GREAT SONGS FROM STAGE & SCREEN – Seth MacFarlane (Republic/Verve Records)
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
This is Seth MacFarlane’s sixth album and this time he is covering songs from stage and screen – not so sure about the ‘great’ in the title though. The collection includes ballads and up-tempo tracks which, I have to admit, have orchestrations by Bruce Broughton that are as lush as anything Nelson Riddle used to attain for Frank Sinatra.
The track listing is as follows: Once Upon A Dream, I Loved You Once In Silence, Let’s Not Be Sensible, Ten Minutes Ago, Ain’t Got A Dime To My Name (Ho Ho Ho Ho Hum), Love Is Only Love, What Did I Have That I Don’t Have?, ‘Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are’, Two For The Road, All Er Nothin’, You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To, Mind If I Make Love To You and Time For Parting.
Seth MacFarlane isn’t the finest singer in the world but he knows how to sell the more uptempo numbers. Where he comes a little adrift is on the ‘tender ballads’. It is on these tracks that you hear the lack of control the singer has for sustaining a musical line. But on the bright side, it is really only on three of the tracks that this is noticeable: two, six and 11. Otherwise, he gives the swing arrangements a good run for their money.
The group of musicians that have been gathered for this album are exemplary. The production is superb and, as mentioned already, the arrangements are fantastic, courtesy of Broughton.
The album will be a big seller just on Seth MacFarlane’s name and I am sure there will be a lot of CDs making their way to Christmas stockings around the globe!
Nick Wakeham
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