There’s only a few more days til Glee returns on a special night after Super Bowl XLV.
To tide you over, check out a clip of Rachel (Lea Michele) and Puck (Mark Salling) singing Lady Antebellum’s huge hit, “Need You Now”!
Also, here’s a short clip of Dalton Academy’s Warblers performing Destiny’s Child’s hit, “Bills, Bills, Bills”! Blaine (Darren Criss) is featured on lead vocals.
The four songs from the unofficial tribute to Bruno Mars episode of Glee continue the trend of great song choices.
Guest star Carol Burnett and Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester) sing “Ohio” from Welcome Home. Carol Burnett sounds pretty good on the track. Lynch sounds alright. She’s definitely not a singer, but I can appreciate that she steps up to bat for the show.
Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester) steps into the spotlight singing Michael Buble’s “Sway.” Morrison’s vocals are a great fit for this song – and really that whole genre of music. He’s got the swagger that really is needed for this vocal, and he pulls it off nicely.
I really like that Morrison is being highlighted musically more this season. He was a relatively untapped resource last season, so it’s nice to hear more from him.
Glee seems to be on quite the Bruno Mars kick this year covering not one, but two of his songs this episode, as well as covering “Billionaire” earlier this season.
The first of Mars’ songs that the cast takes on is “Marry You.” It’s a fun ensemble number which is reminiscent of the Journey To Regionals version of “Don’t Stop Believing” where all the couples within Glee Club were the highlighted singers. Cory Monteith (Finn) and Lea Michele (Rachel) kick off the song strong. Dianna Agron (Quinn) and Chord Overstreet (Sam) then take the lead with their part of the song. Their vocals together sound pretty decent.
I can only imagine that it is quite the task to find a song that the Glee cast will all sound good singing, but whoever did the music selection for “Furt” did a really good job. “Marry You” allows the cast to show that they can sing current songs and make them just as good of a listen as the original.
I had to raise an eyebrow at Monteith covering Mars’ current big hit, “Just The Way You Are.” Monteith’s solos this season have been pretty hit or miss, but “Just The Way You Are” is definitely a hit. I find that Monteith’s voice hits it’s sweet spot when he’s singing pop music, and I hope that Glee realizes that this is his singing genre.
The music from “Furt” is a pretty good listen. Young fans of the show will appreciate the current hits being covered. Glee should probably not cover any more Bruno Mars music for the remainder of the season. Three songs in eight episodes is quite enough.
Glee airs Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. on FOX.
Originally posted on BlogCritics.
Next week Glee is heading back to Sectionals, which means awesome performances, including one from Dalton Academy’s Warblers! Darren Criss (Blaine) is on lead vocals for their performance of Train’s huge hit, “Hey Soul Sister.”
Check it out!
I love Christmas music. I love Glee. The combination of the two results in an album filled with a great mix of classic and contemporary Christmas songs.
Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album goes above and beyond any possible expectations I had before I took my first listen. “Deck The Rooftop,” which is a mash-up of “Deck The Halls” and “Up On The Rooftop,” was completely unexpected. Glee definitely manged to put their twist on two popular holiday songs, and made it into an extremely catchy sing-a-long.
One of the tracks that is already getting a lot of buzz is “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” which is sung by Chris Colfer (Kurt) and Darren Criss (Blaine). It’s a very sweet duet between the two, and their vocals are superb.
“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” sung by the Glee ladies, is one of my favorites. The harmonizing is on point, and they seem to be reining in the glory notes a bit, which gives the song a sense of vulnerability, and allows the lyrics to stand in the spotlight.
I really liked Glee’s interpretation on “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” The song features Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester) and K.D. Lang. I still watch The Grinch Who Stole Christmas every year, so I really appreciated this song being on the album. Morrison and Lang really capture its spirit.
I have to make mention of Amber Riley (Mercedes), who sings “Angels We Have Heard On High.” On this song, she has a voice to be reckoned with. The arrangement for me left something to be desired, but Riley’s voice makes the song a success.
I have to say that the group harmonizing on this album is fantastic. The Glee cast really have never sounded better. There’s something about Christmas music that really brings the best out of singers.
Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album really exceeded my expectations. The album has a great combined energy of Glee and Christmas spirit.
Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album is available now. The Glee Christmas special airs December 7 on FOX at 8 p.m.
Originally posted on BlogCritics.
The following video is pretty much the cutest thing to happen to Glee since Darren Criss made his first appearance this past week.
Check out this video that features the cast’s “mini-me’s” that are appearing in next week’s episode!
I love Mini-Puck and his “These guns are fully loaded!”
EEEEEEEE! So cute!
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.
In this week’s bundle of Glee music from “Grilled Cheesus,” the audience gets to hear the first solos of the season from Glee’s most beloved characters who are not Rachel Berry.
Mark Salling (Puck) has his first big solo of the season with “Only The Good Die Young” by Billy Joel.
It’s great to hear from Salling so early in the season. However, the Glee vocal coaches should work with him on his vocal vibrato while holding longer notes and try to smooth them out.
Amber Riley (Mercedes) sounds absolutely beautiful singing Whitney Houston’s “I Look To You.” If any of the Glee cast can pull off Whitney, it’s Amber.
Her vocal runs at times felt unnecessary, but overall it’s a very strong vocal from Riley. This song is so much better than anything she sang during season one.
Lea Michele (Rachel) contributes this this week’s recordings with “Papa, Can You Hear Me” from Yentl.
What really can be said about Michele’s voice that hasn’t already been said? This is an absolute stellar recording. Michele has a voice to be reckoned with.
Chris Colfer (Kurt) sings “I Want To Hold Your Hand” by The Beatles in this week’s recordings.
I absolutely love how Glee chose to rearrange this song. It had such a dramatic feel that really captured the emotions that Colfer’s character was feeling.
Colfer has a really great vocal. I really hope he is featured more this season.
R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” was a great song choice for Cory Monteith (Finn). However, what was not great was having him record it as an attempt to sound like Michael Stipe. Monteith has a great voice, there was no need for the sound-a-like vocal phrasing.
I loved that Amber Riley had two solos this week, but there was so much auto-tune used in her rendition of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” I couldn’t tell if it was Riley or Naya Rivera (Santana) singing the song at first.
The big group number of the week was a rendition of Joan Osbourne’s “One Of Us.”
Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina), Monteith, Michele and Colfer are the featured vocals on this track. I was really surprised that Salling was not featured on this track, because the song would have fit his voice perfectly.
The cast of Glee sound great altogether. It seems like every week their group numbers are getting better and better.
Glee airs Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. on FOX.
Originally posted at BlogCritics.
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