Chicago - Original Soundtrack

...grandmother has been to see Chicago at the theatre on numerous occasions, but I'd always been in the worng place at the wrong time, or a little too young to see it. Which is why I couldn't wait for the film to come out.

I love musicals, always have and probably always will.And at the moment this has become one of my favourites, so naturally the soundtrack has done so as well. My grandmother has said that it is nothing compared to that ...
...it I am not of that opinion. Yet.

Track Listings:

1. Overture/ And all that Jazz - Catherine Zeta-Jones and Chorus
2. Funny Honey - Renee Zellwegger
3. When You're Good to Mama - Queen Latifah
4. Cell Block Tango - Catherine Zeta-Jones, Susan Misner, Deidre Goodwin
5. All I Care About - Richard Gere, Female Chorus & Cell Block Girls
6. We Both Reached For the Gun - Richard Gere, Renee ... more

My grandmother has been to see Chicago at the theatre on numerous occasions, but I'd always been in the worng place at the wrong time, or a little too young to see it. Which is why I couldn't wait for the film to come out.

I love musicals, always have and probably always will.And at the moment this has become one of my favourites, so naturally the soundtrack has done so as well. My grandmother has said that it is nothing compared to that of the stage show.....but seeing as i have never seen it I am not of that opinion. Yet.

Track Listings:

1. Overture/ And all that Jazz - Catherine Zeta-Jones and Chorus
2. Funny Honey - Renee Zellwegger
3. When You're Good to Mama - Queen Latifah
4. Cell Block Tango - Catherine Zeta-Jones, Susan Misner, Deidre Goodwin
5. All I Care About - Richard Gere, Female Chorus & Cell Block Girls
6. We Both Reached For the Gun - Richard Gere, Renee Zellweger
7. Roxie - Renee Zellweger, Male Chorus
8. I Can't Do It Alone - Catherine Zeta-Jones, Taye Diggs
9. Mister Cellophane - John C. Reilly
10. Razzle Dazzle - Richard Gere, Female Chorus
11. Class* - Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah
12. Nowadays (Roxie) - Renee Zellweger, Taye Diggs
13. Nowadays/ Hot Honey Rag - Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones
14. I Move On - Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger
15. After Midnight - Danny Elfman
16. Roxie's Suite - Danny Elfman
17.Cell Block Tango (He Had it Comin')* - Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim feat. Macy Gray
18.Love is a Crime* - Anastacia

*not featured in the film.

Throughout the film and most of the songs Catherine Zeta-Jones is the clear star and it is obvious that not only has she been to stage school, but also that she has performed in the theatre. She has an incredibley powerful, but rich sounding voice. Renee Zelwegger is slightly weaker, but in fairness to her she did learn to sing and dance for the part and definitely holds her own.

There were only 2 songs on this album that I really didn't like. Love is a Crime, by Anastacia and Cell Block Tango (He Had it Comin') by Queen Latifah and Lil' Kim. They are not featured in the movie itself (well maybe over the credits) and don't really seem to fit with the style of the film let alone the rest of the music. I mean after an entire musical of jazzy music no-one really wants to hear Queen Latifah rapping and ruining one of the best songs on the CD, by doing her own version of it, especailly after she was so good singing When You're Good To Mama.

My favourites have to be And All That Jazz, When You're Good to Mama, Razzle Dazzle and Cell Block Tango.
I probably like And All That Jazz just because it is the first song and it starts to set the scene, the whole soundtrack has a fairly brassy feel to it, but this song has more so than the others, this is no doubt due to the overture before the words kick in.
Queen Latfiah is fanatastic in When You're Good to Mama, she just belts it out, and its nice to see that she can actually sing even though she spends most of her time rapping.
Cell Block Tango is brilliant. Not only are there some really good lines within the song (which is a bout how the girls are not actually murderers)....such as... 'and then he ran into my knife, he ran into my knife 10 times.' and ' you know some guys just can't hold their arsenic'. As well as this I think the way in which the song builds is quite clever and it has various layers of singing.

Class is only a song that I have discovered recently, possibly due to the fact that its not in the actual film, but at the moment the more I'm listening to it the more I like it. It's a clever song in which Cartherine Zeta -Jones and Queen Latifah pick apart society, when they themselves are not exactly prime examples of classy people!!

I can't actually place I Move On anywhere in the film at the moment (it just started playing through my headphones....didn't really regognise it at all....shows you how much I flick between songs!!) still a good song though.

Even if you have seen the film, you may not like the soundtrack without the visual extravaganza that is the film, and it probably is a good idea to see the film beforehand so that you might have some idea about what is going on, but I wouldn't say it were neccessary.

Whatever the case I would highly reccommend it , but I know it might not be to everyone's taste.

 

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