Glee: The Music, Volume 4 (a J!-ENT World Groove Album Review)

1. Empire State of Mind (Glee Cast Version)
2. Billionaire (Glee Cast Version)
3. Me Against the Music (Glee Cast Version)
4. Stronger (Glee Cast Version)
5. Toxic (Glee Cast Version)
6. The Only Exception (Glee Cast Version)
7. I Want to Hold Your Hand (Glee Cast Version)
8. One of Us (Glee Cast Version)
9. River Deep, Mountain High (Glee Cast Version)
10. Lucky (Glee Cast Version)
11. One Love (People Get Ready) (Glee Cast Version)
12. Teenage Dream (Glee Cast Version)
13. Forget You  (Glee Cast Version feat. Gwyneth Paltrow)
14. Marry You (Glee Cast Version)
15. Sway (Glee Cast Version)
16. Just the Way You Are (Glee Cast Version)
17. Valerie (Glee Cast Version)
18. (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life (Glee Cast Version)

Having reviewed the previous “Glee: The Music” albums and DVD’s and having outed myself as a “GLEEK”, the albums have typically been good with some songs I can easily relisten to and some that I just listened to once and that was it.

But since the premiere of the second season of “Glee” and the addition of the newer cast members and pretty much a feeling that the cast are much more confident with their vocals and being part of a hit show, listening to “Glee: The Music, Volume 4”, I have to say that the cast has definitely has delivered with this latest album but at the same time, I felt there were some unfortunate omission of songs from the series that did not make it on this album .

The album kicks off with the Glee Cast most notably the characters of Artie, Puck, Finn, Mercedes and Santana doing a cover of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys “Empire State of Mind”. A pretty cool GLEE cover and dig the chorus.

The second track “Billionaire” features new cast member Chord Overstreet as the character of Sam doing a cover of Travie McCoy (and Bruno Mars) “Billionaire”. When I first heard this song on the episode, I was pretty impressed with Overstreet’s vocals and definitely the character of Sam has begun one of the better male vocalists of the show. Pretty good cover and also rhymes by Artie and Puck.

The third track “Me Against the Music” features the characters of Brittany and Santana doing a cover of Britney Spears hit song. And I absolutely loved this episode and felt the performance by Brittany (Heather Morris) and Santana (Naya Rivera) was absolutely fantastic. I love the arrangement and I have to admit that I have listened to this version of this song much more than the original.

The fourth track features Artie’s version “Stronger” along with Finn and Puck. Although, I felt the scene on the show with the guys in their football gear and the football team singing this song was a bit corny but I definitely enjoyed the guys cover of this song and it has become a song on the album that I have listened to a lot.

The fifth track “Toxic” featuring the Glee cast primarily Will Schuester, Rachel and Brittany was probably one of the coolest scenes from the Glee “Brittany” episode and I absolutely loved how the cast perform this song on the series and also brought that glee version to this song. Another awesome track on the album!

The sixth track features the character Rachel (Lee Michele) singing her cover of Paramore’s “The Only Exception”. And when it comes to Hayley Williams vocals, I have always felt her vocals are just immaculate and love her voice. And when I first heard this song, I absolutely loved Michele’s cover. Lee Michele is a fantastic vocalist and her cover of this song was well done!

For the seventh track, we know that Paul McCartney has become a big fan of Glee and wanted to contribute songs to Glee and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” sung by Kurt (Chris Colfer) was well-done and how it was used for the show was quite emotional (in the show, Kurt’s father had a heart attack and was unresponsive in the hospital and Kurt was reminiscing of all the times he had with his father while holding his father’s hand).

For the eighth track, “One of Us”, a humorous “Grilled Cheesus” episode and featured the cast (primarily Tina, Finn, Kurt, Rachel, Merceds & Quinn) singing the popular Joan Osborne song. Another song that was well sung!

For the ninth track, the characters of Mercedes and Santana performed their cover of Ike and Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” and Amber Riley is a fantastic vocalist and at first when I was watching this episode, I was wondering how Naya Rivera would compliment Riley in their duet and for the most part, these two worked magnificently together! Loved the cover!

For the tenth track, another duet featuring Sam & Quinn. As mentioned with “Billionaire”, Chord Overstreet has become one of the top vocalists of the show and it was great to see Dianne Agron (Quinn) singing more. Both did a wonderful job doing the cover of Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat’s “Lucky”. Well done!

For the eleventh track, the duet features Artie and Puck doing a cover of Bob Marley’s “One Love (People Get Ready)” and one thing we don’t see much of this season so far is Mark Salling (Puck) and so it’s good to have a track featuring Salling perform because he can sing. So, for the most part, he and Kevin McHale (Artie) do a pretty a cool job with this Marley classic!

The twelfth track features Blaine (Darren Criss), the new regular of “Glee” performing a cover of Katie Perry’s “Teenage Dream”. Interesting is that this is the highest downloaded track of Glee and which didn’t feature any of the regular Glee members singing. It’s a pretty cool Glee cover especially guys singing Katy Perry’s lyrics without any revisions.

The thirteenth track features Gwynneth Paltrow as the character Holly singing Cee-Lo’s “Forget You” (joined by Mercedes and Artie). It’s an OK cover by Paltrow but of the Holly sung songs on “Glee”, only one is featured on this album (while the others can be purchased separately on iTunes).

For the fourteenth track, the Glee cast performs their cover of Bruno Mars “Marry You”. And it’s a track that features the majority of the cast performing together which was pretty cool. A fun cover!

For the fifteenth track, Will Schuester (Matt Morrison) does his marimba cover of Michael Buble’s “Sway”. Morrison is a great vocalist although compared to the other upbeat pop tracks, I guess it’s all subjective to the listener if they enjoy the music for this track or not (especially for the younger listeners).

The sixteen track “Just the Way You Are” features Corey Monteith who plays the character of Finn singing the cover of the Bruno Mars track. This is probably one of my favorite Finn-based solos featured on a Glee album and glad they chose to use this solo song instead of his cover of R.E.M’s “Losing My Religion” for “Glee: The Music, Volume 4”.

The seventeenth track features Santana performing Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie”. I believe this is the first solo track featuring Santana on a Glee album which was pretty cool. Naya Rivera has really showed us her vocals in this second season and it’s a solid, upbeat cover!

The final track on the album features Sam & Quinn singing “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life”. And like how I enjoyed their cover of “Lucky”, these two have great chemistry together musically and onscreen. Another solid cover on the album!

Overall, “Glee: The Music, Volume 4” is probably my favorite Glee album thus far! I love the music selection, the vocals were very well done and for the most part, if you are a Glee fan, the second season has turned out to be a fantastic season musically and yes, the last season, especially the latter half was wonderful but I really enjoy the music for this season, especially with the addition of the newer cast members and also giving the characters of Brittany and Santana more onscreen time and literally giving another cast members a chance to shine musically.

If there was anything that I had a problem with for this album, it was the lack of including the wonderful “Singing in the Rain/Umbrella” track (which I had purchased online separately iTunes) featuring Matt Morrison and Gwynneth Paltrow. That was an awesome cover and wish it was included on this album. And although it was a long shot, I actually enjoyed “SING!!” (from “Chorus Line”) by Tina and Mike. I also enjoyed Gwynneth Paltrow and Lea Michele’s cover of “Nowadays/ Hot Honey Rag” (from “Chicago”).

But overall, “Glee: The Music, Volume 4” is a pretty wonderful album but at the same time, I know as the Gleeks continue to grow, as do the dissenters who will never understand the popularity of the show. Especially those who hate cover songs. But I’m not expecting anyone who is not a Glee fan to purchase the tracks or the album but the Glee fans themselves and overall, this album has a good balance of upbeat tracks, slow jams and everything you have come to love about the show and the characters.

Once again, I am a biased towards “Glee” because I do love the show and the music but comparing “Glee: The Music, Volume 4” to the previous albums, this one is the best so far! Definitely recommended!