Music Is My Weapon

Everyone is talking about Rent. We delayed as long as we could with reviewing this album, but we've been forced to, since it's been on the top 10 album sales for some time now. The reason we didn't want to talk about Rent, is that it is a long cry from the original, beautiful, Rent performed on Broadway. Look at the picture listed here: it uses the same font, the same colors, the same everything as the Broadway poster, only this has the words "motion picture" marqueed accross it's front. With this in mind, I looked forward to getting a copy of this album, so I could blast it's musical ineptness.

Much to my disapointment, this version of Rent came out very, very well. To my pleasure, the original cast performed this. See, I did not know that because I refused to see the movie. Okay, so this album has two points in favor of it, and none against it...yet.

A bit of history: one of the longest-running shows in the history of Broadway, and one of its most beloved, RENT was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and four Tony Awards, including Best Musical. So you can imagin my distaste at the sellout nature of going motion picture. Based on Puccini's classic opera "La Boheme," Jonathan Larson's revolutionary rock opera tells the story of a group of bohemians struggling for success and acceptance while enduring the obstacles of poverty, illness and the AIDS epidemic in New York's gritty East Village. Now the powerful musical marks its 10th year on stage by coming to the big screen, accompanied by Rent The Motion Picture Soundtrack, produced by Rob Cavallo.

Okay, so it appears that this album has a full five points for it, and none against it. To my disapointment, I loved this rendition of Rent. Somehow, Chris Columbus has taken a beloved, Tony- and Pulitzer-winning musical, a deeply personal and heartfelt rock musical twist on "La Boheme", and improved it.