Album Review: Idina Menzel's DRAMA QUEEN is Making Us All Dance

Heigh Ho, dear lovely rainbow tribe, welcome back to Bobby’s CD sandbox where we offer our broken-down breakdowns of new music releases. So, strap in and get ready, as Bobby goes on the record ABOUT the record.

This week’s latest album entry in the BobbyFiles comes from Broadway & Disney Diva Idina Menzel. With her latest release, DRAMA QUEEN, this princess of stage and screen moves onto the dance floor and makes herself The (Drama) Queen Of The Disco. Back in the day, your rainbow writer took a turn or two (or 5 dozen) on the dance floor pulsating to the music of Deborah Cox, Kristine W, and the like, and DRAMA QUEEN is a dance album that should make its way into the DJ mixes, the clubs, and big gay circuit parties before the year is out - maybe sooner. We’re saying it now, and when it happens remember… Bobby Called It! Kicking off the album with the aptly titled MOVE, we hear that this is a dancefloor recording, if there ever was one. One gets images of the sacred mirror ball being spun by Idina's unstoppable range, which gets full use in its highs and lows, right out of the gate. There is real power here. “You Better Move From Me” she calls out… loudly. Cut two is BEAST, and with its beastly beats and solid power ballad overtones throughout, one feels a true feminist vibe that demands to not be ignored, that will not stand for BullS&!+ anymore. Cut three is the song DRAMATIC, and the journey through these first 3 songs is act one of DRAMA QUEEN, where she has found her power in the wake of love and its woes, and is standing on her own 2 feet saying “This is ME and I will be in charge here, and you can take it or just leave… Now KISS ME!!”

 

 

Cut 6 - PARADISE (Feat; Nile Rodgers) - Now This IS Disco, and we mean the golden age of D-I-S-C-O. This is Menzel’s spin on the best of the disco queens of the 70s & 80s - so much fun and totally danceable. This is strobe lights and the hustle under that blessed mirror ball with sexy seize-the-night love and passion lyrics to those early fashion disco beats. FUNNY KIND OF LONELY, with its soft & slow opening bars, morphs effortlessly into a dance floor Ballad - again using the full range of the Menzel voice. This is a wailing song about being alone that is the most emotional on this album. A superb dance mix on this one will send it into orbit, trust Bobby on that. The forlorn longing in her voice touches deep, and then her HUGE power notes are unbelievable. The penultimate song of this collection, ROYALTY, opens with bass beats that are immediately exciting, and the words about being Royalty and the Diva living inside her make this another empowering number. The story of moving from feeling unworthy to feeling the crown upon her head is a stupendous one and, given the lady’s career, an apt one as well. Finally, there is MADISON HOTEL - A slow acoustic piano intro feels like she is about to sing on stage at 54 Below (and, oh, how we wish she would!) for just 16 bars then… suddenly we hear a ballsy song that wraps up this dance buffet perfectly. This is a slower beat, but driving in its rhythms and still dance-inspiring. “Coming straight from hell, put me in a spell,” the lyrics call out, and then, suddenly, back to that slow acoustic piano for the last few bars… such a surprise.

Now, dear Bobby readers, you probably don't think of your rainbow writer, whose heart might seem to only beat for Broadway, as a dance floor boy, but you would be wrong. We have danced the night away, time and time again, in the days of our remote youth and this kind of music really does give us that old feeling, and with Idina Menzel’s DRAMA QUEEN, we can all grab it together, and we should because Bobby gives this FAB collection…

5 Out Of 5 Rainbows

Jump Into The Amazon River & Stream This One: HERE

Link To All The Other Platforms: HERE

You Can See And Hear Everything About Idina On Her Webbysite: HERE

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