It's Time
Frank Wildhorn may get mixed reviews for hisBroadway shows, but there's little question the man can write a pop song, and his greatest advocate happens to be his wife, Linda Eder. Preceding her 1999 breakout hitIt's No Secret Anymore,It's Timeis a superior pop album from 1997 that shows off the best of Eder--her vocal power, her dazzling high notes, her sense of swing, her tender balladry. Most of the songs are by Wildhorn (including "Only Love" fromThe Scarlet Pimperneland "Candle in the Window" fromThe Civil War), but there's also "Over the Rainbow" (gorgeously rendered with only piano accompaniment), "Man of La Mancha" (a showstopper she performed atCarnegie Hall), andNine's "Unusual Way." There's even a Big Anthem, "Children of Eden," that with its pennywhistle solos foreshadows the theme song from a certainbig-ship moviereleased later that year. Watch out, Celine Dion!--David Horiuchi