Glee: The Music, Volume 4 Review

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 12.28.2010

The compilation album covering first half of the hit show's second season goes for more hits, less Broadway. But is that a bad thing or a good thing? 411's Jeremy Thomas checks in with his review...



The Singers
Lea Michele - Rachel Berry
Amber Riley - Mercedes Jones
Cory Monteith - Finn Hudson
Chris Colfer - Kurt Hummel
Heather Morris - Brittany Pears
Naya Rivera - Santana Lopez
Chord Overstreet - Sam Evans
Dianna Agron - Quinn Fabray
Jane Lynch - Sue Sylvester
Matthew Morrison - Will Schuester
Mark Salling - Noah Puckerman
Kevin McHale - Artie Abrams
Darren Criss - Blaine

1. "Empire State of Mind" - Glee Cast (4:37)
2. "Billionaire" - New Directions Guys (3:31)
3. "Me Against the Music" - Santana & Brittany (3:45)
4. "Stronger" - Artie (3:23)
5. "Toxic" - Glee Cast (3:24)
6. "The Only Exception" - Rachel (4:26)
7. "I Want To Hold Your Hand"- Kurt (2:36)
8. "One of Us" - Glee Cast (4:01)
9. "River Deep - Mountain High" - Mercedes & Santana (3:32)
10. "Lucky" - Sam & Quinn (3:07)
11. "One Love (People Get Ready)" - Puck & Artie (2:34)
12. "Teenage Dream" - Blaine (3:40)
13. "Forget You" - Holly (3:44)
14. "Marry You" - Glee Cast (3:46)
15. "Sway" - Will (3:09)
16. "Just The Way You Are" - Finn (3:37)
17. "Valerie" - Santana (3:39)
18. "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" - Quinn & Sam (4:47)

With the second season of Glee halfway completed, the show shows no signs of cooling. If anything, the show has become even more of a success in its second season, consistently scoring numbers that have topped the first season at the same time of the year. While the show's gotten a bit of criticism for the uneven tone of the storyline through the first half of the new season, the music has been as much of a juggernaut as ever, with nearly every single that gets inevitably released after the episode in which it airs scoring on the Billboard Top 100. Combined with the runaway success of the compilation albums to date, it was no surprise that Columbia Records has released a new compilation covering the first half of the season, which eschews the last volume's subtitle in favor of the simpler-named Glee: The Music, Volume 4.

As with the previous volumes of Glee compilations, the songs are collected from the various episodes aired during the particular relevant portion of the season. In Volume 4's case, the album covers eight of the first ten episodes of season two, excepting only the episodes The Rocky Horror Glee Show and A Very Glee Christmas which both got their own EP's. That gives the album an average of just over two songs per episode, though it isn't hat evenly distributed. For example, the much hyped Britney Spears episode gets four songs from it, Gwyneth Paltrow's episode "The Substitute" only gets one. The uneven distribution is seems to be done in order to allow for the most popular songs to hit the album and while that is the case, it cannot be said that all of the best songs from the episodes make the cut. This has always been the case with Glee albums, but Volume 4 seems to be the most problematic in that aspect. Tracks such as Charice's performance of "Listen" from the first episode, Train's "Hey, Soul Sister" as sung by Darren Criss and the two mashups from the "Never Been Kissed" episode are noticeably absent. All of these tracks can be individually purchased off iTunes, but the concession to popularity over quality is unfortunate nonetheless.

For the songs that are there, they are mostly strong choices designed to appeal to Gleeks. There is less of a balance between current pop hits and older numbers compared to previous volumes; whereas previous volumes featured a mix of Broadway numbers, older hits and current songs, the stage musical numbers from the second season are entirely absent from this and only six of the eighteen tracks are older ones. Instead we have mostly songs from the last couple of years and they are well performed by the cast. The album gets off to a solid start with their cover of "Empire State of Mind." It's not everyone's cup of tea, but the song walks the line between faithful cover and carrying its own sound. It sounds like exactly what it should be: a very talented glee club singing its own arrangement of the hit. The next track is Travie McCoy's "Billionaire" as sung by Chord Overstreet with Kevin McHale doing the rap portion, and while the two are vocally strong the song hems too close to the original to really distinguish it. As the opening two tracks, they provide a good idea of what you're going to get into with this album—either strong covers with their own feel or good vocal tracks that just aren't different enough to merit inclusion on the album.

One of the things that is nice about Volume 4 is that it showcases some voices that were sadly held back in the first season of the show. Two of these in particular are Naya Rivera and Heather Morris, who play the cheerleading couple Santana and Brittany on the show. Rivera is one of the best singers on the show in terms of the overall package, from voice strength to effective delivery, and it's nice to see her get more of a spotlight this time around. Her performance with Morris on "Me Against The Music" is a highlight of the album, from both singers' standpoint. Rivera has a couple of other opportunities to shine, including a cover of Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High" alongside Amber Riley and both perform very well. Likewise, she performs with Morris, Lea Michele, Matthew Morrison and Dianna Agron on "Toxic" and it's a stylistic departure that clearly works well. Another member of the cast who gets a bit of a chance to shine—but not enough—is Jenna Ushkowitz, who has a great voice but is only prominently featured in the fantastic ensemble cover of Joan Osborne's "One of Us." One can hope that Ushkowitz's Tina gets more singing time so we'll get a chance to hear more from her.

As with all of the compilation albums, there are a couple of tracks that truly stand out. In Volume 4's case these standouts are the aforementioned "One of Us" and "Me Against The Music," as well as "Teenage Dream," "Marry You" and "Just The Way You Are." Cory Monteith has been accused of having a weak vocal range compared to the rest of the case, and wither that's true or not it is tough to deny that the Bruno Mars song is beautifully-suited to his singing style. Similarly, "Teenage Dream" was the perfect song to debut newcomer Darren Criss. Sung with a cappella backing from the all-male group the Beelzebubs, it's a revelatory performance and an example of what happens when the show gets a song perfectly right. With "Marry You," the show gets the opportunity to show how strongly they've matched their couples up by vocal skills and while the song is of course sappy, it's a lot of fun and covered well. One other fun track is Gwyneth Paltrow's contribution, covering the radio-friendly version of Cee-Lo's "Fuck You" as changed to "Forget You." Some people may not be a fan of how the song is neutered from the key word in the title, but it's honestly not a deal-breaker and Paltrow proves a surprisingly effective singer.

Sadly, not all the songs can be as effective. Besides the aforementioned "Billionaire," there is Lea Michele's cover of "The Only Exception" by Paramore. Michele is an undeniably powerful singer, but this is an example of what many critics point to as the problem with the show. There isn't a lot of emotion put into Michele's performance here and it sounds more like the soulless cover that the show has been accused of doing. It's a technically competent performance, but there's just something lacking, that extra bit of feeling that could have made it truly good. Similarly, Agron and Overstreet's duet of "Lucky" is just not quite up to the standards of the rest of the album. Agron portrays one of the best and most interesting characters on the show, but she is consistently the victim of poor song choices for her vocal range and here she doesn't have the chemistry with Overstreet that she showed with the later performance of "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life." That song is a much stronger song for the duo and it closes the album well.

Top Tracks: "Empire State Of Mind," "One of Us," "Teenage Dream," "Marry You," "Just The Way You Are"

Skippable: "Billionaire," "The Only Exception," "Sway," "Lucky"

The 411: The compilation albums associated with Glee are always tricky albums to review; they are albums that are designed to appeal to Gleeks but are not likely to play as well to the rest of the music-listening world. Glee: The Music, Volume 4 tries to shoot more for mainstream appeal by hiding the show's Broadway and older music influences in favor of the bigger pop hits from recent years and that is both a blessing and a curse. It's an album that is frustrating and yet satisfying, giving new voices in the show a chance to shine and yet failing to deliver the strongest songs that the first half of the season has given us. In the end, it's definitely worth picking up for Glee fans, but it is unlikely to be anyone's favorite of the albums to date…merely a flawed but competent summary of the second season's music to date.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]