Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers

The third volume of music from 'Glee' features some of the best numbers from the first season of the show. While the first two volumes' music ranged from just 'all right' to 'good', I feel there are definitely stronger, better performances on this deluxe edition of the third volume. As with the other releases from 'Glee', there are still some missing numbers but in all, the 19 tracks included in the deluxe edition are pretty good and there are only a few tracks that I'd skip or would have left off.

The Good: What I like about this volume is that there are tracks and performances included from more of the cast. The first two releases felt like nothing more than a promotional vehicle for Lea Michele and her Rachel character. With this release, there are definitely tracks that show off more of the cast. You have Amber Riley's stand-out moment this year (both in song and in terms of acting) with her cover of Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful"; Mark Salling taking on "Lady Is A...Read more

This is the abridged version of the Glee Music soundtrack Volume 3, and contains 14 songs, versus the 20 songs on the "Deluxe" version. What you lose here are the following songs: The "Kurt" version of "A House is Not a Home", Kristin Chenoweth's "Home", Kurt's "Rose's Turn", the Beck and Kiss covers "Loser" and "Beth", respectively, and the ballad duet version of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face". Of these omissions, "Home" and "Poker Face" are major losses. The Kurt songs are good, but secondary, and the Beck and Kiss covers are redundant relative to the originals.

As with the previous CD volumes drawn from Glee, this one is a mixed bag. Some of the songs work great with the visuals, but are dull or irrelevant as a listening-only experience. The songs that work best are those that add something substantial to the well known hit version, either in terms of arrangement or vocal.

The best songs here are Hello, Goodbye (a nice vocal arrangement), Hello (a beautiful...Read more

I'm a huge fan of Glee, but before I listened to this CD, I worried that the songs wouldn't be as much fun separated from powerful live performances. Not so. They stand terrifically on their own. However, the CD doesn't include much information about the songs the Glee cast covers. Curiosity led me to search out as much as I could about them, and here is what I learned for anyone who is interested:

Track 1: Hello, Goodbye. A duet by Lea Michele (Rachel Berry) and Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson) with the Glee cast. This is a Beatles song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and released in 1967 on the album "Magical Mystery Tour." I love this song, and Lea and Cory did an excellent rendition.

Track 2: Gives You Hell. A Lea/Rachel solo with the Glee cast. This is a Top 10 song from the All-American Rejects, written by Tyson Ritter and Nick Wheeler, from the 2008 album "When the World Comes Down." This style isn't Lea's strength, but she does a very good job...Read more