My Amazon Reviews: Glee Cast "Glee Sings The Beatles"

Guaranteed to Raise a Smile
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Glee hasn't shied away from The Beatles before, including some very deft covers, like Chris/Kurt doing "Blackbird." This time, though, for "Glee Sings The Beatles." they are tackling the Fab Four across two of the TV episodes and one full CD. Much like the attempts to do Madonna, Rocky Horror, or Grease, they're going all in. If you're a true purist who couldn't even tolerate the soundtrack to "I Am Sam" or "Across The Universe," you might have issues. Surprisingly, however, Glee takes on a handful of fairly obvious Beatles classics and treats them with respect.

I can't imagine what was going through the hearts and minds of the cast as they were taking on some of the more emotional heft of some of the songs here, so close to the passing of Cory Montieth/Finn. But when Lea Michelle opens up on "Yesterday," you can hear the emotion pouring out. Easily the best performance of the album, even if any other circumstances surrounded it. For the most part, the arrangements are kept close to the originals, with the exception of "Got To Get You Into My Life," where 'Klaine' mix it up with a marching band. On the TV episode, they even went as far as making a mock-up of the Ed Sullivan set for "When I Saw Her Standing There."

The CD does do a split between early and later Beatles, saving the music from the older period for the second episode. "Get Back" is stripped to just a piano version, and frankly, it's almost impossible to screw up "Let It Be," hay Jude" or "Here Comes The Sun" while you're staying faithful to the arrangements. With "Something" being one of my top ten personal favorite Beatles songs, I'd take it as blasphemy to try and mess with the original. In fact, the only stumble on this disc is performing "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and then NOT following through with "A Little Help From My Friends."

When Glee started, this was the kind of music I was expecting from the show. The first two seasons did a lot to mix in classic pop, modern songs abd show tunes in equal measure, to the point where I thought the "Presents The Warblers" was one of the best of the batch. For "Glee Sings The Beatles," the do a service to some of these records that inching towards their 60th Birthday, and that is bringing them to a whole new group of listeners. That's something I'm all for happening.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Glee Cast "Season 4 Volume 1"

Glee 2.0
3 Out Of 5 Stars

With most of the cast of Glee 'graduating' at the end of last season, it's up to a batch of newcomers to pick up the slack and help out old favorites. The new members seem to be cloning the old (Mallory is Rachel, Kitty is the new Quinn, etc), so it's a bit tough to make distinctions in the musical presentation. It helps that old hands Blaine, Artie, and yes, Rachel and Kurt are still here to add support. It's just not enough, though.

There are highlights, like the group sung version of Coldplay's "The Scientist," and Marley and Rachel's duet on "New York State of Mind." Talking David Bowie's was an adventurous choice (even more so was Sam and Britney doing "Celebrity Skin," which is not included here). Kitty and Marley do a nice job resurrecting Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For a Hero" (from "Footloose"). Minus points are given for "Gangnam Style," this years most annoying one hit wonder.

Missing are the songs from outside the pop spectrum. I'd have much rather had "Let's have a Kiki/Turkey Lurkey" here than a few of these songs, along with Kurt's version of "Being Alive" from the musical "Company." I miss the variety; I guess the "Glease" CD was supposed to satisfy that segment of the musical audience. Overall, "Glee: Season 4 Vol 1" is not a total dud, but the series seems close to jumping the shark.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Glee Cast "The Graduation Album"

Graduation of Glee
3 Out Of 5 Stars

I'm not sure why the cast seems so slighted on the Glee Graduation Album, but this leans very heavily on the "senior class" of McKinley High. It also pulls very hard on the pop spectrum, which leaves the usual mixture of classic songs, show tunes and current pop off this disc. For instance, Artie is totally absent. Santana and Brittany are merely background this time. No songs from the warblers or other groups, and no Sue cameos.

Which blands the material out significantly. "The Graduation Album" is more like a K-Tel album than the usually well balanced Glee offerings, saved mainly by Matthew Morrison's excellent reading of Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" (made popular by Rod Stewart) and Lea Michelle doing a great take on Beyonce's "I Was Here." Often, though, some of the songs sound like karaoke ("Glory Days" being the worst offender) or uninspired (a totally unnecessary "We Are The Champions"). Given a couple of highlights of the year's season not on disc ("Paradise By The Dashboard Light," "Mean"), some of the overused artists (Madonna again?) could have easily been bumped. It makes me wonder if there will be another offering before the new season starts.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Glee Cast "Volume 7"

Not so lucky 7
3 Out Of 5 Stars

The Glee Third Season has seemed to be a bit forced, and so has the music. With the exception of the Michael Jackson episode, the songs seem random. I would have been more appreciative had the producers done a "West Side Story" and Michael Jackson whole disc, then cherry picked from the rest of the best for this disc.

That doesn't leave the disc without its highlights. Matthew Morrison does a nice job on Coldplay's "Fix You" and the Adele mash up of "Rumor Has It/Someone Like You" is a knockout. The cast version of Jackson's "Man In The Mirror" is a standout as well, but again, a full Jackson CD would have been even better (ala the Madonna disc a year ago). Instead, we get cheese like Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" and a poor imitation of the original Warblers (The Tufts University Beelzebubs Glee Club, now replaced by studio singers) doing Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl." "Hot For Teacher" made a great video moment, but stalls out without the visual.

   

Glee Covers David Bowie

My Amazon Reviews: Glee The Music "Volume 6, Season 2"

C'Mon, Bite The Big Apple
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Glee has become a reliable and predictable machine in the pop music productivity factory, which also means that the music tends to be reliably decent. I'm glad that the Nationals edition of the series has taken another turn towards Broadway, one of thew show's aspects I've found endearing. Along with three originals written for the cast, Volume 6 is the most diverse disc of the second season's offerings.

This disc encompasses the Fleetwood Mac episode, with ""Dreams," "Don't Stop," "Go Your Own Way" and "Songbird." (It also propelled the classic Rumours album to rechart at #11...how cool was that?) Gwyneth Paltrow, Christine Chenweth and Charice take their guest appearances and make standout appearances on Adele's "Turning Tables," Mac's "Dreams" and the new song (and the best of the three originals) "As Long As Your There," respectively. Speaking of Adele, Jonathan Groff (who was wasted in this season with an inconsequential part) does a dynamic return, pairing up with Rachel (Lea Michelle) for "Rolling In The Deep." While it doesn't out-do the original, it was a great pairing. The same can be said for Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," which is as perfect a pop song as you'll hear this year. The gang gets it right, because the song's message and exuberance would be near impossible to botch.

Still, it is the Broadway/Movie music that fairs the best. Curt (Chris Colfer) lets loose on "As If We Never Said Goodbye" (from "Sunset Blvd), Rachel lets her Streisand out with "My Man" and a light-hearted "Bella Note" (from Disney's "Lady And The Tramp") now makes me wonder if a Disney tribute would be outside the show's realm of episode probabilities. Lastly, it was the New Directions' covering "Pure Imagination" that was this season's bona fide tearjerker. Along with Kenny Loggins' cover, the Glee version now is my favorite recording of that song.

   

My Amazon Reviews: Glee "Presents The Warblers"

Let's All Sing Like The Birdies Sing  
5 Out of 5 Stars

When Glee originally started, I have to admit that I expected a lot more vocalistic music than what ultimately began appearing on the soundtrack CD's. While I have found each of the discs to be enjoyable, they've often had their share of Karaoke Plus type of moments, and rarely outdid the original versions of the songs they started off covering. "Glee Presents The Warblers" changes that.

For starters, they enlist an actual Glee Club (the Tufts' University Beelzebubs) to perform the bulk of the vocal work. Then they give the lead focus to Darren Criss (Blaine on the show), one lead to Chris Colfer (Kurt) and a pair of duets for the two. It centers the album more than the other soundtracks, essentially making this Criss' debut album. Criss has a pleasant, boy-band type of voice, while Colfer sounds like the show-tunes worshiping kid he plays on the show when it's time for him to hit The Beatles' "Blackbird." (He's good on the Lennon-McCartney numbers; Colfer's version of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" remains a series standout).

The selection is a solid representation of any typical "Now That's What I Call Music" CD, with current pop holding court. I was already partial to The Warblers' version of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream," then they chart similar courses on Beyonce's "Bills Bills Bills" and Maroon 5's "Misery." They redeem the long reviled McCartney "Silly Love Songs" and manage to make Barbra Streisand's "What Kind Of Fool" into the kind of song the Bee Gees might have done if Barry Gibb had kept the song for himself. (However, I doubt anyone will every be able to sing "Do You Think I'm Sexy" and make it anything better than a piffle.)

The consistency of "Glee Presents The Warblers" make it the best of The Glee series. It also may be the first starmaker of the series, propelling Darren Criss into a promising solo career. Now where's Colfer's solo?