Barbra Streisand – Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 43:40 minutes | 509 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia
“ENCORE: MOVIE PARTNERS SING BROADWAY” is the new album from Barbra Streisand. The album features 10 new Streisand duets of Broadway classics with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. The inspired new musical pairings include Anne Hathaway, Daisy Ridley, Patrick Wilson, Hugh Jackman, Alec Baldwin, Chris Pine, Antonio Banderas, Jamie Foxx, Seth MacFarlane, and a spectacular virtual duet with Anthony Newley. This album follows 2014’s “Partners”, which debuted at # 1 on the Billboard Top 200, and received Platinum Certification.
The greatest star to ever come out of Broadway, Streisand returns to her roots with “ENCORE: Movie Partners Sing Broadway.” The legendary performer rose to unprecedented fame while starring on Broadway beginning with her stage debut in “I Can Get It For You Wholesale” in 1962 and then as comedienne Fanny Brice in the Broadway production of “Funny Girl” in 1964, earning Tony nominations for both turns. Streisand’s vey first record album, 1963’s “The Barbra Streisand album,” which earned Grammys for Album of the Year and Best Female Vocal Performances, featured several Broadway standards. In 1985 Streisand released “The Broadway Album” and in 1993 “Back to Broadway;” both albums went multi-platinum.
With the longest span of number one albums in history – six decades – Streisand has recorded 52 gold, 31 platinum and 13 multi-platinum albums in her career. She is the only woman to make the All-Time Top 10 Best Selling Artists list. With the release of her last album, “Partners,” Streisand has had 33 albums make the Top 10 on the US charts. She is the only female artist to have achieved this milestone, tying her with Frank Sinatra. With ten, Streisand is the female artist with the most number one albums in Billboard’s history. Widely recognized as an icon in multiple entertainment fields, Streisand has attained unprecedented achievements as a recording artist, actor, concert performer, producer, director, author and songwriter. Streisand has been awarded two Oscars, five Emmys, ten Golden Globes, eight Grammys plus two special Grammys, a special Tony award in 1970, and two CableACE Awards the only artist to receive honors in all of those fields of endeavor. Streisand received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama this past November. Her many other honors include the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Endowment for the Arts Medal, three Peabody Awards and the French Légion d’Honneur. She is also the first female film director to receive the Kennedy Center Honors. Streisand is a devoted philanthropist who works tirelessly to fight for what she believes in. A woman of action, Streisand founded The Barbra Streisand Women s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai and co-founded the Women’s Heart Alliance, helping to raise awareness and push for more research into women’s heart disease, the leading cause of death among women.
The follow-up to 2014’s Partners, Barbra Streisand’s 2016 studio effort, Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway, finds the acclaimed vocalist duetting with high-profile guest singers on a set of well-curated Broadway compositions. The difference this time out is that rather than simply singing the songs, wherever possible Streisand also includes the dialogue that frames the songs in their respective musical productions. The result is an album that straddles the line between a traditional pop album and musical theater recording. Helping to achieve this theatrical balance are Streisand’s guests, all of whom can sing, but who, like Alec Baldwin, are primarily known as actors. On that score, Baldwin acquits himself nicely with his usual wry charm on the lightly swinging “The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened to Me” from Road Show. Not surprisingly, the more Broadway-experienced guests here, like Hugh Jackman on “Any Moment” from Smile and Patrick Wilson on “Loving You” from Passion, work both ends of the spectrum from acting to singing with seamless verve. Similarly effective are her duets with Family Guy creator turned classic crooner Seth MacFarlane on “Pure Imagination,” and Melissa McCarthy on the buoyantly playful “Anything You Can Do,” from Annie Get Your Gun. Particularly impressive is Star Trek’s Chris Pine, whose nuanced baritone melds perfectly with Streisand on the yearning medley “I’ll Be Seeing You/I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” from Right This Way and My Fair Lady. It’s also fun to hear Streisand play off more than one performer, as she does here with Anne Hathaway and Star Wars’ Daisy Ridley on “At the Ballet,” from A Chorus Line. Kudos also go to Streisand for choosing the late Anthony Newley for the digitally created duet on “Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)” from The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd. Much like her Elvis duet on Partners, her turn with the acclaimed British performer is a highly unexpected one and makes for a gloriously dramatic homage to Broadway in the ’60s. ~ Matt Collar
Tracklist:
01. Barbra Streisand – At the Ballet (07:29)
02. Barbra Streisand – Loving You (03:30)
03. Barbra Streisand – Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me) (04:23)
04. Barbra Streisand – The Best Thing That Ever Has Happened (03:13)
05. Barbra Streisand – Any Moment Now (04:44)
06. Barbra Streisand – Anything You Can Do (03:11)
07. Barbra Streisand – Pure Imagination (04:12)
08. Barbra Streisand – Take Me to the World (04:15)
09. Barbra Streisand – I’ll Be Seeing You / I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face (04:41)
10. Barbra Streisand – Climb Ev’ry Mountain (03:58)
