{"id":39650,"date":"2006-02-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/evita-music-from-the-motion-picture\/"},"modified":"2006-02-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-17T00:00:00","slug":"evita-music-from-the-motion-picture","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/evita-music-from-the-motion-picture\/","title":{"rendered":"Evita: Music From The Motion Picture"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Despite all the hoopla that surrounded her arduous
\nvocal training for the role of Eva Peron, Madonna was never really
\nthat bad a vocalist. Pop critics tend to think “range” is how many
\noctaves the singer can yell out in tune, not range of emotions.
\nWhile Madonna may not send you into multiple aural orgasms, she’s
\ngiven some pretty convincing vocal performances ranging from “Crazy
\nFor You” to the Bedtime Stories<\/i> album, all before hitting
\nthose obligatory high notes in “A New Argentina.”<\/p>\n

No, Madonna is not the problem.<\/p>\n

The problem here is the feel of the production, which
\nfeels rushed and subdued (rather like the movie). The beginning
\nmelange is breakneck, “Oh What A Circus” managing only to convey,
\nin its rapid-fire backstory delivery, that Antonio Banderas is
\nangry. It would’ve been much better to do the Star Wars “In a
\ngalaxy far, far away” thing. The same problem plagues every song
\nthat either attempts to explain some kind of political history or
\nrush the plot along, such as “Peron’s Latest Flame,” “Rainbow
\nHigh,” “And The Money Kept Rolling In,” and “Waltz For Eva And
\nChe.” These songs are no more than information dumps, and what’s
\nscary is that this is the condensed version of the soundtrack; I
\ndistinctly remember way more stuff being thrown at me by the
\nmovie.<\/p>\n

Antonio Banderas is very good at rage, but not as
\ngood at anything else (lack of “range,” shall we say); his Che
\nGuevara sounds repetitious after the cathartic rant in “Oh What a
\nCircus.” Jonathan Pryce isn’t much better, hitting his notes but
\nnot much else.<\/p>\n

Madonna carries the album. She’s nothing without
\nambition, and presents two different aspects of it (this is a film
\nabout Eva Peron, after all) with the naive energy of “Buenos Aires”
\nand the gritty determination of “A New Argentina.” She sounds sweet
\nin songs like the inviting “I’d Be Surprisingly Good for You” and
\nthe vulnerable “Another Suitcase In Another Hall,” but of course
\nit’s in “You Must Love Me” where she breaks hearts, both vocally
\nand on screen. It’s too bad the Oscar for Best Song goes only to
\nthe songwriters, or else Madonna would’ve won this award… twice.
\n(“Sooner or Later,” 1990.)<\/p>\n

A curious failure is “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,”
\nanticlimactic in both movie and song; she knew this, and had it
\nremixed into a campy dance success. Its thematic reprise in “Eva’s
\nFinal Broadcast” is much more effective.<\/p>\n<\/review><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":28233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6722],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-39650","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-original-soundtrack","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39650"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}