Customer Reviews

Phantom Unmasked

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I admit to coming rather late to the Micheal Crawford fandom but I've come to greatly admire his work. While his vocal skills are very good, even he admits that it was his Phantom success that allowed him succeed as a recording artist. It's doubtful he would get very far on American Idol-type programs. His style is too soft and elegant.

Having said that, his CD is worth buying. His selections seem to focus on lost love, which may at the time have echoed his own personal story about which he writes in his very good autobiography.

Well done.

I am a huge Michael Crawford fan, and had been eying this CD for a while. When the chance came along to buy it at a reasonable price, I didn't hesitate to jump on it.

"The Phantom Unmasked" is Michael's very first album, recorded in 1987, but released in 1990 in the US and Canada. For those familiar with his later albums, you'll recognize many songs, but this CD is unique for the fact that it has 20 tracks instead of 12 present on the standard "Unmasked"; the version of "Music of the Night" isn't available on any other album; and that the additional track on the rare Canadian release, which is the one I own, "Over the Rainbow", which I never knew was ever recorded by him until now, is present here. While seven of these new tracks are instrumentals, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, and not vocal as I hoped they'd be, I am still glad Michael has chosen them. They are most likely songs that he enjoys himself, but had the musical foresight to realize that with his particular vocal style, they might be better left to the orchestra instead.

I was a bit surprised by the editing of the introductions on most of the tracks, but I suppose it was all in an effort to ensure that 20 tracks could be squeezed onto one disc. All in all, this is a fantastic album, and one that is long-overdue for a reissue.