Lea Michele - Places | Album Review

Lea Michele, former Glee star, released her heartbreaking sophomore album, Places, and quite honestly I'm not a huge fan of Michele's, but this album blew me away.

The opening track, and lead single, "Love is Alive" showcases everything amazing about Michele, her stunning vocals, and lyrical abilities. This tragically moving album, clearly about the late Cory Monteith, Michele's former fiance, who passed in July in 2013. The lyrical content of the entire album focuses heavily on all parts of love, but song "Hey You" is mostly clearly linked to Monteith. Michele has always been a vocal powerhouse and her solo work showcases her immense voice nicely.

In my opinion, there isn't a single track on this album that isn't single worthy, every song is both musically and lyrically mature, and truly stunning. This album doesn't have a filler track, and the last album I said that about was Adele's 21. The flawless vocal breakdown in "Anything's Possible" blew me away. "Believer" is probably the weakest track on the album and still is amazing.

For me, the only thing I don't like about the album is I feel like some songs have unneeded elements that ultimately overshadow Michele's beautiful voice.

Among the start-to-end truly beautiful album, three songs stand out, "Run To You", "Getaway Car", and "Hey You". "Run To You" brought me to tears at first listen. Michele has a way with music that can make it touch just about everyone, and "Run To You" does that. "Getaway Car" is whole-heartily one of the best songs of this decade. The, even more touching, acoustic version of the song that Michele performed along side Darren Criss, former Glee cast member, on a Facebook Live stream last week, puts more impact on the emotion Michele was trying to get across whilst paying tribute to her former fiance. "Hey You", a personal tribute to Monteith, sees Michelle tackle the subject of the loss of a loved one, and does it in a very reflective way. You can feel her emotion on this track, and that is something I deeply admire artist for. "Hey You" is one of the most touching things I've heard since Michele's rendition of Bob Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love" in the 2013 episode of Glee, The Quaterback, an episode in memory of Cory Monteith.

This album is moving, and Lea Michele's stunning vocals shine through in an amazing way, I highly recommend checking out Places, avaible on every major music despitribution platfom.

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