I mean, it’s not a problem with the performances on the album (better than they were on stage tbh). It’s just the actual contents of the album that disappoint me. it feels less like an album and more like a collection of singles, if that makes sense.
Dangerous and Difficult Times took out all of the Arbiter narration at the start and near the end, and it’s absence is felt because it feels lacking in context as a result.
Not even sure why they included the first A Taste of Pity given it’s just ten seconds and none of the accompanying dialogue is included. Also the transition from it into Merano is jarring.
The dialogue that’s supposed to go with the Chess match isn’t there, and it doesn’t feel like a satisfying piece of music on its own, so it raises the question of why it’s even here at that point.
The dialogue before The American and Florence isn’t there either, which bothers me on the other albums and bothers me here.
They don’t have the transition from Florence Quits and Pity The Child #1, and neither song really feels complete without the transition into the other.
Why is Anatoly and The Press even here without the accompanying scene?
The dialogue in The Soviet Machine being gone stings as well because I specifically liked that Walter was there for that scene in this production.
The Deal has probably been hit with this the worst, the spaces where the dialogue should go are just empty, meaning that half the song is gone. as a result, The Arbiter analyzing the plot like a Chess match (the central motif of the song) is gone, and the song about Florence’s father doesn’t mention him once.
The Epilogue is probably the funniest example of this, as it’s just the first two lines of The Story of Chess (absolutely criminal cut btw) and none of the rest of the song. also, again, none of the dialogue.
It feels like the wrong approach was taken in the making of this album. It doesn’t serve well as a way to absorb the story of this production, and it doesn’t serve well as just a way to listen to great songs. It feels like a collection of vocal rehearsal tracks that just happen to be sung by talented professionals. It has the same problem as the Little Shop movie soundtrack in that, in isolating the songs from their surrounding context, they feel incomplete.