After a bumpy – and highly criticized – second season, Glee looks to be back on track, and according to series star Cory Monteith, a lot of that has to do with how the show is choosing its music.

What kind of music are they giving you for your character?
Oh, man I’m so excited (looks to his publicist). Can I? No, I can’t. There is one song that I cover that is typically like a female vocalized-pop song from the ’80s, and it has been pared down into this acoustic-slow-piano wonderful ballad, almost. They have done some really great stuff with music this season especially. It’s really influenced and inspired by the story-lines. Whereas before – last season we did tribute episodes, things like the music was implying the storyline.

Are you saying last season they did a lot of stuff that was more current just because they could?
Right. I feel that in the second season we got the opportunity to do whatever artist we wanted to cover because the show was big, and so, you know, there was a lot of, you know, very expository, very kind of larger-than-life numbers and things. And this year, they have a very specific idea of where they want the storyline and where they want the characters to go, and then they choose the songs around that. So it is very much the songs are inspired by the storyline this year, which is great because as an actor you have so much to do because of why you’re singing it.

There was a lot of talk over the summer about what happens to characters like yours, that are seniors, after they graduate this year. Has that been on your mind at all?
Well, everybody graduates eventually, but I really don’t know. We haven’t really had that conversation. It’s been, you know, discussed that Glee cast members will graduate, but I really don’t know when … If I graduate, you know, then I move on to do other things.

So what was the name of the song you mentioned?
I wish I could talk about the songs, but I think there is a sharpshooter out there just in case we say the wrong thing. (Ed. Note: the song was Girls Just Wanna Have Fun).