Associate Editor Troy Lilly recaps the latest episode of Sunday Best…

It’s only been three weeks, but season 4 of Sunday Best is flying by. Blink and you might miss it! This past Sunday, the second half of the Top 20 performed, and we got a good glimpse at who’ll make the Top 10 after the judges revealed their cuts in the first round of eliminations.

But notice I said “glimpse of the Top 10.” There still a bit of shaking up before it’s finalized. More on that later, though.

This week’s episode was themed “The New Standard,” and appropriately, pastor and singer Smokie Norful opened the show with his recently medley of congregational favorites, “In The Army of the Lord,” and “God is a Good God,” among others. There’s not a whole bunch you can do with that song, but Smokie’s trademark is blending the contemporary and traditional, and that’s what he did.

Then it was on to the singing. After several underwhelming performances last week, I was hoping this episode would hit me with at least a few surprises. I got a couple – as in two.

Here’s how it played out:

Isaiah Freeman IV – “My Life is in Your Hands”
Isaiah is a crooner and not a growler. He’s more Marvin Gaye than James Brown, if I can make that analogy. And while his rendition of this Kirk Franklin song wasn’t perfect, he demonstrated that he could command the stage and remain composed even after hitting a rough spot or two in his performance. Out of all the new arrangements of old songs I’ve heard on the show so far, this is probably the first I wished would have gone on longer. Glad to have a guy like this the competition. Apparently, the judges agree; they said he reminded them of Fred Hammond.

Annalisha Robbins – “The Battle”
Annalisha sang before Mary Mary at a concert date when she 11 years old. Ironically, her voice as an adult still sounds a bit immature. She began the song almost in a whisper, but even when she opened up in the middle, her voice still lacked depth. At the very end, she finally delivered a balanced sound, but only after a series of uneven runs. Sometimes timid body language can undermine a good voice. Annalisha certainly can sing, but she barely opened her eyes. She seemed terrified. The judges noticed.

Roosevelt Griffin – “Total Praise”
A good singer is more than a good voice; they know when to do what. Roosevelt started the song at awkward place in the bridge, with an even more awkward high note. Ok, that note was just bad. Then he decided to redeem himself by showing off his incredible range, except he didn’t redeem so much as he crucified himself. There were more shaky notes and pitch problems. While far from boring, Roosevelt just seemed a bit jarred – and jarring. After three auditions in three cities, I can’t blame him for coming out with a bang.

Sue Roseberry – “The Lord Will Make a Way Somehow”
Mama Sue, as she was christened after her performance, has none of the issues other singers have struggled with this season. She’s got perfect pitch, tone, dynamics, a beautiful lower register AND the oil – also known as the anointing. And even after 15 grandchildren, Mama Sue still knows how to rock with the groove on stage. She’s aware of her gift, she mastered it, and she conveys it. I don’t what more I could ask for. What’s notable after mentioning all of that, however, is that she still seems humble. She was my first surprise of the evening, and a pleasant one at that.

Eric Drew – “The Presence of the Lord is Here”
Eric performed midway through the show, and that’s pretty much where his overall delivery fell: in the middle. His voice wasn’t shaky or signature, his energy wasn’t lacking or commanding. He moved around the stage some, made eye contact, and the audience seemed to be with him. But for some reason it just felt a bit safe for this kind of competition. Usually a singer channels what they feel to an audience; Eric conveyed composure, but he was singing about the presence of God, so more excitement would have been appropriate. He’s still a good singer, though, which is what the judges remarked. And there were far worse performances.

Felicia Russell – “Encourage Yourself”
This was my second big surprise of the night. Felicia absolutely killed in her audition. Her pitch-perfect voice was laced with a fiery, soulful tone akin to Aretha Franklin. I expected her to show more of what landed her in the competition. But when Felicia emerged on stage, I thought I was watching a different singer. Her first note was almost inaudible, and what I could hear didn’t sound good. She then moved through the song mimicking the flourishes that Sheri Moffett-Jones added in the original version. This made Felicia’s version completely unoriginal. Fortunately, she still has a passable voice, so the performance wasn’t a total train wreck. I was, however, highly disappointed. So were the judges.

Quinten Bethea – “Blessed Assurance”
I must admit I liked the very beginning of Quinten’s performance. He smiled and sounded good. But here’s another case of the remix gone awry. When the music and tempo changed in this contemporary arrangement, Quinten at first flowed with it, but it was long before he tiptoed off pitch, and later even off key. At one point, as judge Erica Campbell mentioned, Quinten was a full step below the key of the music. Sad thing is he never realized it. In the arena of professional singers, pitch and key are, well, key. While I didn’t a big problem with his presentation, Donnie McClurkin said Quinten never blended the spirit with his talent.

Timesha Sampson – “There is No Way”
Of all the contestants on the show this season, Timesha probably has the greatest potential for growth. Her stage presence is spot-on, and she’s visually convincing. Her voice – in its rawest form – is beautiful and captivating. What she lacks, very noticeably, is control of her instrument. And singers without control tend not only to sound bad, but also to abuse their voice. Timesha worked herself into a frenzy skating across a scale of notes, but she didn’t execute them as strongly as she felt them. In my opinion, she may need more growth than she can afford in this competition.

Brian Ezra Bates – “When We All Get to Heaven”
Honestly, I would have preferred to hear Brian sing something else. I imagine he felt his song was likely to be underwhelming, so he added an extra jolt of liveliness to his performance. Instead of injecting life into his voice, though, Brian translated the energy in his face and in his body. He sang in an extremely hurried manner, often moving through the lyrics without finishing his notes. The factor behind his excitable disposition was almost certainly his nerves. But, in the scheme of the competition, that’s the only thing that made him memorable.

Monica Smith – “Silver and Gold”
As the last performer of the night, Monica didn’t have much standing in her way. Almost everyone before her had managed to be forgettable. From the moment she opened her mouth to sing it was clear she wouldn’t have that problem. Monica’s throaty, Southern-churned voice is one of the most recognizable this season. At times she certainly sounded hoarse, and I was worried when Kirk asked her to reprise the song that her voice is suffering from abnormal wear. But as long as her chops are strong enough to endure the weight of her singing style, I’d be very excited to see her progress.

***

Outside of the individual singers on this week’s show, another thing that caught my attention was the exceptionally poor sound quality. At first, I thought it was just my ears, but watching with a few friends, we kept adjusting the volume on the television up and down, and so forth between performances. And after playing video back numerous times, I noticed a difference in the mixing of Kirk’s voice and several singers. The sound at times seemed to come directly from in-studio monitors. Whatever the case, bad sound on a singing competition is like cake without icing; it’s just not good.

Maybe if the singing were up to par it would be less of an issue, but at this point it’s working against the overall experience.

But most of you probably aren’t bothered much by that. There were also (supposed to be) ten eliminations on Sunday, sort of. Nine of the 20 singers moved on to the Top 10, but three singers have to compete for the tenth and final spot. Yeah, I know. This just makes it more interesting.

Your Top 9 consists of the following:
Amber Bullock
Michael Washington
Andrea Harris
Isaiah Freeman IV
Sue Roseberry
Monica Smith
Michael Pugh
Felicia Russell
Carlington Roberts

The following three will compete for the 10th spot:
Latrice Smith
Shanandolan Reynolds
Timesha Sampson

Needless to say, what did you think of the show AND the sound? Let me hear it!