ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER: Unmasked Platinum Collection

[chernjam]

After an inexplicably bizarre turn of events with Amazon which had promised to deliver this new 4 disc set on release day - I finally got it on Tuesday - and spent most of Wednesday (the snow day) listening to the over 4 hours of music on this collection.  Just some thoughts:
 

- I have pretty much every ALW recording, so at first I thought this was unnecessary (in fact that's why I skipped his 60th anniversary release -having purchased the other 4 disc set whose name escapes me right now) - but some of the new releases kind of intrigued me, and I thought in this era where the way music is released and shared, this might be the last collection of this type, so I splurged.  ($30 being quite reasonable when 10 years ago a set like this probably would have been at least double that)

 

- I'm really happy I did get this.  Nicole Scherzinger's Memory resurrected an overplayed song that I had grown to loathe for me.  She really was spectacular and I can udnerstand why ALW was so disappointed when she punted on reprising here in NY.  Lana Del Rey's You Must Love Me took a song that I thought was basically going to be always associated with Madonna and removed that notion from my mind by giving a hearfelt, unique, exquisite rendition of a lesser appreciated ALW song; Beyonce's Learn to Be Lonely was a tremendous find (completely had forgotten she had sung that at the Oscars and even more, had kind of forgotten the song)- Also loved hearing Florence Andersons Where did the rock go - - So those new releases were really special for me and a great way to celebrate Andrews birthday and career
 

- The collection itself is a nice retrospective covering all the hits an some other lesser known, but understandably added songs.  I'm thinking of "Sing" for example (the composition he co wrote with Gary Barlow for the Queen's anniversary) which is a nice treat.  I'm sure we can all argue about things that should have been added or different covers, etc.  But for the most part, this was a great variation of things an uniquely different from previous released collections.

- One quibble that I will make was that they billed the orchestral suites as "new recordings or "2018 orchestral suites" - but that's Fake News.  The Love Never Dies Orchestral suite combines the Coney Island Waltz and the Entracte from the Original recording as a single track.  Ditto for the Sunset Suite (which was orchestral suites that I had from Glenn Close's single of "The Perfect Year" in 1993 along with the car chase scene instrumental)  I realize I'm an uber-fan - but I had high hopes that perhaps they recorded a New Sunset Blvd Suite with that gorgeous NY orchestra last year during its revival or something...  Definitely deserves it.  And - Aspects of Love remains one of my all time favorites - wished he hadn't included the pop version of Michael Ball singing Love changes everything which ruins that song for me.  Same for Sarah Brightman's Anything But Lonely (Ann Crumb definitely sang that better... she ripped the roof off the broadhurst theatre when I saw her in the original production).

- All that being said - this collection is really perfect for the casual ALW fan who might not be fully familiar with all his works.  There's rarely a track that you will want to skip forward on.  And more than likely it will make you hopeful for some more revivals (Would love to finally see Whistle Down the Wind... so much great music in that show!)

[CATSNYrevival]

I was disappointed with the orchestral suites as well. I would have even preferred the Sunset Suite from the Perfect Year CD single which is glorious and essentially the exit music if I’m not mistaken. The Phantom of the Opera and Love Never Dies suites were in fact not suites but just overtures and entr’actes lazily cobbled together. The Aspects of Love orchestral track was lovely. I hadn’t heard it before. I would have loved a recording of the overture from Joseph as well, and perhaps a recording of “I Do” from Starlight Express. I know Webber didn’t write the music for that one but it’s still being used in the show now and it would have been nice to get a studio recording of it.

[chernjam]

CATSNY - I'll have to dig out the cd single - I actually thought the Sunset Suite was the one from the Perfect Year Single with the car chase scene added to it.  

For me that was the most misleading and disappointing part was these suites.  I opted for the 4 disc set when I read "New 2018 recording" for them, and when I realized they were splices together of previous material, was a bit miffed.  Granted I'm a super fan and have all of those singles and stuff.  But if your putting together something like this, you would think that recording some new suites would be in order.  Particularly Sunset.  you had a symphonic orchestra twice in two years playing music from that

[jacobsnchz14]

I am wanting to purchase the 4-disc set, mostly because I love the packaging and am a sucker for large liner note pamphlet/booklets and would be curious as to what this set includes, as far as that is concerned.  But I have been listening on Apple Music and love that we finally get Scherzinger's "Memory" which I loved. Haven't listened to it too much yet, mostly just on shuffle and listening to songs from Variations and Aspects, again some of the ALW shows I am not as familiar with. I, too, have seen a lot of online comments talking about some of the artist/rendition choices for some of the songs and (as you mentioned) those are on previous compilation releases somewhere. It's actually nice to hear different versions not as well-known or commercial, but I also understand the idea of being a "completest" or needing the "definitive" versions of more popular songs on an ALW collection. I also enjoyed hearing some tracks from Cats and JCS Live Arena Tour, straight from the filmed productions' soundtracks. Now THOSE are albums I would not hesitate buying. I know there are umpteenth versions of the albums, (but as far as Cats goes) none sounding the same as the production I discovered the show with in that film. But if we can get soundtracks to Joseph with Donny Osmond, or the JCS film, etc. I would love one for those. Audio rips from the DVDs are not the same; straight from the source on this Unmasked compilation, it sounds great and the studio-quality I had always hoped for.

[Deena Jones]

There is no Patti LuPone!

[Lot666]

chernjam, you know I'm a staunch ALW supporter as well, and yet I'm strangely unmotivated to purchase this compilation. I almost never like pop star versions of musical theatre songs, and all of the promotion for this release has suggested it's a lot of that. Am I wrong? I confess that I haven't even bothered to look at the lineup.

The closest I've ever come to preferring a pop cover of a musical theatre song is John Barrowman's duet with Daniel Boys on "I Know Him So Well" from Chess. I absolutely love their version, but one can easily argue that Mr. Barrowman is as much a musical theatre performer as he is a pop singer.

[chernjam]

jacobsnchz14 said: ... It's actually nice to hear different versions not as well-known or commercial, but I also understand the idea of being a "completest" or needing the "definitive" versions of more popular songs on an ALW collection. I also enjoyed hearing some tracks from Cats and JCS Live Arena Tour, straight from the filmed productions' soundtracks. Now THOSE arealbums I would not hesitate buying. I know there are umpteenth versions of thealbums, (but as far as Cats goes)none sounding the same as the production I discovered the show with in that film. But if we can get soundtracks to Joseph with Donny Osmond, or the JCS film, etc. I would love one for those. Audio rips from the DVDs are not the same; straight from the source on this Unmasked compilation, it sounds great and the studio-quality I had always hoped for."

Yeah I completely agree with you on this... There's been so many different productions that have gotten critical acclaim, you would think "Heaven on their minds" from the Oliver winning revival of Jesus Christ Superstar might generate more interest than Tim Minchin from the Arena tour?  Or how about Evermore without you from Woman in White, but the recent revival rather than the Original cast recording?  Those kinds of things I think would've generated even more interest.  But I suppose the idea of this is hitting the non-ALW super fans who might be curious with the book release (I debuted at #9 on the NY Times Best Seller list which surprised me) and just seeing "BEYONCE; MADONNA; BARBARA STREISAND" on the label helps entice them rather than some of the things us more passionate fans might be searching for

[chernjam]

Lot666 said: "chernjam, you know I'm a staunch ALW supporter as well, and yet I'm strangely unmotivated to purchase this compilation. I almost never like pop star versions of musical theatre songs, and all of the promotion for this release has suggested it's a lot of that. Am I wrong? I confess that I haven't even bothered to look at the lineup.

The closest I've ever come to preferring a pop cover of a musical theatre song is John Barrowman's duet with Daniel Boys on "I Know Him So Well" from Chess. I absolutely love their version, but one can easily argue that Mr. Barrowman is as much a musical theatre performer as he is a pop singer."

Well the pop-covers of Nicole (however you spell her last name) doing Memory or Beyoncé "Learn to be lonely" are incredibly stellar...and the cover of You Must Love Me was as well.  The original pop version of Love Changes Everything nearly ruins that song for me - just hated it back then and still do (although in the show it's beautiful) so there's that.  I suppose part of what has had this on repeat play for me is that it's got a great mix of old, new songs which hit the whole ALW catalog.  Perhaps its laziness on my part that a good shuffle of all the albumns, collections, etc of ALW I have could accomplish the same thing.

Someone's comment about the liner notes earlier is a good point too - it is nice to get a bit of insight on each of the songs and why this rendition might have been chosen.  

I think I paid $30 for this on Amazon - so it really seemed reasonable to me.  Like I said, had this been 10 years ago before digital music really took off, this collection probably would've cost at least double that

 

[Lot666]

chernjam said: "the pop-covers of Nicole (however you spell her last name) doing Memory or Beyoncé "Learn to be lonely" are incredibly stellar...and the cover of You Must Love Me was as well."

Those are the names that immediately put me off of this package.  The idea of a "Pussycat Doll" singing "Memory" is abhorrent to me, and I've just never been a fan of Beyonce.

 

[kdogg36]

Going off on the pop cover tangent, Meat Loaf's version of "A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste" is pretty great.

[smidge]

I also wish they included Bernadette’s versions from Song and Dance.

[castlestreet]

Overall this is a rehash of a lot of the previous collections.  I too was very disappointed that we didn’t get new recordings of the orchestral suites.  

 

I have also been hoping for him to really open up the vaults and release some super rare stuff.  For example, the Steve Harley “Music of the Night” demo, or some of the ladies from Sunset like Debra Byrne singing AIWNSG.  

 

Packaging was A+

Liner notes are really nice

Would have liked to have heard some other rare gems though.  Overall I’d give this release a B-

[chernjam]

kdogg36 said: "Going off on the pop cover tangent, Meat Loaf's version of "A Kiss Is aTerrible Thing to Waste" is pretty great."

Oh - that's a really good call that I forgot about.  Although whoever he had do the original demo of that was pretty phenomenal ( I still remember recording that when ALW premiered it on WPLJ here in NY about three months before Whistle was supposed to open on Broadway after a Washington DC tryout... still upset in never made it to NY)

[luvcaroline]

Chernjam, thank you for that comprehensive review. I’m now thinking seriously about purchasing this. I have a question, however. My understanding is that all of the older tracks have been remastered. Did anyone notice a significant difference in the sound of these versions over the original recordings?

[jacobsnchz14]

I would love an ALW complete collection, similar to the one that Sony released for Rodgers and Hammerstein with one “definitive” cast album representing each show in their catalog.

[Babe_Williams]

OP, thank you for the detailed review. I am intrigued by those two songs (memory and the one covered by Beyoncé) and will have to give a listen now.

[Lot666]

I wish he would've included Patti LuPone's unreleased disco recordings from Evita. According to the book, ALW made additional recordings of Ms. LuPone for the express purpose of releasing disco Evita tracks, but Robert Stigwood beat him to it with the cover versions by Festival.

[Lot666]

chernjam, I saw that disc 4 includes tracks from Love Never Dies performed by Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess. Can you tell me if these are lifted directly from the original London concept album, or were they rerecorded for this release? I'd like to have a recording of Ms. Boggess singing the title aria with the updated lyrics.

[chernjam]

Hey Lot - I must've missed something, I didn't realize they updated the lyrics to LND.  (I knew they did for Till I Hear you sing)

 

Will give it another listen, but I'm almost positive they were simply lifts from the original recording.  Perhaps remastered - but even when they do that, I rarely can tell the difference

[Lot666]

chernjam said: "Hey Lot - I must've missed something, I didn't realize they updated the lyrics to LND. (I knew they did for Till I Hear you sing)"

The edits to LND were fewer and perhaps less obvious, but the glaring one (for me) was the change from "that love takes on a life much bigger than your own" to "that love takes on a life far greater than your own". Thank you, Charles Hart!

I can't imagine that they rerecorded either song for this release. I'm sure that Mr. Karimloo and/or Ms. Boggess would've mentioned the studio day on social media if they had.

[JBradshaw]

I wish it included the ALW Love Trio.