FACE TO FACE – Hayden Tee (Broadway Records)
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Hayden Tee is releasing his new album on 8 November this year and it is a stunner. It is a collection of songs from roles he has either played or would love to do so and that love of the songs and characters stands out brilliantly. So, when he is quoted as saying: “It has taken me almost 40 years to really settle into who I am. This album has taken over three years to complete and it is unashamedly me, the songs I always wanted, the instruments I always wanted (all 63 of them) and the look and images I feel represent me. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I have enjoyed creating it,” you can understand just how powerful this album is going to be.
Tracks include: ‘Stars’ (Les Miserables); ‘I Don’t Care Much/So What’ (Cabaret); ‘Lily’s Eyes’ (The Secret Garden); ‘Empty Chairs at Empty Tables’ (Les Miserables); ‘Till I Hear You Sing’ (Love Never Dies); ‘It All Fades Away’ (The Bridges of Madison County); ‘Molasses to Rum’ (1776); ‘The Smell of Rebellion’ (Matilda the Musical); ‘How Glory Goes’ (Floyd Collins).
As you can see, apart from a couple of tracks, this is not your usual ‘hits from the musicals’ and that makes it all the more appealing. I mean, how many times can you listen to ‘Music of the Night’ or ‘Oklahoma!’ without throwing the CD player out the window? It’s impossible to chose any of the tracks above the rest but the final track ‘How Glory Goes’ is actually dedicated to his nana who died during the making of this album and to whom he was very close. You can tell how much this song means to him by the emotion in his voice.
A powerful album that is going to be in thousands of musical theatre collections before the year is out – of that I am sure.
Nick Wakeham
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.