Sing-Off Round 2 wow's the crowd

Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town made magic with their wide array of vocals.

Round 2 of the Sing-Off was perhaps the best night in a cappella television history. All eight acts brought their very best game to the table and performed their hearts out. I felt so completely sorry for the poor judges who had the difficult job of having to weed out two of the eight final acts in Round 2, which aired on Wednesday, Dec. 8, from 8 PM to 10 PM on NBC, because all eight groups could easily have been pushed through to Round 3. Perhaps the powers that be should have taken a page from Project Runway, announced a tie and not eliminated one of the performing groups, with the promise that two would go home next time.

All of my evaluations are done by myself and any friends who happen to be watching with me while I view the performance. I make a point to not read any other reviews (not even Judge Ben Folds' own blog) before posting my own because I don't want to cheat a group out of my honest opinion. Here is my take of each group, listed in order of appearance last night.

GROUP 1:

On the Rocks
Eugene, Oregon
15 members: all male, former and current college students, diverse

The original version of "Live Your Life" by Rihanna is already a vocally interesting and dynamic song. On the Rocks actually improved the sound, giving it a honey smooth texture by emulating the instruments with their voices. What I love about On the Rocks is the way that they trade lead singer roles, entertain with energetic choreography, and know how to make even red sweaters and windbreakers look cool. Judge Nicole Scherzinger was especially impressed with their simulated delays, something I did not pick up on until I watched the replay -- it's very noticeable on their final note.

Clip from the show:
• Judges critique after the show

Street Corner Symphony
Nashville, TN
6 members: men, Caucasian, young to middle aged

Incredible is the best word to describe Street Corner Symphony's performance of "Soul Sister" by Train. I was especially impressed by their dynamics, excellent timing, utilization of vocal strengths by switching off lead singers during the coda, sound effects (the rewind made my jaw drop), and nearly perfect pitch. And, they hit the high notes! I wanted to know more about Street Corner Symphony, so I read their website and was thoroughly entertained. Here are a couple of more interesting pages: About us, where you can read the bios of each of the six members and discover all of their eccentric phobias, and their first blog, complete with test comments and directions from their web designer (I can really relate to this).

• Street Corner Symphony performing "Soul Sister"

• Judges critique after the show

Eleventh Hour
Kettering, Ohio
7 members: 3 men, 4 women, diverse. High school students.

Eleventh Hour covered "Just the Way You Are" by Bruno Mars. The first verse of the song was a wee bit rocky as the backup singers cluttered the background, but the group fell back into perfect sync during the chorus, with the two lead singers and backup blending together in a magnificent harmonious swelling. Unfortunately, the backup lost track of their pitch somewhere near the end of the song. That being said, I was still extremely impressed, but someone had to go home and they were the least amazing of the four acts who competed.

Clip from the show:

• Eleventh Hour perform "Just the Way You Are"

• Judges critique after the performance

Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town
Oakland, CA
6 members: men, African American, older

It was a magical moment when Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town performed "Mercy" by Duffy as their full range of voices: bass, baritone, tenor, countertenor, and falsetto created a vocal wall of sound behind lead singer, Jerry Lawson, who sang with heart and conviction and really brought it! Their dynamic arrangement was exciting. It was tight. It was great!

Clip from the show (please note that this first link has been marked as an infringement of copyright laws and may not work anymore by the time you view it):
• Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town perform Mercy

• Judges comments after the performance

GROUP 2:

The Backbeats
LA, CA
10 members: 5 women, 5 men, former and current college students, diverse

In a daring move, the Backbeats used three lead singers in the opening quiet lines of their rendition of "Break Even" by the Script. All three singers were strong and melded together flawlessly when they came together in the fourth line of the song. The backup singers swelled in places creating some "wow" moments, but for the most part were not too loud for the lead singers to be heard. The result was an emotionally moving rendition and Judge Shawn Stockman noted, "When you sing, I believe it." I was happy the judges finally noticed the female beat boxer.

Clip from the show:
• The Backbeats perform "Break Even"

• Judges critic after the performance

Committed
Huntsville, AL
6 members: male, African American, college students

Once again, Committed amazed and stupefied the audience and the judges as they performed their rendition of "Apologize" by One Republic. It was soooo smooth. Their perfectly blended backup vocals mixed and swelled, reversing highs and lows in round fashion. It was so beautifully executed, there were people tearing up in the audience. After their performance, the audience gave them a sincere standing ovation. Judge Ben Folds said "the first and second violins were beautiful, the celly were perfect..."

Clip from the show:
• Committed perform "Apologize"

• Judges critique after the performance

Groove for Thought
Seattle, WA
6 members: 4 men, 2 women. Caucasian, Various ages.

Groove for Thought created their own original jazz rendition of Mike Posner's techno pop song, "Cooler than Me." Their beautiful mix of high and low jazz-style minor key harmonies, rising and lowering in both tone and volume, created a rainbow of sound behind the rich, softly raspy-textured lead vocals. It was phenomenal and it carried me away.

Clip from the show:

• Groove for Thought perform "Cooler than Me."

• Judges critique after the performance

• Mike Posner's video of "Cooler than Me"

The Whiffenpoofs
New Haven, CT
14 members, male, college students, diverse

The Whiffenpoofs performed a beautiful rendition of "Just Haven't Met You Yet," by Michael Bublé, trading leads to give each gorgeous male singer the chance to melt some poor girls heart out there in TV land. The beginning leads were softer and sweeter, and the backup vocalists need to remember to turn it down and not sing so loudly so as not to drown them out. In the end, someone had to go home and all the acts were worthy of staying. However, the Whiffenpoofs were eliminated. They sang a very interesting version of "Home Sweet Home" by Motley Crue, and it was so wonderful, I almost wished they'd sang that instead.

Clip from the show:
• Whiffenpoofs perform "Just Haven't Met You Yet"

• Judges critique after the performance

Sing-Off II competitors a diverse bunch

The group Committed was my favorite competitor

of the first night of the Sing-Off.

Last night, the second season of the Sing-Off premiered and did not disappoint—I was quite impressed with this year’s competitors, and also pleased to see a wider and more diverse set of genre’s represented under the catch-all category of a capella, meaning without instrumental accompaniment.

Although the show aired for two hours from 8 PM to 10 PM on Monday Dec. 6, it was presented as two separate episodes run together and airing back-to-back. Each episode was composed of five different a capella singing groups competing with each other, where one of the five groups was eliminated. The other four will compete on Wednesday when the show airs again from 8 PM to 10 PM. I assume the logic in this was to enable the NBC network to split the show into eight individual one-hour episodes instead of the four two-hour episodes which are scheduled. I personally would have preferred seeing the show in one-hour installments. The finale will air at a future date.

Here are the groups, in order of appearance last night.

GROUP 1:

Eleventh Hour
Kettering, Ohio
7 members: 3 men, 4 women, diverse. High school students.

Being in the difficult position of having to go on first, Eleventh Hour impressed the shucks out of me. I couldn’t find a thing wrong with this diverse group of high schoolers, and neither could the three judges. The group dressed in a fun ensemble of pink, gray, and black, and performed “Baby” by Justin Bieber so effortlessly, I forgot that this was a competition and assumed it was simply an opening number to get the crowd warmed up. Wow! Their backup vocals blended perfectly, their singers were all on key, and their arrangement was magical.

Clip from the show:

• Eleventh Hour perform "Baby"

• Judges critique after the performance

On the Rocks
Eugene, Oregon
15 members: all male, former and current college students, diverse

You cannot go wrong covering Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance,” and this group of both current and former University of Oregon students pulled it off with perhaps the most humorously interesting “monster-ish” choreography of the night. My only criticism of their performance is that by being an all-male group, it’s easy for the backup singers to accidentally overwhelm and drown out the lead when singing live. They should work on perfecting their singing technique so they can blend farther into the background.

Live version:
• On the Rocks perform "Bad Romance" live

• Judges critique after the performance

Groove for Thought
Seattle, WA
6 members: 4 men, 2 women. Caucasian, Various ages.

Smooth is the word for Groove for Thought, a band consisting of five music instructors in the greater Seattle area and one of the instructor’s daughters. They performed a version of Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish,” which was high tempo, perfectly in pitch, in sync, and due to their diverse ranges, sounded as smooth as a silky Starbucks' mocha latte.

Clip from the show:

• Judges critique after the performance

Pitch Slapped
Boston, MA
12 members: 5 women, 7 men, college students

My favorite act of the night was the male/female a cappella group from Berklee’s school of Music in Boston. Their strong suit was the dynamic in which they played the female singers off the male singers performing Cobra Starship’s song, “Good Girls Go Bad,” both in choreography and in question/response singing. Their background vocals blended perfectly and floated behind the lead singers – complementing and not overwhelming them.

Sadly, they were eliminated, and at first I thought the judges were prejudiced against them, perhaps due to the fact that they are students at one of the more prestigious music schools in the world, or perhaps due to a lack of racial diversity amongst their members. However, after listening to the original version of the song, it was clear why they were eliminated. The song in itself already had all of the elements I admired: primarily the arrangement of male and female parts. The original, however, has a cool techno synthetic vibe which was not well emulated in their vocals. Perhaps if they had chosen a song which was not already so clearly delineated, they would have excelled.

Live version:
• Pitch Slapped perform Good Girls Gone Bad

• Judges critique after the performance

• Cobra Starship’s music video

Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town
Oakland, CA
6 members: men, African American, older

In an unusual twist, Jerry Lawson, the lead singer for the Persuasions, the group who made their mark in the ‘60s singing Carolina Beach music such as “Up on the Roof,” resurfaced as "Jerry Lawson and the Talk of the Town" in order to compete in the Sing-Off. I think the audience was perhaps more stunned than the judges and assumed that Jerry Lawson was simply making a star appearance, not actually competing. However, these are very tough times in the music industry and record contracts, especially one from SONY which is the grand prize awarded to the winner of the Sing-Off, are as rare as blue diamonds. The judges were too in awe to offer any criticism. However, I feel that the backup vocalists were not as tight, nor as in key as perhaps they could be with proper training from a professional vocal coach. Sometimes, when you achieve a certain level of success, you tend to feel you are past training, but there’s always room for improvement. I also felt that the group should experiment with trading lead parts in order to give Jerry Lawson some moments to get his breath.

Interview and performance clip from The Sing-Off:
• Jerry Lawson interview and live performances

• Judges comments after the performance
• The Persuasions interview and performance of “Up on the Roof”

GROUP 2:

The Whiffenpoofs
New Haven, CT
14 members, male, college students, diverse

"Cute" is the word I’d use to describe the Whiffenpoofs, a witty camaraderie of Yale University students, who showed up in their penguin suit uniforms of “white ties and tails.” Judge Ben Folds called them ‘sassy’ and admired their arrangement without beat-box vocal parts. They performed an unusual song called '”Grace Kelly,” by Mika which I’d never heard before that I've linked below and is a fantastical video. Judge Shawn Stockman (who is now donning glasses similar to those worn by Ben Folds, perhaps to appear more intellectual) noted that by slowing down the tempo and bringing down and raising the volume into a crescendo, they created interesting dynamics in their execution.

Clip from the show:
• Whiffenpoofs perform "Grace Kelly"

• Judges critique after the performance
• Mika’s "Grace Kelly" video

Men of Note
Cherry Hill, NJ
6 members, high school students, diverse

In the world of music, if you’re going to cover a hit song, either perform it exactly the way the original performer executed it, or make it your own. By choosing Billy Joel’s “The Longest Time,” an a cappella hit from 1983, the band "Men of Note" already had an uphill battle, because the judges had no choice but to compare it to the original. Their lead singer struggled to stay in key with the low notes, but did an excellent job in the higher ranges. This is the perfect opportunity to trade off lead vocal lines with another singer who can sing the low notes perfectly. Men of Note were sadly eliminated.

Video featuring different lead singers:
• Men of Note perform "The Longest Time"

• Judges critique after the performance

Street Corner Symphony
Nashville, TN
6 members: men, Caucasian, young to middle aged

Members of two southern families join together to form Street Corner Symphony, and the result is pure harmony. Their rendition of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears is stellar. Their voice created instrumentation was flawless. Their arrangement was original and dynamic. In one word, it was awesome!

Clip from the show:
• Street Corner Symphony perform "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"
• Judges critique after the show

The Backbeats
LA, CA
10 members: 5 women, 5 men, former and current college students, diverse

Another surprise of the night was seeing the return of some of the singers who competed and lost last year, reformed as part of a new ten-member male and female group of some of the best a capella singers in the LA area. I recognized Kelley Jakle, the blonde girl, because last year she sang lead with another group who was eliminated and I’ll never forget the sad disappointed look on her face. All that aside, I was pleasantly surprised to see a prominent female beat boxer in a male/female lineup. The Backbeat’s execution of Beyonce's "If I Were A Boy" was flawless, their lineup diverse, and their talent bottomless.

Clip from the show (Sound kicks in at 6 seconds):
• The Backbeats perform "If I Were A Boy"

• Judges critic after the performance

Committed
Huntsville, AL
6 members: male, African American, college students

Wow! Expletive! Expletive! These were the words that we all shouted in amazement as my little viewing party watched the group “Committed” perform “This Love” by Maroon Five. Their strength is in their perfectly matched and orchestrated backup “ooo’s” and “ahhh’s,” their impressive timing, their creative and dynamic arrangement, and their quality lead vocals. The judges were equally amazed. It was like watching seasoned performers, not young contestants.

Clip from the show:
• Committed perform "This Love"

• Judges critique after the performance