Les Misérables: Highlights From The Motion Picture Soundtrack [Soundtrack]

I never imagined that I would write anything less than a glowing review of this album, but I'm afraid I must do just that. I understand that this is a "highlights" album, but how on earth is "Do You Hear the People Sing" not a highlight?

As for the music that is present, it's good, but it's hard for me to hear the songs being "acted" rather than sung. I'm sure this will make for a fantastic film, but it doesn't make for an amazing listening experience. I never expected for Jackman to equal Colm Wilkinson or Crowe to equal Philip Quast, yet I still feel disappointed. (As a sidenote, Eddie Redmayne has exceeded my expectations, Samantha Barks is as wonderful as I hoped, and I was thrilled to hear Wilkinson as the Bishop.)

A highlights album will inevitably leave out someone's favorite song, and I'd recommend you check the track list before deciding to purchase this album to make sure your favorite song is included--I sure wish I'd done that! Surely they'll release a complete cast recording at some point that will make everyone happy. Until then, I'll keep listening to my favorite Les Mis recording, Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert.

Quite simply, if you are a fan of LES MIS (the original show or the movie for that matter), this recording is woefully truncated. Even as a "highlights" recording, it's a scant 60 minutes that leaves out another 100 minutes of the film. Worth a few listens, but I hope that a complete recording will be released.

Still have tears in my eyes after replaying the Epilogue for the second time (yes, I was a dork and did the Mis March step...). It is RAW, especially Jackman throughout and Hathaway is so heavenly in the final scene (no, it blesses your soul, like God is saying, "You are worthy").

Jackman's voice is very, very, very unique. It will be hard for the Wilkinson and other Jean Valjean fans to accept his quality, I think. BUT, again I will use the word, RAW! It has an emotion that is real time REAL. It is an adjustment from the recordings we've been listening to for years. But give it its due. And then wait the three days to see the VISUALS!!!!!

Crowe, Baron Cohen, Banks, Seyfried,Bonham Carter are not the Broadway cast. Still they take this musical to the street level, as in, if I were to start singing about my life to Sonoko, the nice lady two houses down. In spite of my usual dislike of Bonham Carter, she spins a new turn, as does Cohen, which is refreshing after 25+ yrs. and let's be honest, a hard thing to do.

Sorry, but I don't think Suddenly adds anything. Personally, I think it was included as a song tailored to Jackman's vocal quality and perhaps to really dispurse any question that he took in Cosette for an honorable reason and he benifits from that generous gesture. Not a great song. Will give Jackman credit for making it sound like the way my son looks when he holds his three month old first child, first daugher. It has a quality of amazement, which is appropriate.

Hummmmmmmmmmmmm, Crowe's Stars is sooo very, very different from other interpretations I've heard, live or recorded. It is more lyrical, small, than any other version. I listened to it struggling to see if it fit the song. Still out on, that waiting on the visuals, but I love that this film seems to take a VERY VERY established piece and breath some new life into it.

The cafe' scene and Red/Black as you would anticipate: young men,it's well done.

In My Life/Heart Full of Love???? Has never been my fav part... Seyfried is reedy, but I know when I just sing lines to people, I don't sound perfect. Banks is breath taking!! And final trio harmony of this song makes me close my eyes and breath deep like I'm smelling an amazing perfume.

On My Own is in my top three for this musical. It has a LONG association with men I've loved and not told. That being said, this is how I would intrepret this song. Best performance of it. And I love me some Miss Lea...

It's worth the money to buy this and I will surely invest in a full length recording (hint, please).

It's the music and lyrics we love, NOT staged in the perfection of a recording studio, but sung outside our front doors. And, no matter what, you know these lyrics, you know these songs, and they are as needed today as they were in '85 when it hit the world. I think there is some poignancy to the timing of the release. It is a time to hear the people sing and hear the distant drum... there has to be change. This IS the epic all the critics predict, it will be the diehard Les Mis fans that could kill it. This is the flash mob Les Mis. Takin' it to the streets which is where it is set.

Four stars because the recording is muddy and low. Had to have my volume cranked about twice the normal level I usually set it at, and it was still quiet and muddy. I am a snob about ending your phrases.

Addendum: Had not listened to "I Dreamed a Dream" totally because I don't really like the song. Finally listened to Miss Hathaway sing it.... no wonder she got the Golden Globe nob. Mindblowing... strains of Castle on a Cloud playing now... what strickes me about this recording is how it makes life a musical... it sounds like people are just extending their normal conversation. That is what a musical's lyric SHOULD do.