'The Voice' : Adam Levine Reflects on Love as the Competition Heats Up Taylor John Williams and Matt McAndrew are among the standouts as eight singers vie for five spots

ByAndrea BillupsPublished on December 2, 2014 09:30AM EST Credit : Tyler Golden/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank(2); Inset: Trae Patton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank The Voice‘s Top 8 contestants brought plenty of

emotion to Monday night’s live show – and had the judges feeling it, too.

With competition fierce and three artists set for a tough elimination Tuesday, the remaining singers raised the bar and gave prospective fans a sharper window into what they’d look and sound

“Royals” and reimagined it as more rebellious and true to his trippy vibe.

“The way you come out here, this super-soulful hippie, in my mind – I’m waiting for your record,” Williams said, calling the Portland, Oregon, singer an “old soul.” “I’m a superfan. I

usually don’t like when people go away from what something was, but you made it your own. You’re something else.”

“Love is this crazy thing,” he told McAndrew. “It’s beautiful and blissful and happy and wonderful. And brutal and painful and excruciating at times. When you can embody that as an artist

that is the most valuable thing.”

Levine’s team showed off its power with another artist, TSA agent Damien, delivering a goose-bump-inducing moment on Adele‘s hit “Someone Like You.”

Levine noted in rehearsals that the Louisiana soul singer needed a song “that will crush it.” And Damien, who picked the song himself, made good on that stage note, with his coach later

calling it his “best, best, best performance.”

“I would swear you were a machine if you didn’t have as much passion and soul to go along with how perfect that performance was,” Shelton enthused.

Noted Williams: “It’s just so crazy to me how effortlessly you paint the air with those notes. Your false is like, unbelievable.”

CloseRead more:EntertainmentMusicCountry Music