I'm Certain That Cur Will Bark Itself To Death

I've been so busy that I forgot about that the new RENT soundtrack came out last week! 

I got it today, and it freakin' ROCKS!  THIS is the cast recording that I've been wanting all these years.  It was produced by Rob Cavallo, who produced the brilliant American Idiot album for Green Day.  This recording has a wonderfully rich, robust sound and very imaginative orchestrations. 

I've always been a fan of BOOMing, thunderous drums and ultra-crunchy electric guitars, and here they're suppilied in generous amounts:  "Rent" (the title track) is finally the hard-driving rocker I knew it could be. On the other hand, "Tango: Maureen" has a true, playful Latin flavor to it and has the potential of being a real show-stopper.  The tinny, sometimes corny sound of the Broadway versions of "Today 4 U" and "Out Tonight" ALWAYS bothered me -- this re-imagining is a much welcome improvement.  Many of the rock songs have been fixed with a more appropriate, faster tempo.  Even the snippety songs like "Life Support" benefit from the rethinking.  Dare I say this is better the Original Broadway Recording?  Yes, I do.

P.S.  And hooray for Tracie Thoms!  Brilliant as "Mahandra" on the thoroughly-missed series Wonderfalls (damn you, Fox!), I'm so happy for her success and that the world will find out that the girl can SANG!