I'll start first with what's disappointing about it. Sorry, but there you go! It's being plugged and sold as a Coronation Street Album but in truth, very few of the songs have Corrie cast members on them and are mainly sung by other, professional singers. However, that's the only dissapointment I can report because despite that, I really enjoyed it.
It opens with William Roache (Ken) speaking against an emotive version of the theme tune and then there's some original dialogue taken direct from the very first Corrie scene from December 1960. So the mood is set straight away, I already had a lump in my throat at this point, it worked very well. But then it got a bit confusing because while the songs were about Corrie, there were singers I'd never heard of pretending to be Coronation Street characters.
Kym Marsh sings a couple of the songs including my favourite of the whole album, a duet with Rachel Leskovac, who played Natasha. Their song is "He's My Man" with Kym singing as Elsie Tanner and Rachel as Bet Lynch in a wonderfully gutsy, soaring song.
Katherine Kelly does a fab ballad which is going to be the first single released, called "If It's Too Late". Kevin Kennedy, who played Curly Watts, is by far the best singer on the album and he sings a great song called "Curly's Song, Your Star Shines So Bright" which includes original dialogue between Curly and Racquel when Curly points out the star he bought for his wife, naming it Mrs Racquel Watts.
It's a bit of a mixed bag, this album. It sounds as if it's a soundtrack to a musical stage show rather than a stand-alone album. And if that's the case, then I can't wait to see Coronation Street The Musical because the songs are poppy, bouncy and full of fun. Some of the lyrics sound as if they've been penned by Victoria Wood. For instance on the song "Sweet Butterfly" which is sung by someone called Andrew Derbyshire, confusingly singing as and pretending to be Sean Tully, the line: "I was meant for more than sewing gussets" gets to rhyme with " I could have run or walked or bussed it" - which made me smile a lot.
The last track on the album is called "Eh Chuck" and is the only one to feature various members of the current cast on it including Julie Hesmondhalgh (Hayley), Sam Aston (Chesney), Jack P Shepherd (David), Betty Turpin (Betty), David Neilson (Roy), Malcolm Hebden (Norris), Alan Halsall (Tyrone), Michelle Keegan (Tina), Andrew Whyment (Kirk) and Debbie Rush (Anna).
I did wonder why, with the wealth of singing talent they've got on the Coronation Street cast, more cast members weren't singing on the album instead of turning it over to professional singers trying to sing as and pretending to be Coronation Street characters. That was a bit confusing, and as I said above, disappointing for this fan. But it's still very, very good and I highly recommend it.
Find out more about the Coronation Street Album here.
In a nutshell: Is it worth buying? Yes.
