Album A Day: Wicked: Original Broadway Cast Recording

I'm happy to report that work on the new site is very nearly complete, and I'm now able to show you what it looks like right now. The site is still very much in its early stages, and until I get my computer back tomorrow I'm still limited in what I can post, but it's up and alive and ready for you to see. This site is going to stay active for at least another week or two while I get some other business in order, but checking the new page as well, since I'll slowly be introducing more material there and less here.

The NEW ¡Viva La Mainstream!

Feel free to leave any and all feedback you have. Now, on to today's album.

When people browse my CD and mp3 collection and come across my numerous Broadway and film soundtracks, they tend to respond with a confused look of “Dude…really?“. The answer is yes. Really. A Broadway soundtrack, when done properly, can be as enjoyable and great to listen to as any other album. People seem to want to relegate soundtracks to the scrap heap for reasons that never made sense to me, but then again, I’m a theatre major.

Even without the stage performance from whence it came, the soundtrack to Wicked stands out as a wonderful example of pop music that holds its own against the Taylor Swift’s and Britney Spears’s of “real” pop. It’s got hooks that latch on to your brain for hours, harmonies that never let up, and in terms of emotional punch…folks, it’s a friggin’ Broadway musical.

If you’ve never touched a Broadway soundtrack before, it might strike you as overly cheesy and vomit-inducing. That’s understandable. In that case, ease yourself in with one of the other big shows from the last two decades (Rent, for all its flaws, is a good jumping-off point). If you’re like me and can appreciate Broadway musicals alongside your rock n’ roll, then give this a chance. Just have something more catchy on standby so you don’t get caught humming “Defying Gravity” in public.

==TJ==