17. Glee, The Music Volume 4
Standouts: 'Teenage Dream', 'Me Against The Music', 'Forget You', 'Lucky', 'Marry You'
Never got into this show first season, second season started, and let me tell you I was blown away. There is just so much talent in this cast, Leah Michelle and Amber Riley are the voices, Heather Morris and Harry Shum Jr. are the dancers, Chris Colfer stands out when it comes to acting, of course Jane Lynch brings the laugh to the shows. and the rest of the cast add something different as well. Their highest rated episode, Britney/Brittany, brought some great covers, in 'Me Against The Music', Heather Morris makes her singing debut, and it wasn't much about the singing, but her moves were insane, in all honesty she outdanced the original performer by far. Other highlight from this episode was Leah Michelle's tender and sweet interpretation of 'The Only Exception' by Paramore. Chris Colfer, while not being the best singer, gives the most emotional performance in the entire record with a rendition of 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' that sounds better in TV than in the album itself. The beautiful Dianna Agron sounds incredibly cute in 'Lucky' and '(I've Had) The Time Of My Life', while guest star Gwyneth Paltrow does a brilliant cover of 'Forget You' by Cee-Lo Green, so good that it revived the song in the charts and pushed it to the top of the iTunes charts. The highlight of the season was without a doubt, Darren Criss acapella interpretation of Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream'; Darren makes it sound his own, it sounds almost like a complete different sound. Glee is a television phenomenon, and their covers are simply genius. I can't wait for more Glee.
16. Burlesque Soundtrack
Standouts: 'Express', 'Bound To You', 'Show Me How You Burlesque', 'You Haven't Seen The Last Of Me', 'The Beautiful People', 'Something's Got A Hold On Me'
I'll try to keep these spoiler free for those who haven't seen the movie yet, but really go watch it. Christina is back, she released her fourth studio album, 'Bionic', and starred on her debut film, 'Burlesque'. It's very obvious that when a musical is enjoyable from beginning to end, the soundtrack is gonna be equally amazing, and how can it not when you have legendary Christina Aguilera and Cher in charge. The sound of the album is a return to Christina's 'Back To Basics', if you enjoyed that record, you are sure to love this soundtrack. Christina's take on 'Something's Got A Hold On Me' by Etta James is the perfect start, the soul in her voice is simply breathtaking. The next four tracks in the album sound much better with a visual, and are a good intro to the second half of the album, which is absolutely flawless. 'Express' and 'Show Me How To Burlesque' reflect the fun side of the cabaret life and also add an extremely fun touch to the soundtrack. Golden Globe nominated, 'Bound To You', is beautiful and sincere, perfectly written and sung, there's no words to describe Christina's powerful voice on this one. It's not all about Aguilera though, Cher's contributions to the album are minimal, but she manages to take the spotlight with an excellent and strong performance with 'You Haven't Seen The Last Of Me'; it's like the 'And I'm Telling You I'm Not Goin' of this soundtrack, such a beautiful number. The most current and modern the soundtrack gets is with the final track, 'The Beautiful People', which cleverly uses Marilyn Manson's track of the same name as a sample. In other words, Christina Aguilera, the movie star, not only kills her first role, but the music is equally impressive, definitely worth a listen.