Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His mission: Sing one of the biggest rock songs of 2013 with his Voice fate on the line.

His decision: Take the stage in a dark-green sweater, dress shirt and tie.

Lancaster’s James Wolpert performs Radioactive during a Team Adam Levine battle round match on The Voice. (NBC Photo)

Perhaps borrowing a leather jacket from someone?

Or at least a pair of coach Adam Levine’s torn jeans?

Not really, James said last week, the day after his battle round match with Will Champlin aired.

“I think contrast is good, and I think the dynamic contrast between what I looked like and what I was doing is one of my strengths,” James, 22, said. “It’s one of the things that the coaches highlighted during my blind audition and it’s something I wanted to play up.”

It turned out to be a wise decision.

Blake Shelton liked the “shock” value of James’ look versus his sound. Cee Lo Green echoed that sentiment.

Adam loved it, too, praising James’ ability to rock out on the Imagine Dragons’ tune while looking like a stockbroker, albeit a “cool one.”

He also declared James the battle round winner, sending the Lampeter-Strasburg High School grad into the show’s knockout round, which begins Monday night.

But if the choice of clothing was pretty easy for James, the song assignment wasn’t. This, after all, is a guy whose previous foray into reality TV competition was on an ABC program called “High School Musical: Get in the Picture.”

“It was tough,” James said. “(Adam) told us that the reason he picked that song was to put both Will and I out of our comfort zones, and he succeeded. That’s definitely not a song that I would pick although it’s a hugely popular song and I’m really grateful to sing such a popular song.

“That being said, I think Will really stepped it up and our performances were incredible and very comparable, compared to what we were doing before Adam started working with us during our rehearsals.”

And the end result was as good as the guys could hope. James won, but Will also continued in the competition because he was stolen by Christina Aguilera.

What should we expect from James in future rounds?

“I intend to keep looking as snazzy as I possibly can,” he said.

After all, it’s worked wonderfully so far.

Editor’s Note: For a profile of James, head here. And check back Monday for live blogging as the knockout rounds begin on The Voice.