Remembrance
Miranda DerOhanian | 12/26/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Hearing Jonathan Larson sing his own songs was both inspiring and somewhat painful. His talent for understanding how to reach out to a new musical theatre audience is amazing, and hearing the songs as he invisioned them is powerful. It is the knowledge that his talent came to an end too soon which is painful. But we remain thankful that he left some pieces behind so we can remember him."
Unfortunately Lacking
M. A. Newman | Gulf Shores, AL | 03/17/2008
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I don't want to be a hater here but this CD is not great. I am huge fan of Jonathan's song-writing abilities and I've seen RENT over a dozen times in NYC and also got the chance to see tick, tick...boom off-Broadway. I was really anticipating this CD very much since I obviously have the other cast recordings and I was anxious to hear Larson's interpretations of his own work. Sadly, as brilliant as he was a composer, it just didn't carry over vocally. The songs that are unknown--like most composers--are not great. However, I think a compilation album of his work, including the unknown and never-before-heard tunes, would be a great idea and feature some of today's top singers doing their own interpretations (please, no Seasons of Love...it's quickly becoming the "Memory" of the 90s!).
This is indeed a must-have for Rent heads to be sure."
Demos from a master
George Fagin | 05/09/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This album shows how much potential and how much it is a loss that Jonathan Larson isn't here writing more songs. This shows that he had a lot more to do and that Superbia and other shows should have been produced just like Rent was. Each song not only brings out something about the show he was writing, but his own life that was filtering itself into the songs that he was writing. It is brilliant and heartbreaking to see this young writer's vision come true but have him not be here to see it."