evita soundtrack

[burntcopper]

In other news, listening to the new Evita soundtrack. It's a more complex score (Lloyd webber re-jigged it to include more Argentinian stuff, and more tango), and the lyrics are different from the ones I'm used to. What's really odd is the fact that it's very, very harsh. The main leads and tone of the singing is very harsh, as are nearly all the strings in this (which are regularly used to punctuate and scrape across your nerves), almost grating in places, and I'm pretty sure it's emphasised for effect, like the way most of Che's is sarcastic as hell and practically snarled, and Eva's accent* comes out here as much heavier than you notice in the theatre. It's a mark of the way she sings that her voice is very, very penetrating and forceful, occasionally grating, but works for the character - either when she's doing the ambition thing or when she's lashing out to justify her actions in the second half. On stage it's fucking fantastic, but if you're just listening to it over the headphones, it's not a comfortable experience. So when you get 'Another Suitcase', which is beautiful, melodic and so on, it's a real shock because you've just got used to listening on the harsh level. Second half gradually becomes less harsh as Evita herself slows down.

Aside from the comfort factor, my main problem with this is that it's all been crammed onto one highlights cd. Would it really have killed them to do a full-length and give full glory to the tango stuff and lesser bits?

If anyone wants a listen, drop a note and I'll stick it up for download.

*Yours truly was raised by Spanish au pairs, so it kind of makes me flashback to childhood, especially the more penetrating accents.