Wearing Someone Else's Clothes

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The hippest of the new generation of Broadway composers, Jason Robert Brown breaks through with his first solo album, Wearing Someone Else's Clothes. Collecting songs written between 1996 and 2004, it's an eclectic mix of rock, gospel, funk, and jazz that won't surprise anyone familiar with his musicals, particularly his song cycle Songs for a New World. As a performer and a writer, Brown will draw the inevitable comparisons to Billy Joel's "angry young man" storytelling style (particularly with "Getting Out"), but he also seems to be picking up the baton from Stephen Schwartz, a well-known musical theater composer (Godspell, Wicked) who has had some success in the pianist-singer-songwriter realm. Brown and his band, the Caucasian Rhythm Kings, are frequent performers, and the numbers have a live excitement to them, often stretching out over five minutes. "Over" is a moving anti-war statement, and "Someone to Fall Back On" recalls the yearning passion of New World's "I'd Give It All for You." Guest artists include Lillias White, jazz guitarist Howard Alden, and a studio choir comprised of Brown's theater peers such as Rebecca Luker, Jessica Molaskey, Alice Ripley, and Matt Bogart. Wearing Someone Else's Clothes is an engaging and rewarding album, but that doesn't mean we can't still anxiously await Brown's next musical. --David Horiuchi

Tracks:

Someone Else's Clothes
Long Long Road
Someone To Fall Back On
Getting Out
Over
Music Of Heaven
Nothing In Common
I Could Be In Love With Someone Like You
I'm In Bizness
Coming Together
Grow Old With Me

Amazon.com

The hippest of the new generation of Broadway composers, Jason Robert Brown breaks through with his first solo album, Wearing Someone Else's Clothes. Collecting songs written between 1996 and 2004, it's an eclectic mix of rock, gospel, funk, and jazz that won't surprise anyone familiar with his musicals, particularly his song cycle Songs for a New World. As a performer and a writer, Brown will draw the inevitable comparisons to Billy Joel's "angry young man" storytelling style (particularly with "Getting Out"), but he also seems to be picking up the baton from Stephen Schwartz, a well-known musical theater composer (Godspell, Wicked) who has had some success in the pianist-singer-songwriter realm. Brown and his band, the Caucasian Rhythm Kings, are frequent performers, and the numbers have a live excitement to them, often stretching out over five minutes. "Over" is a moving anti-war statement, and "Someone to Fall Back On" recalls the yearning passion of New World's "I'd Give It All for You." Guest artists include Lillias White, jazz guitarist Howard Alden, and a studio choir comprised of Brown's theater peers such as Rebecca Luker, Jessica Molaskey, Alice Ripley, and Matt Bogart. Wearing Someone Else's Clothes is an engaging and rewarding album, but that doesn't mean we can't still anxiously await Brown's next musical. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews:

Maturing Composer.......2007-07-09

Mr. Brown is the future of the American Musical. Each of his songs are like novelettes filled with rich specific detail. The range of his talent are exhibited here--from gospel to the 'big band' sound of Sinatra, with every stop along the way covered.

Good Stuff.......2007-05-19

Definitely is good stuff. Great voice. Diverse and wonderful. Check out Someone to Fall Back On.

This may be the beginning of an obsession..........2007-03-09

I liked Jason Robert Brown before (I knew his musicals and one or two of his many names), but I love him now. Here is someone working in the world of musical theatre who is doing it right. To new listeners - be warned that it takes a few times listening through a song to begin to appreciate it - I've found that I, at least, get easily bored with songs I like right away, so consider this a good thing. To old hats, if you loved one of his shows, you'll love this. No question. So, Wearing Someone Else's Clothes. There is some absolutely incredible stuff on this CD. Take for instance the title song, a funked-out tale of a common problem - what do you do when society doesn't like you as you are? Wear someone else's clothes, of course! This falsely cheerful song doesn't preach against this occurrence, as I think a lesser writer would have done, but gets his character in deep - "anyone can be a bland infatuated sellout," he says, but amends "I think you are gonna be impressed" (at how far he takes it). It feels good fitting in ("it's been highly recommended that I smile"), but if it's not who you are it does feel like someone else's life. Very clever.

Then there's the beautiful "Someone to Fall Back On" which I guess in one of his oldest songs on the album. Much like the last number I described (and many others on this CD), it tells of an insecure man who is unsure of what he has to offer the world - this time the woman he loves. As he lays out his faults and insists that having someone to come home to is a greater joy than a fast and furious flame, his assertions grow stronger until he becomes all the things he insisted he wasn't. Also - this song contains some of the best lyrical moments on the CD ("I've been alone, I'd rather be...the half of us, the least of you, the best of me").

"Over" is a beautiful ballad of an ugly subject, the narrative of a soldier recently killed in war, flying over the world as he leaves it. It pokes at patriotism but treats the human elements of war with much sympathy. "Nothing in Common" took me a few more listenings (I was distracted the first several times, so I missed important lyrics) - it's yet another beautiful song, this time about JRB and his relationship with his brother, beginning with the boy he knew several years back that lived in his house and looked like his mother and going through the different people that this constant in his life became as they grew up. "I Could Be in Love with Someone Like You," as I said, is the superior version of The Last Five Years' song (there was a lawsuit of sorts, so really he couldn't use it). This song is riddled with wonderful jokes, lines that jump out and surprise you, and a couple wonderfully driving moments that are very exciting and musically powerful.

Lastly, another fantastic song is the final, very jazzy "Grow Old With Me," in which he's finally offering himself as all he is and all that he'll become. Written very much in the style of cheesy-broadway love-me-forever songs, it includes lines like, "grow old with me, baby lets fossilize," and "don't leave me cold, don't leave me rusted and crusted with mold." It's adorable and it's funny in the same way as the Beatle's "When I'm Sixty-Four."

So, if you have any interest in musical-type numbers and aren't afraid of songs that tell a meaningful story that you have to work a little bit to uncover, then you will love this album. This isn't music to have quietly playing in the background - it's stick-it-in-your-ears-and-let-the-rest-of-the-world-slide-away stuff. You won't be sorry.

Watch this space!.......2007-01-05

Jason Robert Brown is an amazing writer/talent. His ideas are creative and easy to listen to, so I can't understand why he isn't all over Broadway. I predict great things for him, especially after this album gets the notice it deserves.

YOU WILL BE GLAD YOU BOUGHT THIS!!!.......2006-11-30

This album is proof that Jason Robert Brown is a musician's musician, and that he has mastered many different forms of popular music. Each of these 11 songs could stand on their own as a brilliant song, and none of these have the same style or feel as another.
Brown's pure talent shines through this album, and there are several moments that are just so beautiful that I just get chills listening to them. Every lyric and harmony has been precisely placed, and the music always fits the idea of the song very naturally. There are some amazing performance moments on this album; Brown is an incredible pianist and singer in addition to his composing and arranging talents.
This is probably the album that I listen to more than any other, and I would recommend it to anyone. It is packed with amazing musicality.
Don't listen to this while trying to get work done; these songs will steal your attention and keep it for the whole duration of the CD.

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