Me” by Stevie Wonder. They share the solo after the first verse, though, and even the Backbeats percussionist gets to take the lead for a bit! And… it’s snowing. OK, so it’s a little much, but again, that Christmas spirit makes a group number a little less obnoxious and a little more fun.
The Backbeats perform “Firework” by Katy Perry. Nice dual solo from Joanna and Kenton. It starts to drag a bit in the chorus, before the perc comes in and makes things much better. Things get a little over-theatrical with the reaching and the hand holding and whatnot, but I appreciate that they held in that impulse until now at last. Very cool wall of sound effect rounding the bend to the last verse which not only makes a lot of noise, but demonstrates the complexity of the arrangement, as there’s so much going on—a bit of a SoCal VoCal trademark.
Ben lauds the texture and nuance of the final note of the song, as well as the group’s ability to bring emotion to their music. Shawn praises the soloists and the percussion. Nicole says the group is like the assemblage of the ultimate a cappella sundae from all of our favorite ice cream flavors. Various members represent bananas and nuts cherries and… is she really still talking?
Men of Note take us to the commercials with a revisiting of “The Longest Time.”
Committed sings “Hold My Hand” by Michael Jackson and Akon. Such a full sound, and more of a soulful feel from the guys than we’ve had up to this point. The two solos are handled equally ably. The stage presence is such that it never betrays the fact just six guys are making all that sound—one of the details that continues to set them above Street Corner Symphony in my book.
Ben says the guys are amazing and have expanded his vocabulary. Nicole was moved by the song and praises their ability to communicate a positive message. Shawn says they represent why, “The Sing-Off is the best vocal TV show on TV right now.”
Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town sings “Love Train” by The OJs. It’s a good representation of what this group is all about—old school sound, Jerry does his rest of thing, the group works its way quite cleanly through a simple arrangement. This is one of my minor gripes about this show—despite the insistence that the groups improve over the course of the show, in the vast majority of cases, these groups have been together for some time—they have their routines, and there’s little reason to think they would actually improve over the course of a five-episode TV show on which they need to learn new material. In any event, this performance fell back on paint-by-numbers Talk of the Town musical stylings.
Nicole says the group shows people there’s no limit to what people can do in their lives—that they’re inspirations. Shawn talks about how the guys defy age, by using their poise and experience to show everyone else how it’s done. Ben says the guys put the song first and helps him forget it’s a competition.
Pitch Slapped sing a bit of “I’ve Got the Music in Me.“
Street Corner Symphony sings Coldplay’s “Fix You.” I gotta say, songs like this and “Creep” just do not serve this soloist well. I think he tries to put on a certain impersonation of others’ voices, that just sells his own vocal abilities short—not to mention that he slides right out of tune at the end of the first verse. Nothing to write home about in general on the opening of this song—the dramatic lighting is the best thing about it. The remaining groups come out to rescue them as the song speeds up. It’s sort of touching as a visual with everyone there, but, I’m sorry, this just doesn’t sound very good.
Shawn says the lead singer is redeeming himself and coming back to the limelight with his group. Nicole says they’re authentic, real musicians. Ben says the group is doing a fine job of bridging the gap between rock and a cappella.
Elimination time. Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town are out. Their swan song is “Hit the Road, Jack” by Ray Charles. Fun enough. The Backbeats are done for as well. They leave on “Goodbye to You” by Scandal. Nice nod to the ‘80s and a fun way to depart. I will be the first to admit that with these two groups gone, the two groups I correctly predicted, pre-season, to make the final cut are now gone (for those keeping score at home, fifth place On the Rocks were the other group I pegged for the top three).
On the Rocks sings us into our final commercial break with “The Final Countdown.” Committed and Street Corner Symphony alternate between awkwardly standing around, looking tough (most of Committed), and singing along, and kinda-sorta dancing (most of Street Corner Symphony).
Committed wins! Thank goodness. I will openly admit that I wasn’t with them in the very beginning, but from the second episode on, they’ve proved themselves as the rightful champs of this season of the show.
Street Corner Symphony leaves on “Drift Away.” Very good southern sound—they sound more like they should have than they did for a great deal of the season.
Committed wraps up the season with Queen’s “We Are the Champions.” I don’t love the contrived song choice here (I presume it was imposed upon them). Nonetheless, it’s a nice moment for the group. The rest of the groups join them on the stage. Lyric change to “no one’s a loser, ‘cause we are the champions of the world.” That’s incredibly cheesy, but I actually do sort of like that moment—confetti raining down, ten a cappella groups together on stage. In reality, that is what the show is about for the a cappella community—not the competition, but the celebration of the form in a format that millions of people will see. And so, a bright and positive note on which to end one heck of a second season of The Sing-Off.
This review is intended as exclusive content for The A Cappella Blog. If you’re reading the full text at any other site, they reposted it without authorization.
The A Cappella Blog will return to posting every weekday on Monday, January 3, 2011.