scapp70's Full Review: Rent [Original Soundtrack] by Original Soundtrack
How Rent Won Me Over
First understand that my review comes from a person who is unfamiliar with the original Broadway play. I resisted the idea of a modern rock musical, and didn't identify with what I thought of the subject matter. When the film was aired on my Satellite movie channels, I thought I could put it on and watch it for a minute. There was Rosario Dawson and Adam Pascal singing the song Light My Candle. I planned on hating it, planned on patting myself on the back for being right again. The words and the melody won me over almost instantly. I'm not a big fan of Dawson, but was very surprised by her wonderful singing voice, and Adam Pascal's looks reminded me of Tommy Shaw and something about his voice made me think of Jesus Christ Superstar, a rock opera that I love. Yet, after I recorded the movie on my DVR and viewed it, I couldn't get those melodies out of my head. It's possible that the film hypnotized me and drove me to go out and purchase the soundtrack, but it's more likely that the music gives new meaning to the word 'addicting.'
Conception
Before he died, composer Jonathan Larson finished his latest project called Rent, conceived by playwright Billy Aronson to be an updated version of Puccini's La Boheme. Larson began writing songs for the show as early as 1989, and the show opened on February 13, 1996 which was less than three weeks after Jonathan Larson died of an aortic aneurysm. The play had quickly received comparisons to the 1968 Broadway play Hair, but in my qualified opinion, I really do not see any similarities.
A Quick Set Up to the Plot
Nine years later in 2005, the play had become the film, and director Christopher Columbus decided to utilize many of the original cast in the film as well. The concept is about Mark Cohen, an aspiring film maker and Roger Davis, an ex-rock musician/ex-junkie with HIV living rent-free in an apartment in Greenwich Village, along with Mimi Marquez who lives in the apartment downstairs from them, she is an S&M nightclub dancer, also infected with HIV due to her heroin habit. Mark & Roger's ex-roommate Collins, another infected with HIV returns from out of town to reunite with his friends and meets a kind and helpful transvestite named Angel, who has AIDS. Angel helped Collins after a mugging and the two fell in love and move in together as lovers. Mark also still deals with his ex-girlfriend Maureen, who left him for another woman named Joanne. It's only a tad bit more complicated than that, but since this is a review on the music and not the film, then that's all the time I have for that paragraph.
The Music
Like all musicals, there are some melodies that will repeat and show up later in the show time and again, and there is no difference here with Rent. Jonathan Larson had provided wonderfully catchy songs, and without any filler for the most part. Like I said above, the first song that reeled me in was Light My Candle, a song performed by Roger and Mimi (Pascal & Dawson). The clever lyrics sound like ordinary dialogue that accidentally rhyme. The music has an Adult Contemporary feel over a Latin structure with an acoustic guitar and a bongo beat. Rosario Dawson's voice has a nice warm feminine tone, and Pascal's voice has a 70s rock and roll gritty quality. Since the subject matter is about the couple's first meeting, the dialogue draws you in, and with the memorable melody of not just the chorus, but every lyric – it's no wonder that the song is a favorite for fans of the musical.
One musical theme that is repeated throughout the film is first heard in Life Support, a heartfelt song about life and death. It's a ballad sung in the setting of an HIV group support meeting. Here the words are more of a prayer or motto of the group to lift spirits.
♫There's only us, there's only this
Forget regret or life is yours to miss
No other road, no other way
No day but today♫
The words are repeated a second time in the best song from the musical Another Day, another duet with Mimi and Roger. I can't help but to think of Another Day as a more modern version of Meatloaf's Paradise by the Dashboard Light. With Mimi and Roger singing, and in the context of the film, this song is much cooler. Roger's singing parts have a hard rock feel, while when Mimi sings the mood is gentle and soft. The lyrics are very popular with the females who come in contact with the soundtrack. If you Google ♫The heart may freeze or it can burn, the pain will ease if I can learn...♫, you'll see that many a female have incorporated this lyric on their My Space page. It's understandable too, this song is the show stopper in my opinion.
The subject matter is glum more often than not, but there are some upbeat songs and a couple are even funny. Today For You performed by Angel talks about how he/she had made a quick $1,000 by snuffing out a neighbor's barking Akita. The song tends to get on your nerves, the idea behind the lyrics of why Angel would give this money to people he doesn't know, namely Mark and Roger. He'll give them money today, and if and when they earn some money then they'll throw some his way. The song is obviously just a vehicle to give this character another number, as Angel just has one more song that he sings, I'll Cover You which is another example of his charitable heart. Angel's singing voice must incorporate the stereotypical gay voice which makes him/her sound a lot like Big Bird.
Tango: Maureen is a comedy number that works well. The lyrics sing about the first meeting of Mark and his ex-girlfriend's new girlfriend Susan. Uncomfortable at first, but when they compare notes on what it's like to be in a relationship with Maureen, it is highly entertaining. The lyrics are brilliantly set to tango music, as there is a big tango dance scene in the movie.
Another theme that is repeated in the soundtrack is from the acoustic guitar ballad Will I. The song lasts a tiny bit under three minutes, yet only has two lines of lyrics that are repeated over and over in the style of a campfire Row, Row, Row Your Boat sing-a-long. The lyrics are some of the strongest despite its length, actually I find that they gain strength from being repeated so many times.
♫Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care?
Will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare?♫
A lovelorn ballad called Without You is another amazing song among all of these great songs. Of course, it's another song sung by the two stars Mimi and Roger. After the break-up of the two, this song is heard in the film. The lyrics admit that this separation of hearts is not the end of the world by any means, but their very being is still devastated, destroyed.
♫Without you, the tides change, the boys run, the oceans crash
The crowds roar, the days soar, the river flows, but I die, without you...♫
The song Goodbye Love wasn't entirely in the film, (edited out by director Chris Columbus) so it was cool to hear the entire song finally for the first time. The film included about two minutes out of the six and a half minute song. Halloween, a short acoustic guitar number with Mark singing a solo was also cut from the film. The DVD includes the two scenes as deleted scenes, so now I guess I have to get the DVD. The songs seem important and are emotionally charged making the numbers two more of the best.
The soundtrack is made up of mostly ballads, but there is still a share of hard rockers, like the title track Rent, One Song Glory and Out Tonight. The latter is like an updated version of I Feel Pretty but with teeth and a loud purring Meow. The big Broadway numbers such as Seasons of Love & La Vie Boheme are also enjoyable. Seasons of Love is another running theme included in some of the songs with the lyrics.
♫Five Hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
Five Hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear♫
The song sounded familiar to me right away, and realized I must have heard it before. It turns out that the song was a top 40 single in 1996 with Stevie Wonder squeezing into the ensemble.
The soundtrack has some minor digs at the United States (Santa Fe, What You Own), but my guess is that the rhetoric was toned down from the original lyrics considering the subjects covered. The music is so enjoyable, Rent is the best soundtrack in such a long while as far as I can remember. I love musicals for the most part, especially rock musicals. These albums don't even have to make sense most of the time (think Tommy or Hair), but we accept them anyway and make our own sense of the stories.
the songs
DISC ONE
1. Seasons of Love
2. Rent
3. You'll See
4. One Song Glory
5. Light My Candle
6. Today 4 U
7. Tango: Maureen
8. Life Support
9. Out Tonight
10. Another Day
11. Will I
12. Santa Fe
13. I'll Cover You
14. Over the Moon
DISC TWO:
1. La Vie Boheme
2. I Should Tell You
3. La Vie Boheme B
4. Season of Love B
5. Take Me or Leave Me
6. Without You
7. I'll Cover You (Reprise)
8. Halloween
9. Goodbye Love
10. What You Own
11. Finale A
12. Your Eyes
13. Finale B
☺☺☺☺Bonus Track☻☻☻☻
14. Love Heals
One of the longest-running shows (since 1996) in the history of Broadway, and one of its most beloved, RENT was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for D...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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