The 3 Gs of The Sing-Off: Season 3, Episode 7
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
They might have chosen Britney, but I won’t hold it against Pentatonix. Those who have been following The ACB’s coverage of this season regularly this year know that I have not been on board the Pentatonix bandwagon. I liked “Video Killed the Radio Star” OK, but for the most part, I’ve found their sound thin, and their performances vastly overrated. This marks the turning point. A Britney Spears medley had all the potential in the world to be a lightweight, comedic send up of the Spears catalog, playing up cross-gender solos for laughs, and choreographing gratuitously. Pentatonix made all the right decisions here, though, leading off with a female solo and big four-man backing sound, and having each of the guys take his solo seriously to follow, leading into the big bass breakdown and the truest mashup of the night. Fun, innovative, intense, and finally a full sound from this group to live up to the hype.
Gone
The Yellow Jackets get knocked down, but they get up again. The YJs made it further into this season than most of us expected them to, and were quite arguably more deserving of elimination last week, when Sara B. saved them, than they were this time around, when it’s hard to make an argument they didn’t outperform Urban Method. Nontheless, the guys took their exit with considerable class and poise, turning in one of the most fun swan songs of the season with a high energy, quirkiriffic take on “Tubthumping.” We’re at the point in the show where even very good groups need to go home. Yellow Jackets, we will miss you.
Give it a second look
Delilah makes Alicia Keys a cappella listen-able again. I’ve attended enough ICCA shows over the last seven years that hearing an all-female group cover Alicia Keys is typically enough to throw me into autopilot mode from the opening bars. What can I say, Keys’ mellow grooves are fine if that’s what you’re into, but generally translate to boredom on the a cappella stage, especially because the soloist usually isn’t up to the task. Boy, was this a different story! Delilah thrived on timing, drama, and no fewer than four standout soloist to make this medley pop. Fine showing for the women, keeping their group vital for yet another week.
The Sing-Off concept. One of my biggest knocks on the credibility of The Sing-Off is a failure to arrive at a consistent structure and mode of elimination. Will the episodes feature two separate brackets? Will there be brackets within brackets? Will the losers from each bracket face off to send only one of them to elimination? I thought last week’s sing-off concept was dramatic, smart, and connected well to the title of the show, but here we are just one week later and it’s gone. Please Sing-Off producers, give this concept a second look.
Check back tomorrow for the updated Power Rankings!