Music Review: Glee Cast – “I Kissed a Girl”

I must admit that this week’s Glee tracks are possibly the best collection of songs they’ve put together for a single episode in awhile. The running theme of the songs is “by ladies and for ladies,” as declared by Cory Monteith’s character Finn Hudson during this week’s episode.

You can’t have an episode called, “I Kissed a Girl,” without having one of the tracks this week be Katy Perry’s hit, “I Kissed a Girl.” I mean, I guess you could, but Glee loves them some Katy Perry music, so it was kind of inevitable. Taking the lead on this track is Naya Rivera (Santana) and Lea Michele (Rachel). Granted, Glee didn’t do anything particularly special with the arrangement, but the song is just as much fun to listen to as Perry’s original.

Rivera really gets to show off her vocal prowess alongside Idina Menzel (Shelby) on KD Lang’s “Constant Craving.” I feel like with each episode that Rivera gets pushed a little more to show how talented she is, and what better way to prove it than pairing her up with Menzel. Both individual vocal performances were impressive and when combined, the two singers sound just stunning.

Dot Marie Jones (Coach Beiste) steps up to her first solo, since last season’s duet with Matthew Morrison, on the series with Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” For not being a singer, per se, Jones delivers a solid vocal performance. Listening to the track, you get that sense of urgency and emotion delivered with just a touch of country twang.

Mark Salling delivers another passion-filled vocal performance this week on Melissa Etheridge’s “I’m The Only One.” He’s got that whole raspy, almost-growl deal going on in the verses, which really works for this song. The big notes at the end of each chorus seem to be no issue for Salling, who pulled them off seamlessly. It’s tracks like these that prove that if the cast is given good material to sing, then they can have great vocal performances.

One of the highlights from this week’s batch of Glee tracks is the stripped down version of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” as sung by Monteith. There’s a vulnerability and sincerity in Monteith’s vocal performance that he’s never really demonstrated before on previous tracks. It’s nice to hear a more versatile side to his voice.

For me, the big showstopper this week was P!nk’s “F’ing Perfect,” which was recorded as a duet between Chris Colfer (Kurt) and Darren Criss (Blaine). First off, Colfer’s lower register is fantastic. Criss’ powerful big note towards the end of the song is on point. The song choice allowed for both singers to utilize their vocal strengths, while maintaining the overall sentiment of the song. I wouldn’t be surprised if this track wound up as Glee’s next number one hit.

The music from Glee’s “I Kissed a Girl” is available now on iTunes.