The Music of Glee, Season 1, First Half
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010, 7:10 pm
Since a certain someone who knows me far too well got me both volumes one and
two of the Glee soundtracks for Christmas, I figure I may as well wring
a blog post out of the topic of Glee's music. Mainly, I'm-a tell you my
favorite. Why do you care? You don't. That's why you're reading this blog.
Anyway, as to my standards, like I said, this is about my favorites. I'm not
trying to get at objectivity or trying to adjust for song choice or anything
like that. I'm not even going to attempt to choose my favorite pure vocal
performances. If the choreography really sucked me in during the show, and if
the emotional moment felt exactly like it wass supposed to, I probably liked
the song better overall. Even listening to the soundtrack, one of the ways I
can tell which songs I really like is that I can picture their context in the
show. If I can't remember why or how or where you sang "No Air", that's a sign
that it wasn't very memorable. Which is maybe a bit of a tautology. Whatever,
moving on.
Favorite female performer: Lea Michele (Rachel). Too easy. Sure, I could go
and talk about how I like Amber Riley as Mercedes, and I really do. But come
on, Lea Michele just blows the rest of this cast out of the water. She stood
toe-to-toe with Kristen Chenoweth. Lots of singers have range, but Lea Michele
has a richness that money can't buy. Her first verse on the first song of
soundtrack, "Don't Stop Believin'", just devastates poor Cory Monteith (Finn).
It brings tears to my eyes. I wish I were joking.
Favorite male performer: Kevin McHale (Artie). Monteith just doesn't have that
much going on, vocally. He does noticeably get better as you listen to his
songs through the course of the soundtrack, but it's hard to say whether he's
getting better or whether the songs are just better-chosen for him. I mean,
right from the start, "Don't Stop Believin'" is a tough task for the poor guy.
He does his best, but his voice doesn't have any soar in it. McHale's part on
"Imagine", "Lean on Me", and, of course, his solo "Dancing With Myself" are
just outstanding. I was so excited when the writers finally brought him out of
the background and gave him some featured spots because it turned out that we'd
been missing a whole hell of a lot before his big episode.
I do have a soft spot for Matthew Morrison (Will), and he can really sing,
but two of his songs on the soundtrack were rap (plus he had "Thong Song", not
on the soundtrack), and while I thought he really pulled off "Gold Digger", it
just doesn't hold a candle to "Dancing With Myself".
Favorite song, female lead: I'll just call it a tie between "Bust Your
Windows", and "Smile" (the Lily Allen one). "Bust Your Windows" was Amber
Riley's first big moment, as well as the first "hey, this show is actually a
musical, not just a show about a show choir" moment, and she killed it. And
"Smile" is just a genius song, catchy, light, and filled with loathing and
anger. I like that it gave Lea Michele room to not be so big, and she
proved that she was up to the challenge.
Favorite song, male lead: The aforementioned "Dancing With Myself", and it's
not even close. Partially this is because I don't really love the male
singers, as I alluded to. With Monteith taking most of the leads, that really
eliminated a lot of songs from contention. And I liked "Sweet Caroline", but
Mark Salling (Puck) basically has a voice that's about as interesting as
Monteith's, he just happened to get a great song as his one big performance.
That said, "Sweet Caroline" is a fairly close second, so it's a real joy that
those two songs are back-to-back on the first volume of the soundtrack. (And
they're followed by "Defying Gravity", which doesn't make this list anywhere,
but which I do love -- I'm a showtunes guy, what can I say.)
Songs I wish were on the soundtrack: the mashups, especially "Halo"/"Walking on
Sunshine", but the guys' "It's My Life"/"Confessions Part II" as well. Diana
Agron (Quinn) doesn't get a ton of love from the producers, but I remember
really liking her in this mashup. It's possible my memory is faulty, because I
haven't listened to the song since it was on TV the first time.
Also, for the pure novelty of it, I'd love to have had Matthew Morrison's
"Thong Song", but I'd probably get sick of it. I don't remember it sounding
much different from the original. It was mostly just a kick seeing Morrison
sing it to Jayma Mays (Emma) while he danced around her.
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