Glee: The Music Presents The Warblers

I haven’t really discussed Glee much on this site. I actually wrote a pretty scathing review of the “sneak preview” that Fox aired back in ’09, but it’s still sitting in draft form. Basically, I didn’t think the show would last, but I wanted to give it a chance to prove itself. After a bit, I became happy with myself for not publishing that post, as I fell in love with the show.

Season 1 of Glee was this musical quirk fest that shouldn’t exist, yet somehow became popular – kinda like Lady Gaga. You’d ask anyone why they liked it, and you’d get the Apple Jacks response: “I dunno. I just do.” Glee launched a bit slowly, but then exploded after winter hiatus during its first season. Of course, the candle that burns brightest burns fastest. Season 2 started off contrived, and just continued to go downhill. In conversations I’ve had with folks, I’ve pointed out that I was driven away by how preachy the character of Kurt had become. If you want to know more about that viewpoint, we can handle that in another post. Mainly, I felt that few of the characters were likable, and it was no longer worth tuning in just to hear the gold that comes from Brittany and Santana’s mouths – especially when those lines will just end up on twitter.

My biggest problem with the second season, however, is the role that the music now fulfills: in the first season, the plot dictated the song choices, but now it’s the other way around, as the song choices have begun to dictate the plot. It was already illogical that these kids would break out in song this much, but now it’s harder to believe that they all suffered Britney Spears-centric hallucinations from a visit to the dentist. These are Sitcom Season 6 plotlines, when the cast is just trying to burn off some stories to add to the syndication count. Glee now feels like an odd combination of lazy/forced, as you can tell that a lot of work went into the musical aspect, but they’re just so lazy in setting up a *reason* for said music. So, I gave up on the show about 6 episodes into the season. However, one good thing did come from this season: The Warblers.

I dropped out of Glee just as The Warblers were introduced, so I don’t know the full story there (nor do I care enough to wiki it). I know Kurt was thinking of transferring to Dalton Academy, and his new school would feature this A-MAH-zing all-male group called The Warblers. While New Directions music contained instrumentation, The Warblers were full-on a cappella, bringing a new sound to the show while also showing people that not all show choirs are a cappella (and vice versa).

Once I gave up the show, I continued downloading the songs, as I still liked the music – especially the songs that clearly had unique arrangements and weren’t just karaoke versions of Top 40 hits. The tracks that never failed to impress me all came from The Warblers. Not only do they tackle some pretty intricate arrangements, but they also have a sound remiscent of late 90s collegiate a cappella, which was a time before technology came to dominate those recordings. Currently, as technology has become cheaper, a cappella recordings have started abusing autotune as much as Top 40 radio.

The main force behind The Warblers’ sound would be the Tufts Beelzebubs, an all-male collegiate a cappella group from Tufts University. The Bubs dominated a cappella during the late 90s/early ’00s with a clean blend that was achieved through talent and effective mixing, but didn’t overuse unnecessary effects. The current Bubs actually contribute the vocals for The Warblers, and it’s nice to hear that the group is still amazing at what they do. When you meet someone on the street and tell them you sang a cappella, they always ask “Oh, like Rockapella?”. Yeah, sure, but what we really wanted to be were The Bubs, The Derbies, The Crosbies or The Dukesmen. So, you could say I’m a fan.

I finally got around to listening to Glee: The Music Presents The Warblers, which collects the Warbler songs that have been featured on the show. I had heard tracks here and there, but after listening to them altogether, I feel that this is once of the best a cappella albums I’ve heard in QUITE some time. From start to finish, from song selection to blend, this is a nearly flawless collection. Plus, it’s nice that Chris Colfer has a platform where his voice can finally shine. He has that distinctive voice where, in an a choral setting, it would be a bitch to get him to blend, but the trade-off would be that he’s a dynamic soloist.

There are some real standout tracks on this collection. A cappella groups have done a good job reinterpreting Train songs, and that’s true here as they guys turn in a great arrangement of “Hey, Soul Sister.”You can also hear the fun in their voices in their cover of “Animal” by Neon Trees. Out of nowhere, they blow the doors off “When I Get You Alone”, originally performed by a “Robin-less” Thicke. Finally, I found myself really enjoying a simple, yet still moving, rendition of Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know”. If there’s one track that might go into the “miss” category, I’d have to say it’s their version of “Blackbird”. It’s not bad, per se, but it lacked the dynamics of the other arrangements. Other than that, it’s a solid collection.

If you went to a school that didn’t dabble in a cappella, or if you just want to hear what some consider to be the gold standard of collegiate a cappella, you can’t go wrong with Glee: The Music Presents The Warblers. I consider this a nice little “Bon Voyage To Glee” present for me. I came for the Lea Michele, but I left with the Darren Criss. Y’all let me know if they ever make a Warblers spinoff show.