Despite all the hoopla that surrounded her arduous
vocal training for the role of Eva Peron, Madonna was never really
that bad a vocalist. Pop critics tend to think “range” is how many
octaves the singer can yell out in tune, not range of emotions.
While Madonna may not send you into multiple aural orgasms, she’s
given some pretty convincing vocal performances ranging from “Crazy
For You” to the Bedtime Stories album, all before hitting
those obligatory high notes in “A New Argentina.”
No, Madonna is not the problem.
The problem here is the feel of the production, which
feels rushed and subdued (rather like the movie). The beginning
melange is breakneck, “Oh What A Circus” managing only to convey,
in its rapid-fire backstory delivery, that Antonio Banderas is
angry. It would’ve been much better to do the Star Wars “In a
galaxy far, far away” thing. The same problem plagues every song
that either attempts to explain some kind of political history or
rush the plot along, such as “Peron’s Latest Flame,” “Rainbow
High,” “And The Money Kept Rolling In,” and “Waltz For Eva And
Che.” These songs are no more than information dumps, and what’s
scary is that this is the condensed version of the soundtrack; I
distinctly remember way more stuff being thrown at me by the
movie.
Antonio Banderas is very good at rage, but not as
good at anything else (lack of “range,” shall we say); his Che
Guevara sounds repetitious after the cathartic rant in “Oh What a
Circus.” Jonathan Pryce isn’t much better, hitting his notes but
not much else.
Madonna carries the album. She’s nothing without
ambition, and presents two different aspects of it (this is a film
about Eva Peron, after all) with the naive energy of “Buenos Aires”
and the gritty determination of “A New Argentina.” She sounds sweet
in songs like the inviting “I’d Be Surprisingly Good for You” and
the vulnerable “Another Suitcase In Another Hall,” but of course
it’s in “You Must Love Me” where she breaks hearts, both vocally
and on screen. It’s too bad the Oscar for Best Song goes only to
the songwriters, or else Madonna would’ve won this award… twice.
(“Sooner or Later,” 1990.)
A curious failure is “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,”
anticlimactic in both movie and song; she knew this, and had it
remixed into a campy dance success. Its thematic reprise in “Eva’s
Final Broadcast” is much more effective.
