On April 28th, Josh Groban will release his 7th studio album and this is one he has wanted to do since he was a freshman at Carnegie Mellon. This record is tribute to the many great songs from the musicals he grew up with as a kid and some he is not as familiar with. After listening to two of the tracks from the upcoming CD, you can tell his voice is made to make these songs even more special.
I am very particular about Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory because I don’t think anyone can do it as well as Gene Wilder. I think that Groban came pretty gosh darn close. The control he has over his powerful voice is mind blowing to me. What is also mind blowing to me about his voice is that I can’t believe it is coming out of the same man I follow on Twitter, talk about night and day.
The other track I heard off the album is What I Did For Love from A Chorus Line. I can picture Groban in the show on Broadway and him bringing down the curtain with that performance. Close your eyes and picture him closing the show with that number. Just forget that it is a woman singing it in the original version of the Broadway show and the movie.
Another song I can’t wait to hear him do, is another female melody and it is Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz. In the Stages’ trailer you hear just a snippet of it, and he really lowered his voice to bring out the true emotion of the song just like Judy Garland did.
April 28th can’t come soon enough for me because Stages is going to be one of the few albums I will have the entire record on repeat. Josh Groban singing the songs from musicals, equals an album the Grammy voters will have a hard time ignoring.
I say that he will break more than a few legs with his album. Bravo sir, bravo!
To hear What I Did For Love and to see the tracklisting from Stages, then
