Straight on the heels of the best-selling Power of Madonna mini-album comes Showstoppers, the music to the second half of Glee’s first season. Now while some people might find Glee filled with cheesy clichés – and let’s be honest, it is – the cast members really know how to sing. Even if you don’t watch the show, this CD is worth listening to for the great remakes of some songs.
The songs in this album are all from the second half of the first season, except for the episodes "The Power of Madonna" and "Journey," which each have their own mini-album (the first has been reviewed here, and stay tuned to this feature for the review of the other). The standard version of the album features 14 songs, while the deluxe edition contains an extra six songs: "A House Is Not A Home," "Home" (featuring Kristin Chenoweth), "Rose’s Turn," "Loser," "Beth," and "Poker Face" (featuring Idina Menzel). If you haven’t been buying songs on iTunes throughout the entire season and you love the Glee songs, then it might be worth it for you to indulge in the deluxe edition. As for the order of the songs, it’s pretty much chronological, except for the last five, as the songs from episode 21, "Loser" and "Give up the Funk," precede that of episode 20, "Poker Face" and "Bad Romance."
Now I have to admit that I liked the first half of the season better when it comes to plotline (and I’m curious to know what my fellow Glee reviewer has to say about this). But when it comes to music, both halves were amazing. One of my favourite performances from the second half of the season remains Lady Gaga’s "Bad Romance" (which is the 19th track on this album), what with the costumes and the attitude and the plot in that episode. But when it comes to emotional quotient, one of my favourite performances remains Kevin McHale’s "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats (which is the 14th track on this album); in the episode "Dream On," Artie daydreams about leading a flash mob to said song. We find out that on top of being a great actor and singer, Kevin McHale is also a great dancer, which kind of makes me hope for another such daydream.
Article comments
1 - Nancy
Considering the Less Bell/House Not Home is split between Chenoweth and Matthew Morrison, the song is a really good one.
2 - Sahar
Nancy, does this imply that you don't like either of them, or at least, one of them? Or that you don't like the fact that they split the song in the first place?
3 - gleek
glee rocks so does da cd
4 - Christopher Rose
Glee is fun in parts but one amongst the many things it doesn't do is rock.
5 - Sahar
Gleek: I agree!
Christopher: True, but perhaps they will do it in one of the two upcoming seasons :) What songs would you want to hear covered?
6 - Christopher Rose
Sahar, I'm not quite sure how you can agree with both gleek and me but, setting that aside, I really wouldn't like to see them doing any rock. The attempts so far have been unutterably lame, so it would be better for the show, for rock, and for my sanity if they just don't go there!
7 - Sahar
Christopher: I don't see why I can't agree with both you and gleek :) Just because Glee rocks doesn't mean it's perfect and isn't allowed to make some mistakes - including some bad covers of songs, rock being amongst some other badly covered songs. I do hope for your sanity that either Glee does future rock songs better, or that they skip them altogether :)
8 - miss bob
I thought there was a difference between "rock" and "does rock." For example, I think Mozart rocks, but wouldn't say Mozart "does rock." It's sort of the same thing as "Glee" rocks without doing rock. Get it?
9 - Christopher Rose
Glee doesn't rock, it pops..!
10 - rghrhe
wow sahar, you are really uptight about this. Relax.
11 - Sahar
Thanks for the advice, rghrhe!