Strange mix

I saw this sitting on the shelf on the local library and decided to give it a listen. I don’t want to get into the whole comparison bit (individual singers, studio cast vs movie vs 1990’s revivals etc). I know the studio cast album inside and out, so my preference is mostly there. And I haven’t even seen the movie in ages. This is just my reaction to listening to this CD on its own.

The sound is just plain weird. To my ears, it sounds like they started with the studio cast multitrack, used parts of it as it was, remixed other parts, recorded new parts over some of it, and recorded some stuff from scratch. (I haven't been able to verify this independently, but I'm researching.) The vocals are obviously new, and the quality of those is incredibly uneven. The net result of all this is a patchwork quilt of sound that never quite comes together. Maybe on vinyl it wasn't so noticeable, but it's the biggest mark against the CD, and no remastering could fix that. Remixing maybe, but not remastering.

Andre Previn is credited as musical director, and with his resume and his chops, he should have known to do the whole thing from scratch. (Andrew Lloyd Webber was involved with the orchestrations, but we all know how little he & Tim Rice were involved with the film, to their dismay.) At least all-new recordings would have meant balance & uniformity in the sound, and shouldn't that be numero uno when you're doing a musical? Maybe Previn or Jewison liked the sound of the studio cast album and wanted it part of the package, but the Broadway production worked from scratch and sounded just fine (yay Elliot Randall!). Overlaying new stuff in a mostly standard movie musical style on top of the heavy rock of the original just doesn't work. It needed integration, not layering.

If you like the movie cast, this was a horrible way to present them; if you don't like the movie cast, it only makes things worse. Personally, I like Carl Anderson but Ted Neely is just too weak, and Paul Yaghjian as Annas is irritating beyond belief. Overall, I give the whole thing a `C' grade, if only as a missed opportunity.

If anyone knows any of the background on this recording, lemme no!


jay_laush, November 9, 2007; 12:37 PM