live show 9th of august

[jedidjahjulia]

So who is watching this at the moment? What do you think? At the moment I'm not overly impressed by the general standard of singing. It's all a bit bland...

[Arctophile]

I thought that the two weakest performances were from Revelation and Sense of Sound. I wasn't too impressed with City of Bath but that was more because the song didn't lend itself to a choral version (IMHO). I enjoyed both Ysgol Glanaethwy and Only Men Aloud! and thought that ACM were OK (but that is probably as I don't actually like the song they performed).

I would think, based on my perception of the performances, that Revelation and Sense of Sound would be the bottom two but as I have been wrong most weeks I am not holding my breath.

[mediastar]

Ysgol Glanaethwy - a good choice of song but they didn't get the feeling of the original. Maybe there are too many women there.

Revelation - there have been pianos backing lots of the choirs in this series so far and when they choose a song that need a piano there's not one there. Audio balance had been good - surprisingly good for the BBC so far this series - but it fell apart in this show and revelation suffered. And the overall sound was very bland.

ACM - nothing special.

Bath - nothing special.

Sense of Sound - I was impressed by the girl with a wasp's nest on her head.

Men Aloud - this one didn't impress either.

Maybe the choirs are struggling getting new songs together each week. And as they have to prance around on stage as well that must take some time getting the choreography right. The standard of the singing will have to improve a lot if there is going to be another series of this show.

The choirs have clearly been left to select their own songs and produce them without any interference from the usual suspects like the Grants etc but other than  Ysgol Glanaethwy none is really up to it.

[jedidjahjulia]

Agree with most that have been said. Lots of times I don't really understand the songchoice and I was glad the judges commented on the fact that there was too much unisono a lot of times too.

Ysgol Glanaehwy - okay but they definately lack strong men and had a risky songchoice.
Revelation - rather boring
ACM - did not get why the judges were more impressed by this, the dancing really put me off but they did seem to like it
Bath - not very good, arrangment was interesting but the singers are not up to it
Sense of Sound - technically good but it lacked drive
Unfortunately I had to miss Men Aloud

They will really need to up the ante if they want to impress next week, otherwise I suspect it will start to get boring rather soon.

As I've told earlier we had a similar show in the Netherlands and I likes their format better; 4 weeks with 3 choirs each week and then the last week the weekwinners did the final showdown. Also during the shows each choir sang three songs; one they had chosen themselves, one they had gotten from the producers a week earlier and one they had gotten from the producers on the morning of the show. Especially this last song really showed what choirs were capable of, that was rather exciting.

[Arctophile]

The thing that I really didn't understand was the glowing comments from the judges for Revelation's soloist. I could hardly hear her above the rest and what I did hear sounded distinctly less than in tune to me. The more that I think about the show the more I am convinced that they were the weakest.

[jedidjahjulia]

I agree Arcto, I wasn't too enthousiastic about her either.

[00Anna]

Liked ACM and Only Men Aloud!!

Sense of Sounds were awful!

[Minnie]

Only Men Aloud! have been my favourites all along and I agreed with Russell's comment about it being the performance of the series. ACM were very good too but Sense of Sound were just a big mess, and I still don't think that Revelation are anything special.

[johartuk]

The performances last night weren't great.  I think probably Ysgol Glanaehwy were the strongest (though their song choice was rather odd). 

I found the choreography of some of the choirs pretty annoying and intrusive.  This is a choir competition, not a dance one!

[susieq]

I think everyone was nervous and for choirs like the Bath Male Voice choir, who are obviously holding down full time jobs as well, it is a huge ask to learn 3 new songs, off book, for each week. However, I thought Only Men Aloud were stunning: their sound is fabulous. Ysgol Glanaehwy are a great sounding choir. The male voices don't come through as well because young male voices are less powerful.... THe judges should know this and perhaps the sound engineer should give them some sound enhancement.
I am writing this after the sing off, but I wasn't at all surprised that Sense of Sound and Revelation were in the bottom two; they both reminded me of X Factor contestants that have a backing choir and a solo artist; this is a choral competition.
And I'm still not very convinced by ACM. I don't know why they are having such rave reviews from the judges. Yes, they are jolly, but the piece they sang had minimal harmonies and few dynamics. I understand they've just recorded their first album....