Category: Music

Idol Wired >> The Top 24 Are Revealed!

Finally, we have 24 contestants moving onto the American Idol semifinals. We’re making progress, everyone! Of course, getting to this point meant sitting through four of the longest hours of my life to find out officially which contestants had made the Top 24.

To be honest (and this might be an unpopular opinion), I thought that first hour of Idol Wednesday night during the Las Vegas round was a huge waste of time. I didn’t care to watch group rounds again, and more than that, I don’t care to hear songs of The Beatles being sung by people other than The Beatles.

This episode we got to see Idol’s in-house mentor Jimmy Iovine sit in on some of the rehearsals, and oh my, I think he’s definitely going to be a presence when it comes to contestants working on their songs. He just got straight to the point and held nothing back. He wasn’t sugarcoating anything or sparing anyone’s feelings. His involvement on the show this season is going to be interesting.

The only two performances from Vegas Cirque du Soleil LOVE stage that I cared for were from Tim Halperin and Julie Zorrilla who performed “Something” and Paul McDonald and Kendra Chantrelle who performed “Blackbird.”

In case I haven’t mentioned it already, I am definitely a fan of Halperin’s voice. His vocals paired wonderfully with Zorrilla’s.

I also really like McDonald’s voice. There’s a James Morrison meets Rod Stewart vibe going on there, and I dig it.

The second hour of Idol Wednesday night was dedicated to revealing a portion of the Top 24. This hour and the two hours on Thursday night were so long, I felt like lifetimes were passing by as the show slowly revealed the Top 24.

The contestants got to perform one more final song, and then they walked down the ridiculously long walkway to sit with the judges to find out if they were in or out.
Continue reading Idol Wired >> The Top 24 Are Revealed!

Music Review >> Glee Cast – “Blame It on the Alcohol”

Glee channeled Jamie Foxx, Human League, George Thorogood, and Kesha in this week’s episode, “Blame It on the Alcohol.” It’s only fitting that the cast of Glee perform “Blame It (On The Alcohol),” since it is where this week’s episode got it’s namesake from.

Kevin McHale (Artie) and Amber Riley (Mercedes) take the lead on the Jamie Foxx hit. They both sound really good. Riley got to showcase a much more controlled vocal than usual. I appreciated that McHale’s voice wasn’t weighed down with auto-tune. Mark Salling (Puck) and Naya Rivera (Santana) also are highlighted on this track. Both of their vocals suit the R&B stylings of “Blame It.” As someone who really likes Foxx’s original track, I found the Glee version to be just as enjoyable to listen to.

Darren Criss (Blaine) and Lea Michele (Rachel) team up for a duet of an amped up version of Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me.” It’s not surprising at all that their voices sound great together. There seems to be a touch of auto-tune going on in the production, but neither singer sounds unrecognizable. Criss’ deep vocals provides a subtle sexiness to the track.

Dot-Marie Jones (Coach Beiste) makes her Glee music debut this week, doing a duet with Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester) on the George Thorogood version of the John Lee Hooker song, “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.” According to TVLine.com, this was Jones’ first time recording a song ever, and to be honest I think she did a pretty decent job. It was a little strange to hear Morrison singing country, but I liked their duet.

Heather Morris returns to the Glee spotlight, as she takes on Kesha’s monster hit, “Tik Tok.” I was pretty excited when I heard Glee was going to be covering this song, because it’s really fun and upbeat. After hearing the Glee version, I wish they would have just left well enough alone. Morris doesn’t infuse the song with any personality vocally like the original. It just felt like a weird Kidz Bop cover with the backing vocals and the auto-tune. For the most part, I think this week’s tracks were pretty good. The music supervisors did a great job with picking songs that went hand-in-hand with the episode’s theme. Production-wise, I really think Glee dropped the ball with “Tik Tok,” as that song could have sounded so much better.

The music from Glee’s “Blame It on the Alcohol” episode are available now on iTunes. Glee airs Tuesday nights 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET on FOX.

Originally posted on BlogCritics.

‘Glee’ to Debut Original Songs On Latest Compilation Album

Glee: The Music Volume 5 is due out March 8 and will include fan favorite tracks like “Don’t You Want Me,” “Need You Now,” and “Take Me or Leave Me.” The compilation album will also feature Gwyneth Paltrow on three tracks.

In a Glee first, there are two original songs to be found on this latest volume of music. The song “Loser Like Me” was co-written by the one and only Max Martin. The song is described as “an energetic ensemble track.” The song “Get It Right” is a ballad sung by Lea Michele. These two tracks will be featured during the March 15 episode of Glee.

This past week was the show’s biggest sales week since it began, with 880,000 songs downloaded. As a result, seven Glee songs found their way to the iTunes Top Songs chart.

Over 24 million Glee songs have been downloaded to date, and Glee has sold over 9 million albums worldwide. Glee: The Music Volume 1 has been certified Platinum, recognizing sales of over 1 million copies sold.

Glee: The Music Volume 5 will be available a couple of Tuesdays from now (March 8). For more information on music from Glee, check out the official music website.

Glee: The Music Volume 5 Track listing:

1. “Thriller”/”Heads Will Roll”
2. “Need You Now”
3. “She’s Not There”
4. “Fat Bottomed Girls”
5. “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)”
6. “Firework”
7. “Baby”
8. “Somebody To Love”
9. “Take Me or Leave Me”
10. “Sing”
11. “Don’t You Want Me”
12. “Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)”
13. “Kiss”
14. “Landslide”
15. “Get It Right”
16. “Loser Like Me”

Originally posted on BlogCritics.

David Archuleta Parts Ways With Jive Records

After a somewhat cryptic Twitter update from David Archuleta last week that said, “Decisions.. They are scary things before knowing what could happen after you make them, but I’m excited for what the future holds,” there was speculation that Archuleta had been let go by Jive Records.

On Februray 18, a Jive Records representative told The Hollywood Reporter that “David was released from our roster.”

Archuleta took to Twitter again this week to post a video to thank his fans and to explain the decisions that he is making for himself when it comes to his career.

In the video Archuleta said, “There were offers for me to continue working with [Jive], but it didn’t feel like the right thing now.”

Later in the video, he said that he had also parted ways with his management.

“I realized that this is not where I am need to be right now. This is not where I’m supposed to go, what I want to be doing right now, what I want to be focusing on,” he explained.

Archuleta was runner-up to David Cook during American Idol’s seventh season. In the fall of 2008, he sold 183,000 copies of his self-titled debut album in it’s first week out. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 in the number two slot.

Originally posted on BlogCritics.

Idol Wired >> Hollywood Drama

This week’s episodes of American Idol were packed with talent, tears, and drama that make “Hollywood Week” the must-see episodes of the season. It also lets you see a very real side to the contestants. However, seeing some of the contestant’s candidness was not always very flattering. In other words, Clint Jun Gambia, dude you’re toast. But we’ll get to him in just a bit.

Idol chose to mix it up this year with the group rounds. Contestants had make up their group with participants from both group one and group two from the first round of “Hollywood Week” auditions.

Remember the days of Idol when contestants would just group up and make it work? Yeah, that wasn’t flying this week. Contestants were making other contestants audition to get into their groups. It’s a brilliant move, but at times just seemed kind of rude.

I have also never seen so much footage of parents in Hollywood with their underage child/Idol contestant. I think they should have let their kids work a little more independently on their group routine and wait to be asked for pointers, but a couple of these moms were a little too much to handle.

James Durbin (totally over him, by the way) weighed in on the stage moms, and told the cameras that there shouldn’t be young kids in the competition. Really showed a little bit of a cocky side to him. I think he was just jealous that the group of teens were about to wipe the floor with his group, as they were both performing Queen’s “Somebody To Love.”

A quick word of advice to Mr. Durbin: You really need to stop inserting the screechy note into every one of your performances. It’s not necessary. But if you’re going to repeat the path of Siobhan Magnus and toss that note in during each of your performances, you should aim to be on key.

I think the biggest foul of the group rounds was Clint Jum Gambia kicking young Jacee Badeaux out of his group in favor of Scotty McCreery. Gambia didn’t think that Badeaux’s voice fit with the rest of the group, so he sent him on his way. Badeaux ended up joining up with Brett Loewenstern’s group.

If Gambia makes it past the Las Vegas round next week into the Top 24 where the viewers vote, I don’t think he has a chance in hell making it to the main stage. He completely shot himself in the foot by kicking Badeaux out of his group. Plus, he’s managed to come off as completely obnoxious this week. Good work, Gambia.
Continue reading Idol Wired >> Hollywood Drama

Music Review >> Glee Cast – “Comeback”

I currently have the lyrics to Justin Bieber’s hit song, “Baby” playing on a loop in my head.

“Baby, baby, baby ooh…baby, baby, baby ooh…baby, baby, baby ooh…”

Not cool, Glee. Not cool at all.

I have seen The Biebs perform on TV a couple of times, but never bothered to sit down and listen to his music. I had my own Justin Bieber when I was 16, but his name was Brian Littrell and he was a Backstreet Boy.

When I initially heard that Glee would be getting Bieber-friendly, I must admit that I cringed. Upon remembering that this show is set in high school, and that Bieber is pretty much “the dude” right now, it then made sense that the kids in glee club would like his music.

So, how was Glee’s take on Bieber? Not bad, actually. I can’t even believe I’m about to say this, but after taking a listen to the lyrics and the melody, I have come to realize that Bieber has well-written and catchy tunes. This would be why the chorus to “Baby” has not left my brain.

Chord Overstreet (Sam) sings The Bieb’s enormous hit, “Baby,” and I think pop music is definitely his niche. He isn’t the strongest male singer in the cast, but Glee’s “Blond Bieber” does quite well for himself on this song.

I wasn’t surprised at all to hear Kevin McHale (Artie) doing the rap breakdown in the song. He proves again that he can flow pretty well.

Overstreet, McHale, Mark Salling (Puck), and Harry Shum Jr. (Mike) perform Bieber’s “Somebody To Love.” I have come to the conclusion that when the Glee guys are rocking a pop song, they sound at the top of their game.
Continue reading Music Review >> Glee Cast – “Comeback”