ACB Review: Awaken A Cappella's Cee Lo Green Cover

Andrea Aquino is an alumna of UCSC’s Acquire A Cappella. She directed the group during the 2009-2010 school year and led them to a fourth place finish at the ICCA West Quarterfinals last year.

Note: This video contains explicit lyrics and is NSFW.

I know Awaken as "that group from UCLA that never does anything gimmicky like silly outfits or weird dance moves--they just blow crowds away with well-arranged, passionately-performed songs at every show". My favorite was always Marc Broussard's "Home," with a little of "Go To Sleep Little Baby" from O Brother, Where Art Thou at the beginning. Many people are also familiar with Awaken because of their most famous alumna, Sara Bareilles.

But enough with the past, right? Let's get to the present.

Awaken just released a music video for their latest single, Cee Lo Green's "F*** You." The song follows in the footsteps of Awaken's other arrangements: delicious chords, crisp performance, charismatic soloist, lots of energy and soul. Unless you've been without a radio or YouTube access for the past couple of months, you probably already know the ridiculously catchy original song, so let's cut to what makes Awaken's version so great. I love a cappella arrangements that make me notice small things I didn't get in the original, like the cool trumpet flare at 1:01 or the background guitar bit that starts at 1:40. And there are so many layers at the breakdown (2:41) that will make you want to rewind and rewatch to catch them all. You can really tell how much thought went into the arrangement, and you can see from the video that every member of the group performs both their background parts and highlighted bits with love for the song and for the overall group sound. I'm a big fan of how their two beatboxers sound together, too.

Oh, and props to the guy in the sailor's hat and jacket. Lookin' good!

The singe lfor Awaken's version of "F*** You" is available for download via ACappellaRecords.com.