Author Topic: The Sing-Off 3  (Read 7953 times)

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Offline apskip

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The Sing-Off 3
« on: September 19, 2011, 06:00:52 PM »
I don't know how we have collectively missed this, but the first episode of the new season is tonight in 1 hour.

Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2011, 06:09:59 PM »
The judges for season 3 are returning Ben Folds and Shawn Stockman and new Sarah Bareilles replacing Nicole Scherzinger (who will start on the X Factor on Wednesday).


Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2011, 06:21:25 PM »
The 16 groups competing are:
AFRO-BLUE
Washington, D.C.
Ages: 20-28 mixed
THE CAT'S PAJAMAS
Branson, Missouri
Ages: 23-32 males
THE COLLECTIVE
Nashville, Tennessee
Ages: 25-35 mixed
DARTMOUTH AIRES
Hanover, New Hampshire
Ages: 18-23 males
DELILAH
Los Angeles, California
Ages: 18-29 females
FANNIN FAMILY
Hortonville, Wisconsin
Ages: 14-29 mixed
KINFOLK 9
Los Angeles, California
Ages: 24-34 mixed
MESSIAH'S MEN
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Ages: 31-43 males
NORTH SHORE
Boston, Massachusetts
Ages: 49-63 males
PENTATONIX
Arlington, Texas
Ages: 18-22 mixed
SONOS
Los Angeles, California
Ages: 23-31 mixed
SOUL'D OUT
Wilsonville, Oregon
Ages: 15-19 mixed
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE DELTONES
Newark, Delaware
Ages: 19-25 mixed
THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER YELLOWJACKETS
Rochester, New York
Ages: 18-24 males
URBAN METHOD
Denver, Colorado
Ages: 19-36 mixed
VOCAL POINT
Provo, Utah
Ages: 22-25 males

Offline TexasLady

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2011, 06:33:15 PM »
Thanks apskip!

Season Premiere on NBC,  Sept 19, Mondays 8/7c
The choices we make dictate the life we lead.

Offline BamBam

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2011, 11:30:28 AM »
Love this show!  :wohoo:  Didn't start watching until last season but really enjoyed it.  Really thought the girl group Deliliah was fantastic.  Usually there is one or two groups that you know just didn't have a great performance and should be voted off, but I couldn't make that decision Monday night.


Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #5 on: September 21, 2011, 12:47:46 PM »
THE SING-OFF 3, Ep. 1
This first episode will focus on eliminating one of the first 4 teams to perform and then one of the second 4 teams to perform. The judges come with loads of clichés to use so that they do not suffer the sin of repeating themselves with the accolades. I noticed a trend toward more pop music and less of what I consider classical a cappella music. The guideline for which teams qualify is obviously wide enough to allow teams to sing almost anything. So, on with the show!

FIRST GROUP OF 4
Yellow Jackets go first. They are distinguished by multiple excellent lead singers. I give them a grade of B+.

Fannin Family (3 males, 5 females) is next. They feature the 14 year old youngest daughter as the lead singer in a low range. Their harmonies are good. I give them B+.

Afro-Blue from Howard University is a jazz choir and they sing slow, relaxed music quite well. I did not find them impressive, particularly because they focus on dance moves more than singing. I grade them a B.

Delilah is an all-female group put together from singers in SingOff 1, SingOff 2 and their friends. It is distinguished by having a bass singer. I think they put far too much time and effort into dance moves.

It was time for an elimination selected by the judges. The team leaving was Fannin Family, which I thought was OK. The judges are obviously more impressed by the dance moves of Afro-blue and Delilah than singing as evidenced by which team they chose to stay.

SECOND GROUP OF 4
Vocal Point is from Brigham Young University. These guys had great talent and they blended well. I grade them A- (the best of this first episode).

Urban Method is a rapcappella group and I hate that. Rap music is not a cappella music and to base your whole show on it is a waste of the vocal talent this group has. I grade them B primarily because of their style of music.

Kinfolk 9 was a very forgettable group that is unlikely to get very far in this competition. I grade them B+.

Cat’s Pajamas is centered on upscale 50s/60s/70s music. I liked them a lot and graded them B+.

The judges made their evaluations and kept Vocal Point, Urban Method and Kinfolk 9. Cat’s Pajamas was eliminated, which I felt was unfortunate but oldies music got other better acts eliminated last year so it isn’t recommended for anyone.

Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #6 on: September 21, 2011, 12:50:45 PM »
Love this show!  :wohoo:  Didn't start watching until last season but really enjoyed it.  Really thought the girl group Deliliah was fantastic.  Usually there is one or two groups that you know just didn't have a great performance and should be voted off, but I couldn't make that decision Monday night.
I was clearly not as delighted with Delilah, but I absolutely agree that there were no weak groups who were obvious sitting ducks. I felt that Urban Method should have been eliminated and Cat's Pajamas retained based on the style of music they sing but the judges had different preferences (which I think better mirror the voter presence when we get to that).

Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #7 on: September 27, 2011, 10:44:04 AM »
These were my ratings of the performances of last night's a cappella groups:

Dartmouth Aires B+
Pentatonix A-
Messiah's Men B+
Sonos B+

Since this was where one group was eliminated, my vote for that went to Messiah's Men, which was also the choice of the judges. 

the Collective B+
Soul'd Out (Wilsonville High School) B+
North Shore A-
Deltones (University of Delaware)     B

My preference was to eliminate the Deltones, which I felt was a weak group, and keep Soul'd Out. The judges saw it differently and eliminated Soul'd Out.

We are now down to 12 groups from the original 16. I assume that the same format will apply next week, with 2 groups of 3 singing each night.

Offline BamBam

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #8 on: September 27, 2011, 11:15:10 AM »
I was okay with the Messiah's Men being eliminated.  I thought their performance was down right boring and was very disappointed.  The second elimination was fine too.  The high school kids just didn't seem that strong to me but I kind of wish they had another chance.  As a whole, I thought last weeks singers were better than this week.

Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #9 on: October 04, 2011, 09:27:31 AM »
This episode had 2 songs from each group, with the judges agreeing on one elimination at the end of the evening. Here were the songs (one of which was a golden oldie and much easier on my ears) and my ratings for them:

Vocal Point "The Way You Look" B+
                  "Never Say Never" A-

Yellow Jackets "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" A
                       "Dynamite" A-

Afro Blue "I Heard it from the Grapevine" A
               "American Boy " B+

Delilah "Heat Wave" B+
           "Whataya Want from Me?" B+

Kinfolk9 "Let It Be" B+
             "Price Tag" A-

Urban Method "Dance to the Music?" A
                       "Just Can't Get Enough" A-
 
That gives me a rank ordering of the groups as follows:

Yellow Jackets
Urban Method
Afro Blue
Vocal Point
Kinfolk9
Delilah

Once, again I found Delilah to be on the bottom of my ranking. And once again, the judges saw it differently and they eliminated Kinfolk9 instead.


Offline BamBam

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #10 on: October 05, 2011, 11:45:51 AM »
Hate to disagree with you, but I still like the girl group, Delilah.  Thought they were a lot better than the Yellow Jackets but was fine when Kinfok was voted off. 

Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #11 on: October 10, 2011, 09:12:39 PM »
Another week, another elimination. The first group of 6 performances were of current radio hits and the second group of 6 were of classic 1960s hits. Here is my ratings of those 2 performances for each act:

Deltones A-  B+  (with the first one a reggae version of a non-reggae song that I liked)

Pentatonix A-  A-

The Collective B+  B+

North Shore A  A (you would expect a group who performed in the 60s to own that category and they did)

Dartmouth Aires  B+  A (with a very powerful driving bass line that no other group could match)

Sonos B+  B  (they had one male singing lead, leaving only one to do either bass and tenor range but not both simultaneously)

My rankings were:
1. North Shore
2./3. Dartmouth Aires/Pentatonix
4. Deltones
5. Collective
6. Sonos

I expected Sonos to be eliminated, which did happen.

I think this was a watershed because the superiority of North Shore in this group was obvious. However, last season I had the same opinion of Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town and they got axed far sooner than I thought they deserved.

Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #12 on: October 18, 2011, 01:50:09 PM »
This was the episode of Guilty Pleasures. Most of the groups underwhelmed me with mediocre performances. Two additionally had poor song choices, North Shore and the Deltones. One group stood out; Pentatonix got my only A rating. 7 groups got a B+ and North Shore and Deltones both got a B because I did not like their song choices.

The results were that North Shore and the Deltones were eliminated and the other 8 groups advanced. Onward!

Offline BamBam

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #13 on: October 21, 2011, 02:23:21 PM »
Totally agree with you.  Was disappointed in this weeks show and was fine with who was sent home.

Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #14 on: October 26, 2011, 10:16:58 PM »
The first grouping of 4 groups I graded:

Dartmouth Aires A-
Afro Blue B+ it was gorgeous, but there was no hip hop involved; only their great sound saved them from a bigger adjustment
Vocal Point A-
Collective B

Pentatonix A
Delilah A-
Urban Method A-
Yellow Jackets B+

The judges rated Collective and Yellow Jackets as lowest performing, so they had to sing a second song against each other. I rated Collective as B+ on that and Yellow Jackets A-. That must have approximated the decisions of the judges, as The Collective was eliminated.
 
« Last Edit: October 27, 2011, 07:04:02 AM by apskip »

Offline BamBam

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #15 on: November 01, 2011, 03:11:00 PM »
For some reason I am loosing interest in this show.  :duno:  I always DVR it and can zip thru a 2 hour show in less than 45 minutes. 

Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #16 on: November 02, 2011, 01:16:21 PM »
I would agree that these theme weeks are reminiscent of American Idol and do not allow a group to perform to its highest level of potential with an unlimited range of choice. This week was a little better than the past several, with medleys from a featured artist as the theme. Here were performance groups, the artists whose work were the bases of the medleys and my score for that group:

Pentatonix - Britney Spears  B+

AfroBlue - Janet Jackson B+

Delilah - Alicia Keys B+

Yellow Jackets - Elton John A- because of their choice of songs for their medley; they were more lyrical

Urban Method - Rihanna B-

Vocal Point - Elvis Presley A-

Darmouth Aires - Queen B+

So, I rated Yellow Jackets and Vocal Point on top and every other team on the bottom. The judges, as is frequently the case, saw it differently. They eliminated the Yellow Jackets. I am not pleased with this.
 

Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #17 on: November 08, 2011, 10:05:06 AM »
This was an episode of 1 rock song per performing group, then 1 country music song. With the field narrowed, the average performance is improving. Here were my performance ratings of the rock songs:

Urban Method A-
Dartmouth Aires A-
AfroBlue B+
Delilah B+
Vocal Point B+
Pentatonix A-

Here were my performance ratings of the country songs:

Urban Method A-
Dartmouth Aires A-
AfroBlue B+
Delilah B
Vocal Point A-
Pentatonix A

So, Pentatonix was the best of the performers. I have long said that Delilah should have been eliminated earlier and I said it again with these ratings. This time, the judges concurred and eliminated Delilah.

Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #18 on: November 21, 2011, 07:27:53 AM »
Another week, another elimination. With the quality of the remaining groups, the total quality of each one does not differ much from others with one major exception. That is Pentatonix, which has out-performed the rest for many weeks in a row in my opinion. Last night it was rhythm and blues and soul music. Here are my two grades for each group, one for each song:

AfroBlue              B+  B+
Vocal Point          B+  B+
Dartmouth Aires  A-   B+
Urban Method     A-   B
Pentatonix          A    A

That showed a 3-way tie for last place. I would have picked AfroBlue to go, but the judges picked Vocal Point, which may have suffered due ot the comparison with Dartmouth Aires, another collegiate ensemble that has been slightly better.

 

Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #19 on: November 21, 2011, 10:13:20 PM »
The groups first had to sing a remix combining two different songs. Then they had to sing a song theoretically chosen by the judges specifically to challenge them. Here are my grades for the former:

Pentatonix A-
Urban Method B+
Afro Blue A-
Dartmouth Aires A

The song chosen for Pentatonix did push them to the limit. I graded them A- on it.
The song chosen for Urban Method as hip hop, which I feel gave them a big advantage. I graded them A-.
The song chosen for AfroBlue  was difficult for them. I graded them B+.
The song chosen for Dartmouth Aires was "Shout" and it too gave them a big advantage. I graded them A-.

That gives according to me the following order of performance quality:
Dartmouth Aires
Pentatonix
tie for 3rd between Urban Method and AfroBlue.

The judges did not agree with me, as they gave Pentatonix and Urban Method the top spots. There was an additional sing-off between AfroBlue and Dartmouth Aires to give the judges additional information to make a decision. That happened after AfroBlue sang "American Boy" and Dartmouth Aires sang.

Sarah picked Dartmouth Aires, Shawn picked AfroBlue and Ben's vote for Dartmouth Aires based on better consistency the whole season was decisive. AfroBlue got to sing their swan song and the other 3 teams are going to the finals. Voting for the finals is open right now through Sunday.
   
 
 


Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #20 on: November 29, 2011, 07:07:47 AM »
Sing-Off 3 Finale

It's over. Then public has spoken.

The show opened with the usual big production number. Each of the finalists (Urban Method, Dartmouth Aires, Pentatonix) then went into enhanced group mode by adding these singers:

Urban Method - Sarah Bareilles, a judge
Dartmouh Aires - Ben Folds, a judge, with a corny audience sing-along
Pentatonix - Nick Lachey, show host

Then they had all women from the 10 teams sing an Aretha Franklin song and all men to sing a Bruce Springsteen song. The whole show was just marking time because its schedule of 2 hours was 1.5 hours too long. All that was really needed was to report the results from last week's voting. Next they showed all 3 teams doing some charity work. They finally got around to that reporting and announced that Urban Method was third.

After another extended wait, in the final 2 minutes the announcement that Pentatonix was the winner finally came. That was a fair outcome, as they had dominated the judges' results almost all season.

 




Offline Jobby

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #21 on: January 04, 2012, 10:47:03 AM »
apskip, I'm just watching this and I LOVEDDDDDDDDD it.

It beats GLEE handsdown. Legsdown too! :lol:

Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #22 on: January 04, 2012, 04:49:25 PM »
Joab,

It has taken 3 seasons to get an a cappella group as good as Pentatonix, but the genre is inherently interesting, forcing each group to provide their own base line and percussion sounds. I look forward to The Sing-Off 4 next fall.

Offline Jobby

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #23 on: January 05, 2012, 11:32:24 AM »
I didn't really get to watch the show since it's not shown on my cable so recently my friend told me to watch it and POOFFFFFFFF, I got addicted and I got to say one other group I really liked alot was the all-female Group.. D...lah or something. :lol:

Offline apskip

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Re: The Sing-Off 3
« Reply #24 on: January 06, 2012, 09:00:33 PM »
Delilah, the all-female group, went out in the middle of the competition.