The Soundtrack:
Glee: The Music – The Christmas Album, Volume 2
The Stars:
The Glee Cast (But maybe you already guessed that.)
The Premise:
Your favorite actors/characters from the hit TV show cover your favorite holiday songs!
The Good:
Most covers of classic songs, frankly, make me want to cough up all my eggnog each Christmas. Glee, however, has been the merciful exception since their critically acclaimed 2010 rendition of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” Volume 2 continues to amaze with new covers including Amber Riley’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” and Naya Rivera’s “Santa Baby.”
While those two well-executed songs remain relatively faithful to the originals (who else but the conniving Santana could cover Eartha Kitt?), the rest make sure to put an original spin on each piece that fans will be Gleeking out for! The under-appreciated Kevin McHale gets to show off his vocal chops on his “The Little Drummer Boy” and Heather Morris provides what is perhaps the most fun song on the album with her sassy cover of the 1980s “Christmas Wrapping.”
The newest member of McKinley High, playing Rory Flanagan, is Irishman Damian McGinty, whose gorgeous and jazzy cover of Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas” ought to be released as a single on the radio and replayed for years to come.
But, of course, what would a Glee album be without a classy and adorable duet between Darren Criss and Chris Colfer, who follow up “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” with “Let It Snow”? (Winter, it seems, is the pair’s favorite season.) It’s hard to inject life into this regularly overdone song, but the brassy trumpets, upbeat vibraphone, enthusiastic scatting, and sweet Broadway-style singing will get audiences swinging along with the show’s most beloved couple.
Speaking of which, Matthew Morrison and Jayma Mays head up the show’s original and unforgettable holiday song “Christmas Eve with You,” which is a surprisingly pleasant tune in the vein of “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” that will warm the hearts of fans everywhere.
The Bad:
I suppose that Cory Monteith had no choice but to sing rock and roll, but his, Mark Salling, and Samuel Larsen’s version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” is a bit too faithful to Bruce Springsteen’s interpretation with a relatively weak musical interlude to top it all off. With the song having been covered by over a hundred artists since its 1934 premiere, it would be more exciting to see, perhaps, Darren Criss put an original, bouncier spin on the tune. Instead, we’re left with a dull and lifeless remake, which is particularly disappointing after Samuel Larsen’s flawless acoustic cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” on The Glee Project.
And the Ugly:
Chris Colfer could very well be one of the angels we have heard on high. But his heavenly vocals only appear prominently on a single song. Really? Two songs for Rachel, two for Finn, two for Mercedes… and one for Kurt? There were also two for Blaine, but who’s complaining?
The Verdict:
In spite of their forgettable original song “An Extraordinary Merry Christmas” (really, what do you expect with that title?) and their cruel aforementioned refusal to give Chris Colfer one of the larger ballads on the soundtrack, Glee: The Music – The Christmas Album, Vol. 2 receives a full five stars.
It is sweet as apple cider and exciting as a walk through Christmas lights that will leave you smiling. And when you give this soundtrack to a fellow Chatham student who says, “I was sitting on the quad, and pressed play, and it lit up the whole place with cheery music,” then you know you have a holiday hit on your hands!
Rep Image: Glee Facebook page