Pentatonix newest album Pentatonix was released on October 16, 2015 remained in the number one spot on the Top 200 Albums Billboards Chart for three weeks straight.

Pentatonix is an Acapella group including Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi, Kirstin Maldonado, Avi Kaplan, and Kevin “K.O.” Olusola, best known for winning the third season of The Sing-Off in 2011. Since then, they have built an incredible fan base on YouTube, sold platinum studio albums, won a Grammy in 2015, and was even featured in the hit Acapella movie smash, Pitch Perfect 2. They began with original arrangements of covers and song mash-ups posted on Youtube. The group quickly became mainstream with the rise in popularity of Acapella singing.

The uniquely gifted cover artists have written a few of their own songs in the past, but the Pentatonix album, which contains 17 tracks,  is almost all original composition. Pentatonix has an extremely broad stylistic range and personality which allows them to really engage their audience. Each song has many layers to it, and it’s amazing to hear how the songs are produced and how they work in harmony.

About half of the album is composed of upbeat, intense pop songs while the other half is soft-beat ballads, which is just as intense but a little more dynamic. “Can’t Sleep Love,” also one of their radio singles, is as one of my favorites off of this album. It has a groovy, sweet and dreamy tone with a soft beat behind it, that leaves you with goosebumps. “Sing” is catchy but it sounds like it belongs in high school musical. The album also includes covers of existing songs. Their arrangements of “Cheerleader,” “Where Are Ü Now” and “Lean On” really focus on each voice and bring more depth to the songs. Their rendition of “Where Are Ü Now” has a completely different tone compared to the original song. It had this really soft flowing beat in contrast to the original’s high energy EDM vibe. The EDM aspect of “Lean On” was incorporated in an interesting way. Pentatonix has an incredible talent for focusing on every part of a song as well as embellishing overlooked music.

As a group, Pentatonix is a game changer. They are paving the way for many other rising YouTube artists who wish to move forward into the music industry, and still manage to stay loyal to their 9 million subscribers by uploading videos documenting their journey. After recording 10 albums and dropping 5 singles, these virtuous voices are only just getting started.