Brandon's Buzz

Javier Colon — “Time After Time”
(from Time After Time [“The Voice” Performance]) —

It will be interesting to see if it holds up as it unfolds — particularly as it is curiously scheduled smack dab up against the climax of one of American Idol‘s more compelling seasons in quite a spell — but I have to tell you: I wasn’t expecting much, but I quite liked the premiere episode of NBC’s knockoff talent competition The Voice, which is built around an fascinating concept — the judges are building “teams” of singers and are essentially competing against each other just as fiercely as the singers are — and featured a surprising number of moving moments — among them, a married couple quite capably tackling “Falling Slowly” from the Once soundtrack, and a young girl giving Adele a run for her money with a riveting take on “Rolling in the Deep” — and none more so than this, a brilliantly bittersweet cover of Cyndi Lauper’s all-time classic smash which literally made me weep. Everything about this — from the loose, off-the-cuff guitar arrangement, to Colon’s slightly off-kilter phrasing (particularly on that iconic chorus, which is every bit as powerful right this moment as it was nearly thirty years ago) — works and works fabulously, and though it feels kinda weird to anoint the captivating Colon as the instant front-runner in this competition — especially when there are many, many other contestants to be seen yet — it’s exactly what I’m doing. (A quick check of Colon’s discography reveals that he is indeed fearless in tackling the classics, as he has also put his lovely imprimatur upon what gets my vote for the best song in the whole damn history of great songs, Joni Mitchell’s landmark “A Case of You.”) I, for one, can’t wait to see what trick Javi pulls out of his hat next. (If you missed this performance, or any of the gazillion commercials for The Voice on which bits of this performance were played ad nauseam, the full video can be seen below.)