Easy Listening

Received three new CDs this week, and am happy with them all. The cast recording of Spamalot is full of surprises, both in content and engineering quality. Most Broadway recordings are pretty shabby, this one sparkles. The content includes some old Python favorites, all done in grand new arrangements and orchestrations, plus a rather large pile of new stuff. Anyone who has ever performed in a musical will ROFL at the spoofs of those typical formula numbers. Tim Curry has not come a long way since Rocky Horror, which is a good thing, though I suspect as King Arthur his costumes are not nearly as interesting. The Not Yet Dead song is already making its way into the repertoires of filkdom.

Anna Nalick's album, Wreck of the Day shows she is the new Alanis Morissette, except her clever lyrics come at you like a runaway freight train. Several of her songs have so much packed into so little space that I'm going to have to listen to them with lyrics in hand before I'll be able to catch it all.

And finally there is our American Idol, Kelly Clarkson, whose CD Breakaway proves Simon and company were right, after all. Or maybe it proves that sometimes an aspiring artist can break out of the box she is crammed into. I was not impressed with her during the Idol trials, or in her efforts since then, but this collection shows the girl can sing.

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Today I finished my mini-disc project. I now have all the music I think I would ever want to take to a desert island. Come to think of it, my last week in Thailand will be on an island. The final disc contains 40 of my favorite musicals' cast recordings. The final one is the incredibly obscure, but often tear-jerking Weird Romance which you can read all about here. It's actually two one-acts, The Girl Who Was Plugged In and Her Pilgrim Soul. The music is by Little Shop of Horrors composer Alan Menken, and both plays star Little Shop's Audrey, the incomparable Ellen Greene. I'm glad I bought it when I did (Menlo Players was considering it, when I was on their play-reading committee) because it's out of print, and goes for $25 used.