‘The Voice’ recap: Mark Hood heads home ahead of Top 11

So long, Team Pharrell’s Mark Hood. The talented Chicago actor and singer, who has big energy and a precise, pristine way with a soulful run, was sent home on “The Voice” this week, as the Top 12 morphed into the Top 11.

Hood’s attempt to show a “softer, chill side” of himself Monday, with his stripped-down performance of Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds,” apparently didn’t go over that well with America.

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After the 10 singers saved by the voters had been revealed one by one, Carson Daly had run through his list of bland questions for both coaches and contestants, and Blake Shelton and Pharrell Williams had performed with their teams, Hood and the quirkily endearing Korin Bukowski, of Team Gwen, found themselves in the bottom two. Each would sing a song of his or her choosing to compete for the Twitter instant save. The other would head home.

Hood tore through Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours” with his usual unbridled enthusiasm. He gave particular emphasis and meaning to the lyric “You’ve got my future in your hands” and at one point got down and emphatically smacked the stage.

Gwen Stefani admired Hood’s “big, beautiful and honest” spirit and called the performance “magic.”

“You’re so much fun to watch,” Shelton told him. “I was looking down the line here and every coach, we’re just laughing, having a blast watching you. … You’re so good. … You deserve to be here.”

Bukowski, for her part, delivered Norah Jones’ “Don’t Know Why” as if each note was a small, glinty gem strung together into a perfect glimmering strand. It was a graceful, sweetly seductive performance, and when she’d completed it, she stood onstage looking vulnerable, unsure and unconventionally winsome.

Adam Levine said Bukowski had shown impressive confidence and dramatic improvement. It had been a “touching” performance, he said, her best thus far. Levine seemed to be struggling not to outright endorse Bukowski over Hood. But he did allow himself to say he wanted to hear more of her, which said enough.

“You’re so unassuming about yourself and so bashful, even the way you’re standing right now,” Shelton said. “You can’t imagine that you’re the same person that just gave that beautiful of a performance.”

The voters were clearly impressed, too. Before the producers removed the graphic showing the vote breakdown ahead of the announcement of the results, Bukowski had 55% of all tweeted support to Hood’s 45%.

The voters, at last, seemed to have embraced Bukowski, with all her talent and awkward charm, allowing her to stick around to sing another week. Hood will head back to the Windy City — or at least off to the next stage in his career. Good luck, Mark.