Tyler Golden/NBCGonna be honest here, guys – we're not incredibly knowledgeable Voice experts. We've watched it, we've felt some feelings, we've formed some attachments, and we've been burned by our fellow voters when those attachments were rudely eliminated.
Tonight, however, we felt oddly like we were watching it for the first time as the top four performed songs picked by their coaches, performed songs with their coaches, and performed original songs written by their coaches. We were moved. We felt emotionally connected to a group of singing dudes like we haven't been since N'SYNC broke up (and then got back together for a five second performance that one time), and these guys aren't even singing together. Perhaps it's the holiday cheer radiating in the air around us, or perhaps tonight's performances really were truly magical, but either way, they changed our lives for the better.
Or at least they changed our iTunes for the better. Either way, we've got new music to listen to/belt in the car, and we will never complain about that. Anyway, let's run down the performances, shall we?
12. Damien, "A Song For You"
Kind of forgot we were watching a singing show contestant. Felt more like we were watching a mediocre holiday concert without holiday music. Does that make sense? Damien is just not our favorite. He's fine, but we had many other faves in the running for the wildcard vote.
11. Craig Wayne Boyd, original song, "My Baby's Got a Smile on Her Face"
Just fine. We had no problem with the performance, but the lyrics were basically "my baby did a thing, I did a thing, my baby did another thing, I called her on the phone, my baby's got a smile on her face." There is more to life than this, Craig (or Blake or whoever).
10. Damien, original song, "Soldier"
Also just fine. We wish we had more so say, but it was really just fine. It was pleasant to listen to but we promptly sort of forgot it.
9. Damien and Adam Levine, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"
Now here's an interesting twist: Adam got a little lost in this song compared to Damien. It was clearly more of a Damien song than an Adam song, which is great for Damien. Also, we were distracted by the fact that they went totally crazy with the fog machine. Damien and Adam were knee deep in cloud, and it was mildly surreal.
8. Craig Wayne Boyd and Blake Shelton, "Boots On"
We like Craig singing this type of song much more than we liked his original song. We're more than kinda into the country rock Sweet Home Alabama type thing.
7. Chris Jamison and Adam Levine, "Lost Without You"
If we looked away, we couldn't tell which voice came from which man. This is not entirely bad, but Chris can't just be Adam Levine 2.0.
6. Matt McAndrew and Adam Levine, "Lost Stars"
We're finding it very hard to dislike Matt McAndrew, and these two work pretty well together. We can differentiate their voices, and neither of them gets lost. However, we will say that all we kept thinking during this performance was that we couldn't wait to listen to "Wasted Love" again.
5. Chris Jamison, original song, "Velvet"
We're torn. The song sounds good, but it also makes us feel very dirty. "She's got the smoothest ride, like velvet all inside. … Velvet looks good on me." Weren't we just singing about Jesus last week? Explicit sexiness is one thing deep inside a Maroon 5 album, but up there on the Voice stage it feels all kinds of wrong. (Doesn't mean we didn't like it, though.)
4. Craig Wayne Boyd, "In Pictures"
Yesss this is what we wanted from you, Craig. The emotional connection seemed to make all the difference, and this is the kind of thing we would download, or at least find ourselves tearing up at during a Nicholas Sparks movie.
3. Matt McAndrew, "Over the Rainbow"
We need a duet with Katherine McPhee IMMEDIATELY. We weren't totally sold on this until one magnificent note towards the end and then we were like, "MORE PLEASE."
2. Chris Jamison, "Cry Me A River"
YES. We suddenly have a vision of Chris at the VMA's in a couple years, totally killing it and making everyone forget that he was ever just a singing show contestant. His journey on this show from shy kid whose name we kept forgetting to a smooth criminal who sings about velvety lady parts has been truly inspiring.
1. Matt McAndrew, original song, "Wasted Love"
In love with this. In. Love. It's already stuck in our heads forever. We bought it on iTunes. We never buy things on iTunes. We don't even like the iTunes version as much as we liked the live performance, but it's still our new favorite song.
We're torn between a Chris Jamison and Matt McAndrew win, but we wouldn't be surprised if Craig Wayne Boyd shows up to win it all. What do you guys think? Head to the comments to let us know who you think will win!