Cough Syrup – Darren Criss

Glee: And apologies (not always hand-in-hand)

Man, I know most of my posts lately read like one long apology but once more unto the breach, dear friends. Once more: I apologise. I’ve been in the country all week without a laptop/internet, spending my time learning to drive/riding horses which has left me a fairly competent driver and emotionally crippled after watching War Horse. Anyway, one of my failures this week was to not catch everyone up with a Gleecap. I’m smacking my hands for you guys, don’t worry. As Glee (in the U.S) has one more episode and is then taking (another!) hiatus, I thought I’d round up all of this year’s five episodes so we’re all fresh for its return. In the mean time, new Glee music. Here’s the original, Gleeview after the jump:

Without You – Glee Cast

Wanna Start Gleecappin': I miss those kooky kids

Yo, yo, yo. If any of you were wondering what’s happened to our Weekly Gleecap, let me recap you. Glee’s off-air right now in Britain but back in the U.S of A. As we’re U.K based (and internet streaming is illegal, you guys), we’re going to follow the U.K timetable. The good news is that Sky tells me it will be back early 2012 (which I’m taking to mean late Jan/early Feb.) Better news: America has only aired one episode and are taking a break this week in anticipation for next week’s MJ episode. SO WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN, HENRY. Just relax, we’ll be back blogging it soon and hopefully we won’t be too far behind America. Gleecapping and world politics, not as different as it first seems. Anyway, to fill you in, here’s a Guetta/Usher cover by Lea Michele. It’s quite breathtaking (Darren Criss covers MJ after the jump):

10 Things I Love About Pop: Week 11

It’s been a lovely week in popular music. We’ve been surrounded by lists of lists of the best lists of 2011 which is always a pleasure. When Christmas comes round, all the best things collide at once: Lists and tinsel. On another note, this will be our last TILAP column of the year as  there will be some special one-offs over the break and I need some valuable hibernation time. But we’re going out with a firework, the cherry on top of a truly magnificent year for pop music. Enjoy, my lovelies, enjoy:

Ten Things I Love About Pop: Week 5

Pop Pantheism: The chart-toppers getting through the week, this week.

The thing about being obsessed with something more than the average observer, pop music being as good an example as any, is that when something major happens, you have fewer people to talk about with. If I had wanted to talk about Italian politics or American presidential debates this week, I would have been fine. But I didn’t. I wanted to talk about seismic shifts within the pop music industry. It just seems that that’s not something anyone around me wants to take seriously yet. And so 10 Things I Love About Pop could probably have been renamed 10 Things I Wanted To Discuss All Week And Will Rant To You About. Don’t you feel like the luckiest people in the world?

The Ultimate Glist: Glee’s Top Ten Best Songs!

So as you may have read, I was in New York last week, meaning I didn’t do any posting for the blog. Apologies, I’m sure you missed your dose of pop-vitamins. So now I’m up to date with all things American (snowstorms, Occupy Wallstreet and taxis) and ready for another week of high-brow musical analysis. It also means I wasn’t able to post my weekly Glist (here’s the first, and the second), but you can crawl out of your respective corners because there’s one heading at you right now. For my (slightly compressed) list of Glee’s top ten (we’ve come so far, you guys!) songs, read on!

The Ultimate Glist: Glee’s 20 Best Song Cont. (15-10)

Glee’s Girls: Lea Michele and Dianna Agron, fuelling Tumblr users’ imaginations for years.

So here’s what you missed on the Glist (Glee + List, like d’uh). We had Nelly, Kelly and The All American Rejects. And a musical show-stopper for good measure. We’re rounding off the teens today and scraping the surface of the top 10. On a side note, I was researching the Glee cast’s discography for this post and the chart figures for this latest season are pretty dismal. The charting has been It’s Not Unusual at 65. The Glee cover on season 2? Teenage Dream at 8. On a sider note, these were both sung by Darren Criss. And the highest charting of season 1 was Don’t Stop Believing, reaching the heady peaks on number 4. Now this should be disappointing for Glee fans but let’s get everything in perspective. How many other television shows have sent 6 songs into the Hot 100 thus far this season? Not many. Glee isn’t as stratospherically popular as it once was but it still remains a successful show. The only difference is now it has a dedicated fan-base which can only ever be a good thing. Anyway, lists!

10 Things I Love About Pop: Week 2

Welcome to my second column of 10TILAP (here’s last week’s) where I’ll be counting down what’s great, good and pretty gruesome in the world of popular music this week. This week we have: whinging from Matt Cardle! New Radiohead music! And a celebration of my supreme stalking abilities. As my latin teacher once said, ‘you’re only as good as your search engine terms.’ Hope you enjoy!

The Ultimate Glist: Glee’s 20 Best Songs

The astute among you, or those who have eyes, will have noticed that there is no Glee this week. If you want to catch up, here are the Gleecaps for the first three episodes. Quinn’s probably just busy dying her hair, they’ll be back November 1st. I’m assuming the plan is that by making us wait 2 weeks that we will overlook any future clown outfits for Blaine. Or maybe Finn will have mastered basic co-ordination. We can only hope. And make lists! For the next 3 weeks, I’ll be counting down my favourite 20 songs on Glee. As always, please comment and tell me why I’m hideously incorrect. Let’s (g)list!