Various Artists – Sweeney Todd Highlights
Artist: Various Artists
Composer: Stephen Sondheim
Album: Sweeney Todd Highlights
Release Date: December 18, 2007
1. No Place Like London (Sweeney Todd, Anthony Hope)
Bower has a really pretty tone right at the beginning of this song in the brighter, major section. The oboe at the beginning is absolutely gorgeous in addition to the rest of the accompaniment. I love the song suddenly becomes darker when Depp’s character comes in. While Depp isn’t a great singer, he illustrates his character’s darkness well. There’s some really pretty stuff in the accompaniment. It’s absolutely gorgeous and well written with some of the call and response stuff between the oboe and flute in the background. Depp’s vocals get a bit better when he gets to the “Barber and his wife” as he starts to sing out a bit more. I really like how clear Depp’s enunciation is in this song; it’s crystal clear what he’s saying.
2. The Worst Pies in London (Mrs. Lovett)
Bonham Carter isn’t a very good vocalist at all, but she acts very well in the song in terms of the style she sings in. This song is very bounchy and fun to listen to, however and highly amusing considering the subject matter. I love the little pizzicato bits in the strings for the accompaniment.
3. Poor Thing (Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd)
Mrs. Lovett sings decently at the beginning of the song, even if she doesn’t have much resonance to his voice. I don’t particularly like how she does the “poor thing” lyrics, especially her thin high notes. The song itself starts off simpler with minimal accompaniment, but as the story goes along, Sondheim adds a bit more dissonance to go along with the story.
4. My Friends (Sweeney Todd, Mrs. Lovett)
This is probably one of Depp’s move impressive vocal songs. He adds a bit of vibrato at parts of the songs and he resonates a lot more here in this particular song. Of course, his singing is steps better than Bonham Carter’s vocals as he actually supports his vocals much better. I really like the duet parts of the song though, even if I’m not a fan of Bonham Carter’s vocals. The interlacing of melody lines here is really interesting and they are really well composed. The floating accompaniment is gorgeous in this song. I’ve already found the “my arm is complete again” line really amusing. I love how it ends back into the initial theme of the movie with the dramatic orchestral bit.
5. Green Finch & Linnett Bird (Johanna Barker)
This is probably one of my favourite songs. It starts off with little bird-like grace notes. Wisener, the actress for Johanna Barker is surprising a pretty good vocalist compared to the rest of the cast. She’s a high soprano in this song and sings with a lot of resonance and vibrato. The higher notes are a bit pitched, however, but nevertheless, her soft soprano voice carries this song well.
6. Johanna (Anthony Hope)
This song features long sweeping melodies and some gorgeous string bits. The lyrics aren’t really complicated. Campbell Bower is a pretty decent vocalist, although parts of his vocals aren’t as supported as it could have been. His tone is quite nice though.
7. Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir (Tobias Ragg, Signor Adolfo Pirelli)
Sanders’ child voice really performs well at the beginning in terms of his enthusiasm in this song. He may not be extraordinary, but he carries the role well in the song. The song itself is really catchy. The layered vocals in this song are really well done again.
8. The Contest (Adolfo Pirelli)
Baron Cohen is absolutely hilarious and awesome as Pirelli. He’s actually an amusing vocalist and supports fairly well throughout the song. The falsetto at the end always makes me laugh. The exagerrated vocal style that Baron Cohen has works really well in this song.
9. Wait (Mrs. Lovett)
To contrast the previous song, we go back into an ominous opening before going into a slightly dissonant lullabye with Bonham Carter. I love the instruments after she sings “brighten up the room” as the melody line gets transfered to about three other instruments after she sings it.
10. Pretty Women (Sweeney Todd, Judge Turpin)
I love the harp-like notes at the beginning. The song itself is interesting with the ongoing harp, and some of the flute parts that play with the melody they sing over it. Rickman seemingly a bit flat in parts of the song. The various parts of this song are really facinating to listen to. I especially really like the main one with the “pretty woman” with the smooth melody and the call and response. The harmonies are really quite nice. The parts where Depp whistles and Rickman sings the “bum” parts (XD) is really amusing for some reason.
11. Epiphany (Sweeney Todd)
Depp is extremely creepy in this song. I love how Sondheim brings back some elements from previous songs into this next piece, and interlaces them flawlessly into the song. He brings back part of the first “No place like London” song as well as Mrs. Lovett’s “Wait” as her attempt to calm him down. The dissonant in this song is really creepy. Depp doesn’t really do well vocally in this song, but his acting is really well done. I love the speaking parts of this song, they’re really well done and really creepy. It’s kind of interesting how his tone clears up (he doesn’t do the growling thing he’s been doing with this voice for the majority of the song) when he sings “My Lucie”, though.
12. A Little Priest (Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd)
This song is creepy. I find Bonham Carter’s performance of this to be a little flat and emotionless considering its content. She doesn’t really reflect the dark humour of this song well. The song is ridiculously bouncy considering the content. The result of the song is fairly monotone and lacking the energy it needs.
13. Johanna (Sweeney Todd, Anthony Hope, Beggar Woman)
This song with the duet parts are much better than the initial version. It has the initial theme with added bits by Depp and Kelly. I really like the added melodies by Depp. The insane bits by Kelly is always amusing. The highlight of the song is definitely the parts where both Campbell Bower and Depp sing together with different melodies.
14. God, That’s Good! (Mrs. Lovett, Tobias Ragg, Beggar Woman)
Sanders repeats his initial melody with Pirelli for this next song and the change of lyrics work ridiculously well with Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies. Other than that, the song has a lot of speaking dialogue in it, and again I enjoy the two melodies going on at once. This song just isn’t the same without the chorus, however, and it ends up being kind of dull.
15. By the Sea (Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd)
This song is absolutely adorable. I really lke the flute and oboe bits in the song. The melody is light and fluffy and a nice contrast to the rest of the musical. Bonham Carter’s singing is still rather painful at times.
16. Not While I’m Around (Mrs. Lovett, Tobias Ragg)
I absolutely love Sanders’ vocals in this song. He’s ridiculously good in this soft ballad song. The song is gorgeous. I like how they have the change of roles with Bonham Carter’s character singing the main chorus once, and the added dissonance when she sings it.
Overall -
Favourite Track: Green Finch & Linnett Bird
While some of the vocalists are less than stellar, the music in this musical is top notch. I particularly like how Sondheim repeats some of the previous themes from various songs into later songs. It sometimes gets repetitive but it’s done effectively. Stephen Sondheim delivers creepy, but well-composed music for this soundtrack.
*Movie OST, *Soundtracks, Various Artists | Megumi | January 5, 2008
You made me happy with this review. =D I’m so tempted to buy this (I didn’t realize it was already out). XD
- Tsuki
^ XD! It’s been out for awhile :P This is the shorter “Highlights” album. The other album has the opening and final scene in addition to “Alms Alms” and “Ladies in their sensitivities”.
I wanna watch other Sondheim musicals now T_T.