‘The Voice’: Jeremy Gaynor & Rob Taylor Take On Maroon 5’s “Animals” In The Final Night Of The Battle Rounds

Caila Ball-Dionne | March 18, 2015 5:47 am

Some people spent St. Patrick’s Day drinking green beer and making bad decisions. Others spent it watching their contestants and making bad decisions. While there’s no evidence that The Voice coaches Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton and Pharrell did the former, they certainly were caught on camera doing the latter during the last night of the Battles.

Two out of the three televised Battles on Tuesday night featured some real “wait…seriously?” decisions by coaches. Could they have been prompted by green beer (downed way in advance of St. Patrick’s Day)? Or just general lack of strategy? Or are the coaches’ ears designed to hear different sounds than the general public’s?

Whatever the reason, the final Battles were deeply confusing. Try to make sense of these results:

Team Christina: Jeremy Gaynor vs. Rob Taylor

Let’s start this battle with an admission of bias: four-chair turner Jeremy Gaynor was a Blind Auditions favorite. Not only is he super handsome and in the army, but he’s a lead singer in the West Point Band. It’s hard to not to root for a man in uniform in a reality competition show. Rob Taylor, by comparison, came across as shrill and forgettable in his Blind Audition.

And so when coach Christina assigns them Maroon 5’s “Animals,” it’s hard to watch Jeremy suffer. The song calls for high notes that are much more in Rob’s wheelhouse, and Jeremy’s performance just falls flat. That said, his promise in the Blind Auditions should earn him some sort of steal, right? Don’t get your hopes up.

“You guys can finally share my pain,” says Adam. “This song is a pain in my ass.” He said it.

“Rob, I didn’t know that you had this side to you. You should consider this kind of music,” says Pharrell.

“Rob, you go to unexpected places and have this ability to go in to your upper register that is just so strong,” his coach raves.

Christina advances Rob, and Pharrell neglects to use his last save on the crowd-pleasing Jeremy. Blame the green beer.

Team Pharrell: Noelle Bybee vs. Sawyer Fredericks

The formerly untelevised Noelle Bybee goes up against probably-related-to-Hanson Sawyer Fredericks in Pharrell’s last Battle. The four-chair turning Sawyer and his nemesis sing Creedance Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” – a song that came out approximately a zillion years before either were born.

Noelle actually delivers a standout performance with her beautiful tone, but the coaches are more impressed by Sawyer.

“It boggles one’s mind when you listen to Sawyer sing,” Adam says.

“Vocally it’s pretty dead-even. You both have really nice hair,” adds Blake, totally unhelpfully.

“Noelle, watching you go up to those high notes with audience and walking out and facing the crowd the way you did is a giant leap forward,” says Coach Pharrell. “To be as good as you hare and to have zero ego says a lot,” he says to Sawyer.

Perhaps using their Blind Audition performances as a tie breaker, Pharrell advances Sawyer.

Team Blake: Corey Kent White vs. Jacob Rummell

In the final televised Battle of the round, Blake puts country singer Corey Kent White against pop vocalist Jacob Rummell. Jacob, as you may remember, stunned Blake with the very fact that he is a man, a regular occurrence in the Blind Auditions. The duo sings “I Want Crazy” by Hunter Hayes, a song Blake identifies as more pop than country. (Please, girl.) Jacob rises to the occasion (with what is perhaps a sarcastic smile on his face the whole time), while Corey suffers in his lower register.

“It was cool to see you coming from a Bruno Mars song stepping into this country ho down situation,” Christina tells Jacob. “You have quite a range.”

“There’s no lack of talent here, you guys are equally great,” says Adam. “I would go with Jacob because he toed the line between these totally different songs so well.”

“This kid will have fun with whatever song you lob at him,” Blake says of Jacob. “This is such a dead-even battle to me.”

In the case of a “dead-even” Battle, Blake is obviously (and incorrectly) going to default to country. He picks Corey, and Pharrell uses his final steal on Jacob.

“He’s young and hungry,” says Pharrell, who totally scores from Blake’s mistake.

Untelevised: Christina, Blake and Adam all advance contestants in untelevised Battles. Christina advances Kroyn Hawthorne over Vance Smith, Blake advances Brooke Adee over Bay Brooks, and Adam advances Lexi Dávila over Bren’nae DeBarge. See you kids in the Knockouts.

Speaking of the Knockouts – they start on Monday! Fun. frontman Nate Ruess fills Taylor Swift’s overall advisor shoes for the season, and – what?? – on the agenda is the first three-contestant Knockout in Voice history? Math-wise, how is that even possible with eight-contestant teams remaining? What kind of twist is Carson Daly planning for us? What will these masterminds think of next?

Any predictions for the Knockouts? Hit us up in the comments below.