Jim Steinman, Pandora's Box - Original Sin

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Free Music Notes for Original Sin

Free Music Review: The Master of Hyperbole Strikes Again
Hit: 5 Stars

This recording is brilliant. Hardly ground-breaking, but excrutiatingly enjoyable.

One of the few things I have to complain about is the order of some songs. Clearly, this is a materpiece which needs to be sequenced in a theatrical fashion. This isn't just a bunch of songs that "made" the album (I'd still love to hear the songs that didn't, if there were any!)...this is an entirely preconceived notion that Steinman understood from the very beginning. This is the rock opera of rock operas. But this isn't Dennis DeYoung and Styx announcing that Kilroy was here or that the Paradise Theater is about to be destroyed. No, no...this is much more inward. I absolutely guarantee you that at least one of the songs on Original Sin will speak for you. Not TO you...FOR you. Steinman has an uncanny talent for writing exactly what we feel. And he does so several times over on this record.

We've all heard Celine Dion's take on "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", and yes, she had the bigger hit with it. But you haven't heard it sung with the emotionally plaintive conviction that Jim intended it for. You get to here. The vocals on that track are almost overbearing - we fear the singer will actually keel over in the middle of the song (rumor has it, she actually did). Chalk another one up for Steinman.

Then there's "Good Girls Go to Heaven". Stellar vocals by Deliria Wilde (stellar name too) and a catchy, likeable beat. Probably the poppiest tune of the set.

"Safe Sex" is arguably the greatest power ballad ever written for its heart-wrenching lyrics and soul-stirring delivery. Gina Taylor is an extremely talented vocalist and she BECAME this song. It's nothing about the act of intercourse and everything about the emotional perils of love. Every young person needs to pay attention to this song. Trust me...it's like listening to yourself think. Absolutely brilliant Steinman piece.

Alas, the weaker tracks are only the ones Jim didn't write...a cover of The Doors' 20th Century Fox comes to mind. Steinman's own spoken-word interludes are fabulously eccentric.

So even if Steinman didn't have a particular plot in mind with which to string these chef d'oeuvres together, I would have preferred that "Prey Lewd", a jaw-dropping mini piano concerto featuring snippets of all the songs on the album, be at the beginning, before "The Invocation", even. Just a little thing. It would have made the album even more of a drama and would have set the mood perfectly.

Original Sin is not for the weak of heart, but I do suggest that if you're attempting to keep a lid on your (hormonal) emotions, this album is a nice outlet. Oh and if you're a teenager like I am, you may end up a little love-wiser than before. To hear someone singing the thoughts you've thought only to yourself, and in such a melodramatic, hyperbolic fashion, well it's a great solace.

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