Track by Track Analysis

Welcome back y'all! We are in for a fun review this week.
This week I am reviewing one of my favorite albums that is predominately covers!
"Pentatonix (PTX) Vol. 2"

The Pentatonix or PTX is a highly accomplished five person accapella group, and they specialize in creating fun remixes of popular songs using only their voices!  This specific album has a mix of original numbers and covers which gives it a certain diversity from their first album which was only covers. This EP has a really good mix of tracks that are hard to get bored with, so let's go through them and see what makes them so special.


1. "Can't Hold Us"- Originally sung by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

The beginning of the track has a really cool start with what seems to be a pump up talk and you aren't quite sure what song it is, but then when it transitions into the rap and it's like "OH WOW, I know this song". Their use of beat boxing adds a unique feel to the music that resonates through your body. The way they layered the sound makes the song very full and well rounded, so that it didn't even sound like accapella. I have listened to this song several times and I have found myself listening to a different voice part each time and discovering something else I liked about the arrangement. I think that their revamp is as hype or maybe even more than the original version.



2."Natural Disaster"- An Original Song by PTX

I initially felt a little strange about this song being an original, but I was really pleasantly surprised.  This song has a steady rhythm that they created through clapping and stomping as well as making sounds that imitated the sounds of percussion. The Vocalist, Scott, has a certain intensity in his voice that combines with the strong baseline and helps personify the title "Natural Disaster". It also waxes and wanes with tempo which really helps the song build and not get boring. Overall it is a pretty well thought out arrangement and I enjoyed listening to it.


3."Love Again"- An Original Song by PTX

This song falls into the pattern that I've noticed in the rest of their songs. The song starts off with beatboxing to create a strong baseline and they use that to build off of it to add intensity throughout the song. This group does a really great job of layering their sounds so that they don't lack the fullness that you would usually get from the instruments or a backing track. This is a pretty good track, but I think that it is a little too repetitive of the first original song on the album.


4. "Valentine"- Originally sung by Jessie Ware

This is the first slower and more intimate track of the EP, and it feels sort of like a breath of fresh air. One thing that impresses me about this group is that they never fail to get their point across with their style of voice.  They have a soft and sweet voice quality in this song that exemplifies the song's central theme of love. They sound very sure and laidback which goes along with the lyrics "cause I know about our love". As in all of their songs this far, the way they mix their sounds is impeccable and it definitely adds to the finished product.


5. "Hey Momma/Hit the Road Jack" Hey Momma by the Pentatonix mashed up with Hit the Road Jack by Percy Mayfield

Long story short: This song is a bop! It has a fun vibe that jumps out at you, and brings back memories from older times with the song "Hit the Road Jack". This song feels a lot less planned out than the rest which is why I think that this song feels so freestyled and fun. It morphs the girl power song of today with the old school "see ya later" song to form this great mashup. It sounds like the old PTX. Their layering of sounds again doesn't cease to impress me. This is something that I could definitely see myself dancing around to with my gal pals.


6. "I Need Your Love" Originally sung by Ellie Goulding and Calvin Harris

The original version of this song is pretty great to begin with, but this new version brings a different light to the song. This arrangement of the song is different than the rest of the arrangements in this album because it is the first track in the album that actually sounds like accapella.  They are putting a lot of emphasis on the actual words of the song to make the down beat instead of imitating the instruments with their vocalization.


7."Run to You" An Original by the Pentatonix

This is just beautiful. The song begins almost like an incantation, but it swells and morphs into what sounds like a prayer. I really appreciate the layering of voices that create beautiful five part harmony. This song is pure accapella, no beat boxing, just five voices melting together to create this work of art. This is definitely my favorite original Pentatonix song on this album.


8."Daft Punk" A mashup of Daft Punk songs

This one is a good moving song. It has a strong beat that stays pretty consistent through the song. They did a really good job of taking some of Daft Punk's most popular songs and morphing it into this fun mashup of all of them. Another thing that was pretty cool is that the original artist, Daft Punk, wear futuristic costumes and the tone of voices used in this song had a techno quality that seemed to symbolize Daft Punk itself.  This is definitely a must listen if you are into the group.

Overall, I really enjoyed this album. I think it brings a lot of funky fresh new ways to enjoy some popular songs, and I would definitely recommend it to any fan of pop music or accapella.

See you next week friends!

Mary Ashley!