Tag: Dianna Agron

Music Review >> Music From ‘Glee,’ Episode 2×6 “Never Been Kissed”

The four songs featured in this week’s episode of Glee pack quite the musical punch.

Diving into the tracks this week, the weakest is definitely the duet between Mark Salling (Puck) and Kevin McHale (Artie) on Bob Marley’s “One Love (People Get Ready).” This song really doesn’t fit Salling’s voice, although when harmonizing with McHale, he sounded pretty good. It definitely wasn’t as good as the other three songs from this week’s episode.

Hands down my favorite track this week was Dalton Academy’s version of Katy Perry’s huge hit, “Teenage Dream.” The song features lead vocals from Glee newcomer, Darren Criss (Blaine). This is a song that I wouldn’t expect to hear covered by a guy, but I thought Glee’s interpretation was wonderful.

The arrangement for this song is great. Replacing instruments with harmonizing does not go unnoticed. The harmonizing is a huge part about what makes Glee’s take on “Teenage Dream” so successful.

I really enjoy Criss’ voice. His voice is a great addition to the cast this season, and I hope that the audience gets to hear more from him.

Onto the mash ups! The Glee girls performed a mash up of the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up” and Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer.”

Amber Riley (Mercedes) took the lead on “Start Me Up.” Her vocal provided a saucy and provocative interpretation of the song.

Lea Michele (Rachel) was the featured singer on “Livin’ On A Prayer.” Michele is able to adapt her voice nicely to the song. To really pull off that song’s chorus, you need a booming, powerful vocal. Michele pulled it off without a hitch.

Both of these songs made for quite the rockin’ mash up.

It also occurred to me while listening to this week’s music that last season on Glee, the guys incorporated a Bon Jovi song into their mash up. I wonder if it’s just pure coincidence, or luck in Bon Jovi’s case, that their new greatest hits album just happened to come out the same week one of their biggest hits was covered on Glee.  I thought that was interesting.

The Glee guys did a mash up of The Supremes “Stop! In The Name of Love” and EnVogue’s “Free Your Mind.”

Now, I really like both of the mash ups, but what gives the guys the edge for me is that almost every single one of them is featured as a lead vocal throughout their mash up. Also, these songs brought the best out of the guys (vocally speaking) and collectively they sounded great.

This mash up is definitely a fun listen. Who knew that two songs that are so different musically and lyrically could fit so well together?

I have to say that whoever is responsible for putting together the arrangements for this week’s crop of songs did an incredible job. Glee definitely had a good music week.

Glee airs Tuesday nights on FOX at 8 p.m.

Originally posted on BlogCritics.

Music Review >> Music From ‘Glee,’ Episode 2 x 04 “Duets”

The music recordings for Glee’s episode “Duets” is probably the best batch of music from the season so far. The vocals from the cast members are fantastic.

Kicking off this week’s bundle of music is Lea Michele (Rachel) and Cory Monteith (Finn) singing “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” by Elton John and Kiki Dee. These two always sound fantastic together, especially on the more upbeat songs. You get a sense from the recordings that they were having fun singing. Monteith is definitely coming into his own as a singer, and Michele’s voice compliments his voice very much.

Chris Colfer (Kurt) sings “Le Jazz Hot” from Victor Victoria. This is hands down the best Colfer has ever sounded while on the show. The last note during this song is phenomenal.

Newcomer Chord Overstreet (Sam) and Dianna Agron (Quinn) sing the popular Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat track, “Lucky.” This is a really sweet duet between the two, their voices sound well together. Agron is pretty limited vocally compared to the other female Glee cast mates, but pop songs like this she pulls off quite nicely. Overstreet is definitely poised to give the rest of the Glee guys a run for their money, as he has one of the strongest male voices on the show.

The best duet from this week came from Michele and Colfer, who sing “Happy Days Are Here/Get Happy” by Barbara Streisand and Judy Garland. Glee pretty much struck gold, when they decided to pair these two up for a duet. They both have excellent vocal control, that allowed for a vulnerable, yet stunning duet.

As much as it was wonderful that we got to here from Harry Shum Jr. (Mike) on his a Chorus Line duet “Sing!” with Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina), it was definitely the weakest duet of this week’s recording. Shum isn’t even singing, he’s rapping, which is fine, because it allowed for Ushkowitz to shine that much more in their duet.

Naya Rivera (Santana) and Amber Riley (Mercedes) paired up for Ike and Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High.” Rivera really is no match for Riley’s vocal, she’s easily overpowered. Riley really just brings it, and once again contributes a fantastic vocal to the week’s recordings.

Glee airs Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. on FOX.

Originally posted on BlogCritics.