From Billboard:
PREMIERE CAST RECORDING
Album Title: The Last Five Years
Producer(s): Jeffrey Lesser
Genre: POP
Label/Catalog Number: Sh-K-Boom 4001
Source: PRINT
Originally Reviewed: June 01, 2002
For its first cast recording, Sh-K-Boom chose this recent off-Broadway
musical by Jason Robert Brown (Parade) - a wise choice. (Brown won two
Drama Desk Awards, for his music and his lyrics, in May) The show starred
Sherie René Scott and Norbert Leo Butz as a couple who fall in love,
wed, and grow apart. The twist: he starts at the beginning moving forward
while she starts at the end moving backward, so the score comprises a series
of alternating solos. On stage, Scott is the warmer performer with the
more interesting character, but here Butz holds his own - and gets the
songs with the most zip. Lyrically, Brown is an accomplished storyteller
with obvious heart ("If I Didn't Believe in You") and humor ("Shiksa Goddess,"
"A Summer in Ohio"), and his intimate piano- and string-heavy score is
peppy, melodic, and catchy. Scott and Butz are in fine form on this set,
quite an accomplished recording for this label's first effort.