Customer Reviews

Rent: Hits You Can Sing!

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

 

 

This cd was disapointing. Music Minus One (another company) sells a 2-cd rent karaoke style set which while still missing songs has truer arrangements and better guide singers. also the guide vocals can be selectively muted on their disc-- facilitating a duet between your voice and the other singer. This disc's vocals are ok, but give a kind of "community theater does rent" feel to the album. Not my first choice.

As a true blue Renthead, this is right up my alley. While trying to pluck out "One Song, Glory" on my guitar, I prayed that the powers that be would make it easier on me... and here's the answer. Face it, who can resist belting out their own rendition of "Out Tonight"? (Ouch, those high notes kill!) Who would not love to jump into Mark Cohen or Roger Davis' shoes? Now we can (and save insulting the vocals on the OBC Rent recording!). This is a great CD, a must have for every Renthead!

I absolutely LOVE Rent, so when I saw this kareoke cd, I HAD to have it, but i was brutally dissappointed when I found out it didn't contain my favorite song, "Will You Light My Candle" the duet between Roger and Mimi! UGH!

I guess I like the concept being a Filipina hailing an avid karaeoke family, but it does seem a little commercial to me. It would be a good compilation except that it's missing "Light My Candle." It's a great buy if you're an avid RENT fan, but if you're new to the RENT phenom, start with something else.

OK - i am a big RENT fan, and i have seen the play several times. I have the CD, and i love to listen to it, but this kareoke cd is great because you can get a friend and sing along with both parts. i haghly reccommend it for anybody that likes RENT as much as i do.

This album has a nice, rock groove with amazing vocalists. The live guitar and musicians make this one of the best karaoke albums I've ever heard. A great addition to your Broadway collection.

RENT songs are always fun to sing along to. Yet, somehow, a karaoke RENT seems almost... strange. One imagines all the music to be synthesized and all the vocals to sound about thirty years older than the people in RENT. Thankfully, though, this karaoke CD has hired singers who sound almost perfect for the roles they're playing, raw, edgy; not exactly the prettiest voices but the most fitting. The backgrounds seem like they're fairly accurate and- in fact- have a harder rock sound than the ones in the original Broadway cast. All-in-all, if you like to sing along to RENT, this is a good choice to make.

I ordered this CD because we're about to audition a production of RENT, and I thought it might be nice for the musical director to be able to watch callbacks from out front of the house, and not from behind a piano. I thought that the karaoke tracks would help us to do that.
I was extremely disappointed with a lot of things on this CD. To begin with, the arrangements are clearly not taken from the licensed score. There are incorrect chords and transitions all over the place. There are also some odd mistakes, including some badly played instruments. So the karaoke tracks aren't really usable, especially if you're used to the original cast recording. The first half of the recording does have singers, but the quality of their performances is uneven at best. I know that this isn't the cast of the show, and I didn't expect it to be. But that's where I think some of the problems arise. The singers are trying to copy the original cast's style, rather than bringing their own talents to the recording. So some of it sounds like poor imitation. Some of it, however, is just plain bad. Singers singing flat, or with no intonation or interpretation. The "romantic ballads", like "I'll Cover You" are harsh, both in instrumentation and vocals. Every word is clipped, and each phrase is given equal emphasis. RENT is a theatre piece and needs some acting to go along with the singing. Where is the "story"? Where are the relationships? The biggest gaffes come in what might be one of the more straightforward songs- "Take Me of Leave Me". The two women seem to be having a difficult time with hitting high notes, getting the phrasing to make sense, and establishing the tension of the number. "Maureen" goes into a growl when she can't get a note; maybe it's supposed to convey character. But it just points out the places where her voice can't hit it. And there is an obvious attempt to make it sound like Idina Menzel's original Maureen. But Menzel is so unique in vocal quality and song delivery. Why try to copy that? (The video of the closing night performance of the Broadway show has Eden Espinosa as Maureen. She has some of the same qualities as Menzel, but gives the character her own spin, without diminishing Maureen's quirky aggressiveness.
Considering that this recording was not much less expensive than buying the original (or even the mediocre movie soundtrack), it's not really worth it, especially since the karoake tracks are so poor. So maybe our musical director will just need to watch from the piano.

i was incredibly happy about buying this product, i will be using it in my schools talent show this year, and its nice to have the songs already recorded without lyrics rather than to take time to teach yourself all the parts and then record it yourself.

This CD is an utter dissapointment, and definitely not worth the money I paid for it. I played it once, and was horrified at the "cast" and unhappy with the orchestrations. What's more, leaving off 'Light My Candle', 'Tango Maureen' was truly a stupid idea.
Do yourself a favour, keep looking and find the other Karaoke CD... it's hard to locate (indeed, I am still trying) but it is much better than this. It's even more expensive, but truly... worth it.