Idol Chatter & Voice Views

One favorite stumbled and one dark horse excelled as the Top 11 took the stage on The Voice Monday night.

The night featured some unique song choices that worked — “Turn the Page” and “The River” — and a couple of head-scratching choices that did — see “9 to 5” below.

For how the songs from Monday’s show are doing on iTunes, head here.

Song by song grades for Top 11 night follow.

Ali Caldwell, “9 to 5” — Ali delivered the best performance on Top 12 night. Her reward: This week she got to sing first and got to sing a so-so song completely out of her genre. The result was far from Ali’s best, but she reminded up of her talent with that big ending. It’s just a shame her vocals nearly disappeared a couple of times earlier in the song. Grade: C.

Sundance Head, “No One” — And who did Sundance piss off on the production team? Last week he was forced to sing first; this week, second. Singing Alicia Keys was a brave song choice, and Sundance mostly made it work, though it wasn’t quite the breakout moment Blake Shelton seemed to think it was. Grade: B

Aaron Gibson, “Hurt” — A Twitter save rescued Aaron from the brink of elimination last week and he responded with his best solo vocal performance yet. The song was personal for him because he’s dealt with depression and he certainly delivered an intense performance. I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t do much better on iTunes this week. Grade: B+

Courtney Harrell, “What I Did for Love” — Someday I’d like to know just how much say Courtney had in the songs she’s being asked to sing on The Voice. Because she flashed tremendous potential in the knockout round and lame song choices have kept her from replicating that success. She sounded sharp several times on this one. Grade: C–

Josh Gallagher, “Drunk on Your Love” — This wasn’t filled with nearly as many bum notes as his Top 12 performance. But while he was trying to get the crowd pumped up, Josh seemed surprising restrained when he tried to go big over the last 45 seconds of the Brett Eldredge cover. Still I expect The Voice’s country fans to move Josh along again. Grade: C–

Billy Gilman, “All I Ask” — Come on, Adam, don’t compare Billy to Jordan Smith. It’ll make me root against Billy because I remember how ridiculously unfairly The Voice pimped Jordan. As for the performance, Billy tackled Adele and hit all the notes, but I wasn’t a big fan of that cover. Sorry, Billy fans. Grade: B

Christian Cuevas, “Rosanna” — I liked this Toto song way back when it was released in 1982, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard it done on a singing show. It doesn’t offer a ton of dynamics and Christian’s attempts to enliven the song came off as over the top. Grade: C–

Austin Allsup, “Turn the Page”— Here’s another unique singing show song choice. The difference: This Bob Seger tune is perfectly suited for Austin’s voice and the changes he makes — especially on the last verse and ending — work wonderfully. Austin was a one-chair turn and just performed like he belongs in the finals. Grade: A

Darby Walker, “You Don’t Own Me” — The good news: There were lots fewer flowers on the stage with Darby this week. But there sure where lots of sparkles. Unfortunately, what didn’t sparkle was the vocal. Was Darby singing for us or shouting at us? I’m not sure. Grade: D+

Brendan Fletcher, “The River” — Unlike Sundance, Brendan must have done something to make producers happy, because he closed the show last week and now gets to perform next to last. Another good, unique song choice. This didn’t work as well as Austin’s and I thought I heard a couple of vocal stumbles, but Brendan certainly bring 100 percent intensity to the stage. Grade: B

We McDonald, “Love on the Brain” — The Voice probably wouldn’t mind having a female R&B singer win Season 11 since one never has. And We seems to be the show’s chosen one. She delivered another strong performance Monday, not as good as last weeks’ “Take Me to Church,” but filled with plenty of big moments. Grade: A–