cast album reviews

A place for me to log the cast albums I've listened to this year

[romeoesjulia]

Rómeó és Júlia 2004

The absolute chokehold this show had on me in high school is insane. I literally almost tried learning Hungarian because that’s how obsessed I was with this album. Before I found a copy of the cast album online, I was literally ripping short clips of the song off of YouTube just to get my fix. I know there are other versions of the show, but this version is objectively the superior version. It’s literally the name of this account. The songs are so intense and obviously I like some more than others, but it’s just so good. 

Favorite Song: Lehetsz király

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[romeoesjulia]

Starship 2011

Speaking of my Starkid phase, Starship was one of my favorites for a bit, but looking back, while it’s exciting to listen to, the vocal performances are... not great. Super fun to hear, but also very grating on the ears. Starkid was my personality for a while, with Starship being one of my faves, but the fact that they made it this big with this singing is very surprising. 

Favorite Song: The Way I Do

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

[romeoesjulia]

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog 2008

I first listened to this when I was a sophomore in high school, deeply intrenched in my Starkid phase, when a friend of mine recommended this, sparking a brief, but intense obsession. The show itself isn’t excellent, but it did make me cry. The songs are catchy and while some of them aren’t particularly memorable, the ones that are have been stuck in my head for years. As a Nathan Fillion stan from watching Castle at a formative age, this show, while not perfect, is immensely fun and has some interesting questions about morality and such.

Favorite Song: Brand New Day

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

[romeoesjulia]

Rope: Fibers 2020

I couldn’t care less about most of this album, but I love the final song so much. It’s sounds so joyful that you can’t help but have fun listening to it. The rest of the album, on the other hand, is utterly forgettable. I think I might have an internalized bias against these short albums, but it was just meh. 

Favorite Song: I Go on with You

Rating: ⭐⭐

[romeoesjulia]

We Foxes 2015

Truly did not vibe with this one. The whole thing felt utterly unremarkable (with the exception of maybe one song), but I just didn’t quite get the plot, which is fine from an album this short, but the songs themselves weren’t standouts outside of the story. 

Favorite Song: Ruination

Rating: ⭐⭐

[romeoesjulia]

Past Demons 2022

I liked the first three songs significantly more than the last two. It was a solid album, though nothing spectacular, and I thought it complemented Future Demons rather nicely. It’s a spooky anthology, but not one I will be revisiting often. If you liked Future Demons, though, you’ll definitely like this one as well.

Favorite Song: The Real Me

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

[romeoesjulia]

Future Demons 2020

I remembered liking this one more than I did. It’s really interesting and I love how well each song actually conveys a story, but sonically, I don’t love them all. Ryan Scott Oliver is usually kind of hit or miss with me, and this album was a mix of both. Still, though, it’s such an interesting concept album to base them all on Shirley Jackson works. 

Favorite Song: The Story We Used to Tell

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

[romeoesjulia]

Descent: A Murder Ballad 2019

I saw Descent was a shorter album so I decided to give it a listen this morning and I could not get into the first half, but I was kind of digging the latter half. I’m not totally sure what the show was about since I couldn’t really find anything online that was a fully synopsis, but it had a very small-town American feel. Not my favorite, but definitely not a waste of 15 minutes either.

Favorite Song: Descent

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

[romeoesjulia]

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson 2010

Yet another show I accidentally stumbled upon (this time I had been searching for history based musicals during my Hamilton phase) and this one took a bit to grow on me. I listened to it the first time as a joke, sent it to my friend, but we both listened to it as a joke just a smidge too much and now it’s legitimately a favorite of mine. The songs are all fun to listen to and I even auditioned for my school musical with one of them. I would argue this is one of the most underrated musicals that I enjoy.

Favorite Song: Rock Star

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[romeoesjulia]

Here Lies Love 2013

Literally one of the best cast recordings of all time. I don’t know what it is about this one but I have been obsessed with it since I first gave it a listen. It’s a moderately obscure one so I always feel kind of cool listening to it, but I genuinely love it so much. The songs are catchy, the performances are phenomenal, and honestly the plot is super interesting. I’ve tried to listen to the concept album before, but I just love the cohesiveness of this one. It’s so hard to pick just one favorite since the songs are all so fun to listen to, even the ones that almost make me cry.

Favorite Song: A Perfect Hand

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[romeoesjulia]

Alice The Musical 2018

I discovered this musical accidentally back in 2016 and despite it being truly not great, I totally love it. I think I prefer the older recording just a bit, but the audio sounds a lot cleaner in this one. The songs are super goofy and the singing isn’t great, but it’s just fun to listen to. There are multiple songs on this album that I listen to semi-regularly. The Megamix always hits at the end.

Favorite Song: Tea for All!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

[romeoesjulia]

Which Witch 1993

I thought I was going to like this way more than I did since Eternally has been on my playlists ever since my teenaged-self tried to have a Norwegian musical theater phase, but this was just not good. Considering the fact that it was a whopping 46 songs long, I would’ve expected more than 3 of them to be even sort of worth listening to again, but alas, I was wrong. I also (wrongly) assumed that after 2 hours I would know what the plot was about but all I picked up was something about wanting to be a German pope and Maria was a witch. Not the worst thing I’ve ever heard, but this will not be a show I will be revisiting. 

Favorite Song: Eternally

Rating: ⭐⭐

[romeoesjulia]

Fancy Nancy 2013

This was so bad. Truly not even one redeeming moment. I loved the Fancy Nancy books as a kid but boy was this a horrible cast recording. No idea what was going on and the voices were wildly grating. Do not listen to this if you have any love for yourself. 

Favorite Song: Shark Rap

Rating: ⭐

[romeoesjulia]

Goosebumps: Phantom of the Auditorium 2021

It started out strong, but the rest of the album just sounded like the same thing over and over again. While I read the synopsis, I figured out the twist the second the characters name was mentioned. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be for children or not since the cast is pretty familiar to me, but the content was so very juvenile in a frustrating way. Not a fan. 2022 is starting off rough for me this year. 

Favorite Song: Goosebumps

Rating: ⭐⭐

[romeoesjulia]

Hex 2021

I saw this on r/castrecordings and decided to give it a listen and boy was I disappointed. I really did not vibe with this recording. It felt like it had been done a thousand times before and it was painfully British at times (and this is coming from someone who is usually a huge Rosalie Craig fan). The writing was mediocre, the performances weren’t spectacular, and it was just meh overall. I didn’t hate it and definitely found myself dancing along in my chair a few times, but I just didn’t like it. 

Favorite Song: Sixteen

Rating: ⭐⭐