Various Artists – Chicago: Music From The Miramax Motion Picture (2002) MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Chicago: Music From the Miramax Motion Picture is a soundtrack album featuring all of the original songs of the 2002 Best Picture Academy Award-winning musical film Chicago starring Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah, Richard Gere, John C. Reilly, Mýa Harrison and Christine Baranski.

The movie version of Kander and Ebb’s Chicago was long in the making, but it’s well worth the wait. Director Rob Marshall’s main change was to turn the classic musical numbers into fantasy sequences, but of course this isn’t obvious on CD. Most importantly, the arrangements are bursting with life while being true to the show’s spirit, and the casting is simply inspired. Catherine Zeta-Jones actually started her career on the British boards (she was in The Pajama Game and 42nd Street), so her turn as slinky Velma Kelly isn’t that surprising; Renée Zellweger as Roxie Hart is more of a leftfield choice, but she shows she can handle the singing demands with pizzazz. The real revelation may well be rapper Queen Latifah, who belts out “When You’re Good to Mama” with a marvelous affinity for the material. OK, so the R&B reprise of “Cell Block Tango/He Had It Coming” by Queen Latifah, Macy Gray, and Lil’ Kim fails to convince, while Anastacia’s “Love Is a Crime” is just blah (rest easy, purists, it’s over the end credits). On the other hand, the CD provides two bonuses: “Class,” which was cut from the movie, and “I Move On,” a great duet written by Kander and Ebb for the final cut. It’s really easy to mess up film adaptations of Broadway shows. Happily, Chicago proves it can be done right.

Tracklist:

01. Overture/And All That Jazz
02. Funny Honey
03. When You’re Good To Mama
04. Cell Block Tango
05. All I Care About
06. We Both Reached For The Gun
07. Roxie
08. I Can’t Do It Alone
09. Mister Cellophane
10. Razzle Dazzle
11. Class
12. Nowadays
13. Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag
14. I Move On
15. After Midnight
16. Roxie’s Suite
17. Cell Block Tango
18. Love Is A Crime