Three years after Rent opened on Broadway and its two-CD original cast album reached the Top 20 and went double platinum, DreamWorks Records issues this single-disc abridgement of the recording. With a running time of 69 minutes and 21 tracks, it contains about more than half of the contents of the full-length version, including the major songs "Seasons of Love," "La Vie Boheme," and "Another Day," as well as the "Seasons of Love" remix featuring
Stevie Wonder. But if most of the music is here, most of the credits are not. The packaging is skimpy; if you want to know who's actually singing the songs, you won't find out from the CD booklet. ~ William Ruhlmann