Customer Reviews

Karaoke Muswic CDG; Pocket Songs Just Tracks 325, WICKED

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought both this CD and the Wicked Karaoke (Stage Stars). I bought the stage stars version first and was so disappointed in the quality that I almost didn't get this one. What a mistake that would have been!! This CD is so much better in terms of musical quality and the pacing within the songs is very similar to the soundtrack. My only disappointment was that it does not contain "No One Mourns the Wicked." I was excited to find that it includes both "I'm Not that Girl" and the reprise. Also, some people may be disappointed that there are only the instrumental tracks and no practice vocals. Overall, this is a great karaoke CD. For those who love Wicked, I highly recommend it.

I bought both the Wicked Karaoke CDs (this one and the one from Stage Stars), because there were some missing songs on both. This CD has the only copy of "Dear Old Shiz" and the repsise of "I'm Not that Girl", while it lacks "No One Mourns the Wicked" and "Something Bad", which the Stage Stars version has. So, to get everything, I bought both.
The instrumental background on this karaoke CD is amazing. Many karaoke CDs are pretty bad, sounding like a single keyboard pounding keys one at a time. With this album, you could easily use the background tracks for Thespian (Drama) Festival competition. Each song is complete, with every bit of lyric that is both sung and spoken to each song. I didn't go through each song, because I popped in the Stage Stars version first and sang all of those, then put this one in just to hear it. I was blown away at the difference. This one is just so much better! But, I listened to enough of the CD to learn that there are no "back-up singers" (ooh! I hate when they turn a song into a solo by having pre-recorded voices sing the other parts!), and all the songs seemed totally complete, including musical interludes at the beginning of some songs. The music also seemed closer to the original tempo of the Cast Recording, unlike the Stage Stars version which was a little fast. The complete lyrics are enclosed in the booklet, and on a CD-G karaoke player, all the words appear in color.
There are no vocal tracks, so if you need a vocal guide for these songs, you'd better get the Stage Stars version. But if you're perfectly fine without them, you'll no doubt prefer the background of these tracks.

I also have both, and if you can get beyond the silly cover art, and the fact that "No One Morns the Wicked" is missing, and don't need vocal tracks (in which case you should buy the original cast album) the Pocket Songs version is a much better value.

It sounds slightly "synthesized" in parts, but at least there was an effort made to actually follow the score that Schwartz wrote, rather than the sloppy playing and absent orchestrations in the Stage Stars version. (In fact, I defy either Ms. Menzel or Ms. Chenoweth to sing to the Stage Stars version...OK, maybe I'm overstating...)

The phrasings are crisp and accurate, the tempos are faithful to the score (and the B'way performance), and the instrument substitutions (mainly synthesizer, if my ears are working) do a reasonably-good job of retaining the quality of what you hear in the Gershwin Theater (I've seen the show).

If you have to choose between this one and Stage Stars - get this one. If you need to sing along with the vocal tracks, use the B'way cast album.

This CD is great - the orchestrations closely match the original score-it is alot of fun to sing along. I highly recommend it. Since it does match the original, it is tricky-there are no clues of when to start-you have to know your stuff. There is no vocal track included, but I didn't miss it. I don't want to hear someone else's interpretation of Idina Menzel - I'd rather listen to the original cast recording and take it from there. One warning - when I received my CD and looked at the cover, I almost sent it right back - it's the worst graphic interpretation I have ever seen - no wonder they decided not to post the image on amazon. I can't imagine the designer knew anything about the story. Fortunately I read a review which helped me decide to keep it.

I love this CD. I, like others, first bought the Stage Stars version and was so disappointed. Then this Pocket Song version arrived, and it was like night and day between the two. The orchestration and tempos are very similar to the Broadway soundtrack. I also agree with others that the Cover Artwork doesn't fit the quality of the tracks in the CD at all. The only problem I had is that at the beginning of Track 3, there are four loud pops on my CD, so I don't know if I just got a bad CD or all copies have those four loud pops. But even with that small problem, it's a wonderful rendition of the original.

I bought my copy last April (2007) and haven't been able to use it in a Karaoke machine until today and found that there are no on screen lyrics despite it saying it's a CD+G on the cover. Very disappointing and dishonest to sell it as a CD+G (which means CD plus graphics).

After seeing the musical i bought this cd cuz i fell in love with the music and i wanted to sing it all the time. This cd ROXS! it sounds almost exactly like the recording on the Original Cast cd! If u like WICKED u'll love this!