The 3 Gs of The Sing-Off: Season 3, Episode 3

In addition to full reviews of each episode of The Sing-Off, this season we will offer extended coverage most weeks via the 3 Gs format.

Great: Represents my thoughts on the best performance(s) of the night—these are the star-makers, the tearjerkers, the ones we’re all going to remember.

Gone: Represents my thoughts on the final showings from the group(s) we’re seeing for the last time in a given week.

Give it a second look: Represents the act(s) you might not remember, or that we might not have expected much from, but which delivered just the same, and deserve another listen.

Here are my thoughts from this week’s episode:

Great
Let’s hear it for the Blue. As much as jazzified a cappella is not my personal cup of tea, there’s no denying that Afro-Blue’s take on “American Boy” was sublime. The group remixed classic jazz sounds in innovative, pop-friendly ways, and paired the stellar sound with fresh, well-executed choreography for an all-around winning presentation which very well may have cemented their place as the early favorites to win this season of The Sing-Off.

I love the way Vocal Point looked Monday night. Vocal Point carried on the theme of jazz supremacy with this ultra-classy nod to Frank Sinatra. Watching The Sing-Off live, I criticized the guys for tempo changes and worried they teetered on the edge of losing control. Upon re-watching and re-listening, I’m recognizing the intricacies of what they actually accomplished, fusing different styles of the sixties to take ownership over a performance that was, superficially, quite traditional. Excellent stuff.

Gone
Kinfolk 9’s a loser, baby. Despite showing marked improvement over week one, it became all the more apparent this week that this group was just a step behind the rest of the pack. “Price Tag” demonstrated better blend and ambition in the realm of a cappella, but despite an emotional solo on “Let It Be,” Kinfolk 9 just wasn’t hacking it this week. I applaud the group for their earnest, blunt choice of a swan song (Beck’s “Loser”), if not the musicality thereof. It will be interesting to see if this group stays together post-Sing-Off and continues to evolve its sound, or if that’s a wrap on their a cappella experiment.

Give It A Second Look
The judges were too cold to Delilah’s Heat Wave. Despite the strangely cold reception they received from the judges, I would argue that “Heat Wave” was one of the better performances of the night. Delilah did exactly what it needed to do with this song, and what I have been wanting to hear from them since I heard they would be a part of this show—execute the heck out of a song that no other group in the competition could pull off. No, this wasn’t as innovative as “Grenade” or “Whatya Want from Me,” but it was decisively feminine and well-executed. The idea that this performance landed Delilah in the bottom two is one of the great injustices of this season so far.