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(More customer reviews)Famous for creating the role of bisexual performance artist Maureen Johnson in "Rent" as well as for her Tony Award winning triumph in "Wicked," Idina Menzel has been principally known as a performer of the stage and screen. However, she has been active as a singer/songwriter since those early "Rent" days and has three albums of her own material. "I Stand," however, provides her first real chance of gaining vast exposure as a solo artist. The album debuted at #58 on the Billboard top 200 albums chart.
Those who cherish Menzel for her glass-shattering vocal range will find much to appreciate here with the chugging, widescreen title track, replete with powerful lyrics and a life-affirming message, or "Better To Have Loved," a passionate ode to lack of regret in an unpredictable world. Producer and co-writer Glen Ballard, best known for helping Alanis Morissette unleash her inner warrior woman on 1995's landmark "Jagged Little Pill," however, hands Menzel a double-edged sword - her sound here is sweetened and ripe for mainstream audiences, but some of her unique, quirky personality that informed 1998's "Still I Can't Be Still" and 2004's lo-fi "Here" EP is lost in the shuffle. Granted, the former album had some oddball lyrics and embarrassingly dated production for a late '90s effort, but Menzel sounded like herself and no one else. Nevertheless, that album made no dent in the marketplace, so it's hard to fault Ballard for helping Menzel channel her creativity in a more marketable fashion, and the results, if not revolutionary, are rich, vibrant and entertaining.
"Gorgeous" yields a joyous, effervescent melody and pearls of wisdom in its philosophic sentiments, and "Brave," like the title track, is wholly inspiring without stooping to hackneyed, maudlin sentiments. James Blunt contributes the stirring "Don't Let Me Down," while the bittersweet "Forever," by far one of the album's strongest moments, was written entirely by Menzel. She also digs deep to unearth inner torment in the haunting "My Own Worst Enemy."
With "I Stand" Menzel succeeds in proving she is just as viable a singer/songwriter as musical performer. It's not every day that someone with such a dynamic vocal talent is also a gifted writer, making the results particularly impressive. Admirers of her stage work will agree.
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Amazon.com Already a star on Broadway, the charismatic Idina Menzel ("Rent," "Wicked") is ready to star on album. To make that happen, she has enlisted the man responsible for launching, or continuing the phenomenal careers of other recent major female artists. Glen Ballard, best known for Alanis Morissette’s 16-times-platinum Jagged Little Pill and who has worked with Shakira, Christina Aguilera, Annie Lennox and Celine Dion, produced and co-wrote all but one of the songs on I Stand with Menzel.
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