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Christopher Franke – New Music for Films, Volume One
Brought to you by the same Tangerine Dream alumnus responsible for the music on Babylon 5 every week. Pretty much the same style as his other work here with a few interesting variations…but very few interesting variations. I’d only advise this album for those really, really into Franke’s trademark sound. In fact, Franke later recycled music from track 17, “Lurking Shadow” (ironic, eh?), for the Babylon 5 episode Endgame.
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Main Title (2:28)
- Big Country (2:55)
- Dramatic Ride (2:07)
- The Run (0:34)
- Getting Ready To Attack (2:21)
- Memories of Maria (1:40)
- The Attack (2:25)
- Will He Return? (1:34)
Quiet Ocean (1:10)
- The Battle Begins (0:30)
- The Victory (2:10)
- Hidden Tears (1:22)
- The Fight (1:16)
- Romance Become Pain (4:00)
- The Battle Continues (2:20)
- Mysterious Discovery (1:23)
- Lurking Shadow (6:05)
- The Shock (7:36)
- Dream Sequence (0:58)
- Doomer (4:13)
- Threatening (3:17)
- Quiet Ocean – reprise (1:10)
- Creepy (3:26)
- Steven Stole It (1:55)
Released by: Varese Sarabande
Release date: 1993
Total running time: 59:48
It’s not very often (in fact, hardly ever) that I recommend an entire album on the strength of its one good song, but the singular worthwhile cut on this album is well worth the price of the whole thing. While the rest of the album seems to sound like a step backward for Lynch, “Ivory” is the best neo-classical piece to hit my ears in a long time. A relaxing piano-flute duet, it makes one ask why the whole album couldn’t have been done in this manner. Nevertheless, even if 
This was the one that got me hooked on movie soundtracks, on science fiction, on space, on a general fixation with futuristic concepts that later led to my lifelong romance with computers…blame it all on 
The childlike rowdiness of many of the Ewok cues grates on me at times, and the rehashing of the previous movies’ action cues in the track titled “Return Of The Jedi” – which accompanied Luke and his cohorts swashbuckling into action to escape from Jabba the Hutt and his scummy pals – only makes the entirely original alternate version on the box set’s fourth CD seem all the more brilliant.
results of a tribute to the show’s past sound a little off. You be the judge. Personally, I like it, because it’s as close as we’re ever likely to get to having a collection of music from that period of Doctor Who’s history. And if you do enjoy Pyramids Of Mars, I strongly urge you to check out the similar arrangements and style on Mark Ayres’ soundtrack for the related video Shakedown. 
A dandy bit of conceptual rock opera from the same people who brought you the Alan Parsons Project, sans Eric Woolfson who departed after a divergence of music careers following the Freudiana album. As with the Project, Parsons only produces though the music seems to be attributed to him. This is an uneven collection, though it does kick off with the darkly humorous “The Three of Me”, an ode to schizophrenia with a speaker-blowing orchestral intro reminiscent of the Project’s best 1970s work. The sole single from this album, rock anthem “Turn It Up”, as well as the superior “Back Against the Wall”, feature lead vocals from Manfred Mann’s Chris Thompson. Three other songs deserve special notice – “Siren Song”, “Wine From the Water” (whose keyboards sound like they’ve time-warped into the song straight from the mid 70s), and “I’m 
It’s somewhat common knowledge that prior to tracking his entire two-and-a-half- hour science fiction opus with pieces from the classical repertoire, Stanley Kubrick had commissioned the prolific film composer Alex North – whose other screen accomplishments include Spartacus, Cleopatra and The Agony and the Ecstasy – to compose original music for 2001 along the lines of many classical numbers that Kubrick already had in mind. According to the very detailed liner notes booklet, which is admittedly biased in favor of the late Mr. North, who died in 1991, Kubrick kept North under the illusion that his original music would be used up until shortly before the film’s release; having completed the score up to the moon scenes in the movie, North was told that the entire second half of 2001 taking place aboard spaceships, in spacesuits and so on, would not be scored, but instead covered with “breathing effects.” In short – North’s services would no longer be required. Imagine North’s surprise when he went to the premiere of 2001 and heard the very classical numbers which Kubrick had asked him to approximate. To hear his wife tell it, Alex North stowed the manuscripts of his 2001 score away safely, and the only people aside from Kubrick who heard the music were Mrs. North and a close family friend by the name of Jerry Goldsmith. North, before his death, was finally persuaded to allow a fresh recording of his legendary brainchild to be conducted by Goldsmith. The results are quite satisfying indeed. North’s 2001 main title borrows the triplet structure of “Also Sprach Zarathustra”, but trades the almost religious sound of Strauss in for a somewhat more stately and heraldic tone. (Considering the immense scope of 2001, this could be one place where Kubrick’s choice was justified; indeed, though I like North’s work on the movie, I really do like the 
I admit, it took a long, long time for this one to grow on me, but it finally caught up with me and I like it a lot. It’s nowhere near as good as Tim’s 1989 album, but it’s better than Big Canoe and shows a lot of maturity. Mostly somber, the album does have its more energetic moments though even these are sometimes deceptive, including “In Love With It All”, with its allusions to Tim’s (rocky?) relationship with brother Neil of Split Enz/Crowded House fame, and “Hit The Ground Running”. Incidentally, Neil Finn himself duets with Tim on the former (which sounds suspiciously like a Woodface outtake) and on “Strangeness And Charm”. By far the best pieces here are “Persuasion” (a very Bruce-Hornsby-esque ballad), “Many’s The Time (In Dublin)”, In Your Sway, and “Walk You Home”, all of them songs with an adult 
You can’t miss this one, it’s got one of those very weird and nearly-disgusting David Lynch photos on the cover. Julee, for those of you who don’t know, remember or care, did the vocals on most of the Twin Peaks music, and her first album was wonderful. This one leaves a bit to be desired, but shows some promise for the next album. The sound is largely the same as that of her previous album, with music by Angelo Badalamenti and largely pointless lyrics by David Lynch. The best song on the album, curiously, is “In My Other World”, written by Julee herself, which is something I hope she can continue. Badalamenti’s backing is most appropriate for her vocals, but in this case her songwriting makes the piece stand out; the lyrics, though vague, are much more coherent than any of Twin Peaks director/writer Lynch’s aimless wanderings. “Until The End Of The World,” an atypically percussion-heavy song which seems to have no connection to the film of the same name (though Julee is featured on that movie’s soundtrack album), is also a standout. For the most part, the rest of the album suffers 
It took eleven years for Fagen to concoct a sequel of sorts to his well-received Nightfly album, and not unlike Alan Parsons, Fagen managed to return to the scene while making it sound as though he’d never vanished in the first place. You’d swear it was recorded a year after The Nightfly was released. Fagen’s concept for this album – to which the songs adhere a bit closer than they did on his previous effort – is a drive through the world in the car of tomorrow. It’s a strange subject handled very oddly, to be sure. By and far, the best song on the album is the melancholy “On The Dunes”, with a very 