Los Angeles-based cabaret performer
Jon Philip Alman has a dramatic, Broadway-style voice at times reminiscent of
Mandy Patinkin's but thankfully lacking
Patinkin's histrionic tendencies. The stark vocals-and-piano setting of
When You Get Home is cabaret for purists, but
Alman wisely steers largely clear of the canonical song choices in favor of less familiar numbers by the core composers (Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Younger Than Springtime" is the best known) and songs by the likes of
Stevie Wonder ("Overjoyed"),
Jimmy Webb ("If These Walls Could Talk"), and best of all,
Elvis Costello.
Costello's
Burt Bacharach collaboration, "Painted from Memory," is given an outstanding performance, one that quite possibly betters the original simply because of
Alman's superior vocal technique. (
Costello, for all his genius, was simply too technically limited to fully realize this song's potential.) The title track,
Alman's sole composition, is a pleasant but slight pro-family affirmation that's a bit too preachy to sit comfortably in this company, but its heart is in the right place. The same could be said of the album as a whole. ~ Stewart Mason