The Music, Volume 2

Hit TV drama spawns second cash-in karaoke album

A surprise TV hit both on Fox in the States and E4 here, Glee has mimicked the success of High School Musical in seeing its cast-sung albums of songs from the series gatecrash the top of the albums chart.

A quick cash-in released a mere month after Volume 1, this second compilation finds the stars of the high school-based teen drama revisiting pop and rock classics with robotic efficiency.

Most of the cast members are all-singing, all-dancing stage school graduates which means that Cory Monteith’s take on the Pretenders’ I’ll Stand By You and Jenna Ushkowitz’s emotive mugging of Cindy Lauper’s True Colors are no disgrace.

Yet the stand-out tracks, understandably, feature the two Glee stars who are veterans of Broadway musicals: Mathew Morrison nails the Police’s Don’t Stand So Close To Me, while the leather-lunged Lea Michele is magnificent on Jennifer Paige’s Crush and Kelly Clarkson’s My Life Would Suck Without You.

As slick, soulless reality pop goes, it’s more fun than The X Factor.

Album Review by Ian Gittins