The latest CD release reviewed

STEPHEN SONDHEIM Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Nonesuch ****

With Tim Burton's full-blooded film version, Stephen Sondheim's seminal, award-winning musical will win a whole new audience for one of America's greatest musical writers.

In adapting his stage show for the film, Sondheim has cut much of the music score and slashed more than half of the stage show's 25 songs (notably Ki ss Me, most of God, That's Good!and the opener, The Ballad of Sweeney Todd, except for its Herrmann-esqe climax).

Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter deliver wonderfully wry emo performances as the homicidal haircutter and his predatory landlady.

Retaining the sophisticated wit of the original but little of its tenderness, Sondheim's newly trimmed Sweeney Todd is dark, brooding and deliciously misanthropic. www.nonesuch.com - JOCELYN CLARKE

Download tracks: My Friends, God, That's Good!