My Amazon Reviews: Original Broadway cast (Featuring Green Day) "American Idiot"

Green Day Make Their American Tommy

4 Out of 5 Stars

The concept of the Rock and Roll Stage Musical is nothing new. "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Hair" made that world safe decades ago. "Grease" and "The Wiz" modernized them slightly, but it wasn't until "Tommy" that the revolution started. The Pete Townsend took his 1969 album to Broadway in 1993, he did something that had not been done before; took an entire album and based the play around it. "Beatlemania" may have been its closest cousin, but that was watching a live evolution of The Beatles had they remained a convert playing live entity. "Beatlemania" is better noted as the grandfather of all Jukebox Musicals, where an artist's catalog becomes fodder for a story either about the band ("Jersey Boys") or some random hodgepodge of a storyline having little or nothing to do with the music ("Mama Mia," "We Will Rock You" or even the snatching of songs from an era that is "Rock of Ages").

"American Idiot" jerks the lineage in a whole new direction. Like The Who's "Tommy," it is based on an album (or two, if you coun't the couple of songs from "21'st Century Breakdown") and the band had a hand in the story. But unlike these other rock musicals, the time from original album to stage was relatively short. Green Day's "American Idiot" was released in 2004, the first version of the play opened in Berkeley in 2009. The songs have changed very little, other than being sung by stage pros that Billie Joe's punky-yowlp. In several instances, this helps the songs.

The original "American Idiot" was such a rampant mix of styles as played by a single rock band, that it was easy to overlook just how melodic and well structured the songs sometimes are. In particular, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "21 Guns" pull ahead of their originals, and "Wake Me Up When September Ends" matches Green Days hit version. Strings and solo pianos add the kind of stagey emotional depth to several of the songs as well. Heck, Billie Joe has even taken the role of St Jimmy for several weeks of the show. You can bet Bono and The Edge aren't going to be onstage for their Spiderman show.

There will be two schools regarding "American Idiot" and the original cast. If the thought of big crunchy guitars of Broadway intrigues you, you'll cheer when the Glee-cast sounding version of the title track kicks in. If you are annoyed the 90's Punk Rock would cross to mainstream stages (whether from the elitist viewpoint of a Punk-Snob or Stage-Snob), this will sound like the second horseman of the apocalypse. Me? I'm all for it. I anxiously await an Alice Cooper musical, Styx's Paradise Theater or Kilroy was Here, and the mind that eventually will dream up The Tupac Vs Biggie show.
 

     

My Amazon Reviews: Glee Cast "Volume 3: Showstoppers"

Subversive Supreme

4 Out Of 5 Stars

There was a time when pop music and classic popcraft went hand in hand. The Beatles, The Jackson 5, The Fifth Dimension, all took assorted Broadway songs and mixed them with pop and rock. The Beatles did "Till There Was You," The Jackson's did "Corner Of The Sky," The Fifth Dimension took on "The Age Of Aquarius." After a couple decades, that seemed to be too square. Until The Who decided to turn "Tommy" into a Broadway musical - and now Green Day actually winning Tony Awards for "American Idiot" (!?!?), Broadway and modern rock/pop travelled very separate pathways.

Glee has taken that and upended it entirely. Here, they cover The Fifth Dimension AND Broadway in the same song. The medley of "One Less Bell To Answer/A House Is Not a Home" fashions itself in the mold of Barbra Streisand, who has appeared in song throughout the first season. Take songs from "Phantom of The Opera," "Gypsy" and "The Wiz" AND set them next to The Beatles, Kiss and Lady Gaga, and you get what is easily one of the most subversive albums to hit number one this century. Granted, the amount of Auto-tune here annoys me (these kids can sing, really...enough with the gadgets), but when I think of millions of kids being exposed to classic rock ("Dream On"), classic pop ("Hello Goodbye") and Broadway standards ("I Dreamed a Dream:), I'm secretly thrilled. Add that the show itself is one of the most positive on network TV right now, and I am happy to make these soundtracks the guiltiest of my guilty pleasure CD's.

My Amazon Reviews: Duncan Sheik "Brighter: A Collection"

Before the Awakening
4 Out of 5 Stars 

This review is from: Brighter: A Duncan Sheik Collection (Audio CD)

In the late 90's, Duncan Sheik released his debut album on Atlantic Records. It was a modest affair of semi-confessional singer-songwriter material, but a minor hit began to get attention, and "Barely Breathing" became his first and only top 40 record. He seemed to be keen on the moodiness of Nick Drake (that the double disc of this set is called "Brighter/Later" makes the point obvious), yet often cleaves towards Elton John at that artist's most introspective.

That makes the 16 songs on this disc all satisfying listens; Sheik matches his poetic lyrics to low key but memorable songs. It made him perfect for the emo-soundtrack set, and his contribution to the teen angst-fest "Great Expectations" is included. There's also a telling previously unreleased cover of Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark," which fits in among his own work quite well. He could also rev up a guitar on occasion, and the power-pop contribution to this set is "Bite Your Tongue."

However, Sheik is far more at home with the folkier aspects of his music, and the big reveal was the album "Phantom Moon." There are three songs from that album here, and they are the ones that come closest to realizing his Nick Drake aspirations. They're also noteworthy in that they mark the moment when Sheik began his collaboration with Steven Sater. This partnership would help bring Sheik back into the spotlight, when the two of them took home a pile of Tony Awards for the musical "Spring Awakening" and, I would bet, finally nudged this collection into being.