Tag: Dot-Marie Jones

Music Review >> Glee Cast – “I Kissed a Girl”

I must admit that this week’s Glee tracks are possibly the best collection of songs they’ve put together for a single episode in awhile. The running theme of the songs is “by ladies and for ladies,” as declared by Cory Monteith’s character Finn Hudson during this week’s episode.

You can’t have an episode called, “I Kissed a Girl,” without having one of the tracks this week be Katy Perry’s hit, “I Kissed a Girl.” I mean, I guess you could, but Glee loves them some Katy Perry music, so it was kind of inevitable. Taking the lead on this track is Naya Rivera (Santana) and Lea Michele (Rachel). Granted, Glee didn’t do anything particularly special with the arrangement, but the song is just as much fun to listen to as Perry’s original.

Rivera really gets to show off her vocal prowess alongside Idina Menzel (Shelby) on KD Lang’s “Constant Craving.” I feel like with each episode that Rivera gets pushed a little more to show how talented she is, and what better way to prove it than pairing her up with Menzel. Both individual vocal performances were impressive and when combined, the two singers sound just stunning.

Continue reading Music Review >> Glee Cast – “I Kissed a Girl”

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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.