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2022 A Music Reviews Soundtracks Soundtracks by Title Television Year

Avenue 5 – music by Adem Ilhan

5 min read

Order this CDAs a fan, I could complain about how Avenue 5 was treated, but the truth is, it was a very quirky show filling a niche that wasn’t exactly huge. It made it all the way to production and distribution because creator Armando Iannuzzi had a sweetheart deal giving HBO the first crack at anything he created, and he created a caustic comedy about a space cruise ship gone astray. That it was a sci-fi comedy on a pay-cable-channel-morphing-into-a-streaming-service already put Avenue 5 at a disadvantage in terms of eyeballs; that it landed right at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic should’ve given it a chance to be sampled by more people… except that the same pandemic inevitably delayed production of a second season, making it easy to think the show was dead when it wasn’t. (When the second season did arrive, the lackadaisical promotional push for it pretty much confirmed that HBO, at least, had already decided the show was dead, and an official cancellation followed shortly thereafter.) It was impossible timing for a show that wanted to stick around, though one of its episodes – one in which the passengers, led by a particularly clueless rumormonger, ceases to even believe that the show is in space and starts demanding to walk out the airlocks – was one of the best-timed episodes in the history of television. Though written and shot nearly a year before COVID, and probably intended to target climate science denialists, it perfectly encapsulated everything about that early stage of the pandemic when disinformation was starting its alarming spread through the internet.

And the show’s music, seldom foregrounded, just seemed weird – intentionally dissonant, almost like it was sticking its tongue out at the kind of grand orchestrations that usually accompany lovingly detailed shots of massive spaceships on TV. It was far enough down in the show’s sound mix that it was hard to gauge sometimes, but I found it intriguing enough that I was delighted – and, to be honest, very surprised – to see a soundtrack release. And it surprised me even more when it actually stood up as a listening experience without the rest of the show. That’s not always the case with a sitcom. (Then again, there’s actually an album of all of those bass licks from Seinfeld, so what do I know?) Sitcom music tends to be transitional – it gets over a time jump in the story, but seldom serves a dramatic purpose, and isn’t necessarily memorable.

The music for Avenue 5 is different, because Iannuzzi specializes in biting satire. Better known for In The Thick Of It (the series that put Peter Capaldi on the radar as its foulmouthed breakout star) and Veep (an American take on In The Thick Of It, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, produced for HBO), Iannuzzi sets up terrible situations, often full of terrible or incompetent people, winds them up, and lets them go. It’s baked into the cake of Avenue 5 that each episode will land on a schadenfreude-laden callback to every problem that everyone’s been warned about earlier in the show, and that’s usually where Ilhan made his musical presence known.

There are some tracks, such as “The Continuing Journey” and “Your Ears Are Beautiful, To Me”, which are just gorgeous – this is what you’re supposed to hear in a show where an enormous, luxurious spaceship lumbers past the camera! – but the “house style” for Avenue 5’s music seems to be more of a trippy flavor of sound collage. Incomplete vocal samples, chugging cellos and bassoons and bass clarinets that never quite seem to be perfectly in tune (very much like the characters aboard the aforementioned luxurious spaceship), and rapid-fire rhythms that remind me of some of Kronos Quartet’s more offbeat experiments. (I actually found myself thinking of Kronos Quartet a lot on the first listen; this is a compliment.) Some tracks start out as traditional pieces of dramatic scoring before oddball elements creep in and things get weird, such as “It’s All Gonna Be Fine” and “Orbiting”. Some tracks, like “Mmm Ba Deep” and “Newton’s… Third Law”, start weird and stay weird, in some cases pouring on additional weird. It all fits the show perfectly, but the surprising thing is how well it stands up as music. It helps if you’re an Avenue 5 fan going in, but it’s a fascinating set of musical experiments designed to tell the listener “something’s going wrong here, and it’s about to start going even wronger.”

4 out of 4As a soundtrack, Avenue 5 is as quirky, unconventional, and weird as the show this music accompanied – and that’s kind of a beautiful thing. It makes for a surprisingly effective standalone listen.

  1. The Continuing Journey (01:45)
  2. Mmm Ba Deep (02:19)
  3. Go Up There And Smile (00:54)
  4. Newton’s… Third Law (01:04)
  5. The Key Word Is Walk (01:59)
  6. Your Ears Are Beautiful, To Me (01:55)
  7. Inside (01:31)
  8. Bearing (02:27)
  9. It Stands For Visual Effects (01:03)
  10. Aaargh (01:20)
  11. Back On Earth (01:58)
  12. Big Yellow (01:17)
  13. It’s All Gonna Be Fine (01:10)
  14. Tense Is My Middle Name (01:36)
  15. I Don’t Want To Use My Sweet Moves (03:12)
  16. Oh Oh Oh Five (01:35)
  17. Walk With Me (02:37)
  18. Unclench Me (02:19)
  19. Knotted Bedsheets (01:58)
  20. Orbiting (03:39)
  21. Like Psychosis But With None Of The Benefits (01:16)

Released by: Lakeshore Records
Release date: November 3, 2022
Total running time: 38:36

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Categories
2014 A Doctor Who Music Reviews Soundtracks Soundtracks by Title Year

An Adventure In Space And Time – music by Edmund Butt

4 min read

Order this CDAccording to the liner notes, composer Edmund Butt was given one major instruction before embarking on the score for the 2013 one-off docudrama An Adventure In Space And Time: don’t let this piece about Doctor Who’s original star sound anything like Doctor Who. Oh, that simple, right?

Except that Doctor Who has run the gamut from electronic music to small chamber ensemble to electronic again and now orchestral-with-electronic. Anyone trying to avoid a category as broad as those will probably take off screaming for the hills. What the score for An Adventure In Space And Time does manage to do is land its musical style somewhere in an old-fashioned kind of timelessness, while occasionally trying on the more typical musical sci-fi trappings when the story calls for it. Starting things out with a waltz is not something that’s in the Doctor Who scoring playbook, providing the first signal that this isn’t “in universe”. (It’s also not entirely reality, but in a bit of a simplified uncanny valley in between the two, just enough to get some of the broad strokes of William Hartnell’s life across.)

You’re not too far into the album before the score does drop something that could easily fit into Doctor Who proper. “The Daleks” may accompany the first appearance of the Dalek props at the BBC, but it would work just as well in-universe, with a staccato synth bassline eerily hinting at the heartbeat-like signature sound associated with Dalek technology. Whether that was intentional or not, it’s a nice, subtle reference. (It’s also somewhat present in “JFK Assassinated”, a scene that appears adjacent to the Daleks’ first appearance in the movie; see notes below about the sequencing of the album.) The playful beginning of “What Dimension?” suddenly hangs a sharp left turn into a startlingly mysterious, almost foreboding passage accompanying the first glimpse of the TARDIS set transitioning from idea to a real place (existing on a soundstage), a theme also heard on its own in the track “The Tardis”.

But the heart of An Adventure In Space And Time, whether it’s the movie or just its score, is in sketching out a somewhat idealized version of Hartnell’s life. “Autograph Hunting” accompanies a montage of such scenes very effectively, just as “Piss & Vinegar” follows Verity Lambert and Sydney Newman’s thread through the story. Though there are some standouts that musically portend major developments in the mythology of Doctor Who, most of the score is concerned with the stories of the people making that mythology.

4 out of 4The one thing I really count any points off for with this otherwise wonderful release is that the tracks are wildly out of order with regard to how and where they appear in the show itself – the first piece of music heard in the show is literally the last track on the album. Only toward the end of the album do things start to appear in anything reasonably resembling their sequence as aired, with a loose suite of cues clustered around the theme of Hartnell’s decline and eventual departure from the role (“I’m So Sorry, Bill”, “My Successor”); the real stunner of this almost-a-suite at the end is “The New Doctor”, which includes the scene of Hartnell shooting his last scene, and the in-universe-or-maybe-not glimpse of Matt Smith that follows. I can’t fault any of the music, but the sequencing is a bit baffling.

  1. Main Title – An Adventure in Space and Time (00:36)
  2. The Right Man (01:15)
  3. The First Woman Producer (01:18)
  4. I’ve Got an Idea… (01:32)
  5. The Daleks (02:49)
  6. Kill Dr. Who (01:49)
  7. What Dimension? (01:23)
  8. This is My Show (01:49)
  9. Autograph Hunting (02:28)
  10. Sydney Newman (01:02)
  11. Scarlett O’Hara (01:02)
  12. Piss & Vinegar (01:23)
  13. Dressing Room (01:19)
  14. JFK Assassinated (01:48)
  15. The TARDIS (00:51)
  16. Goodbye Susan (02:29)
  17. 10 Million Viewers (00:56)
  18. The Fans (00:36)
  19. I’m So Sorry, Bill (02:39)
  20. Kiss Goodbye (01:05)
  21. My Successor (01:06)
  22. ISOP Galaxy (00:50)
  23. Irreplaceable (01:20)
  24. The New Doctor (03:54)
  25. Time’s Up… (01:16)

Released by: Silva Screen Records
Release date: March 3, 2014
Total running time: 38:23

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2015 A Music Reviews Other Soundtracks Soundtracks by Title Year

Ambition – music by Atanas Valkov

4 min read

Order this CDHow much musical accompaniment does a single space mission need? When it’s as enjoyable as this album, as much as it likes.

There’s already a full-length album of music by the late, great Vangelis – some of it composed prior to launch for ESA to use as part of its public outreach, and some of it composed after the mission was complete – and of course, since that was Vangelis (who also composed entire albums of music for NASA’s Juno and 2001 Mars Odyssey missions), it was lovely. But ESA also commissioned a short film as part of its public outreach, and rather than a dry, documentary-style piece, we got something a bit more fantastic, which spoke to ESA’s determination to contribute a first to the annals of space exploration and science. Set in an unspecified future in which space exploration is a part of history and yet magic is real (through technological means, it’s hinted), Ambition runs six minutes and change, and is a compact marvel of a decent script, nice visual effects, and two actors (both of them Game Of Thrones cast members who are in their fantasy element here) who aren’t overpowered by either – oh, and Valkov’s atmospheric score, as well. It’s precisely the kind of arty, offbeat piece of public outreach that you’d never get out of NASA these days. But the music score accounts for less than four minutes of the short’s run time, so Valkov had to rework some of his material to fill out the album, hence the extremely specific subtitle Original Soundtrack From and Inspired By The Ambition Film and the Rosetta Mission.

That reworking includes soundbytes from Rosetta’s 2004 launch and other press conferences, woven into extended versions – in some cases, they almost qualify as extended dance mixes – of the score cues from Ambition. The best tracks, however, really just seem like moody, could-be-a-film-score-in-their-own-right pieces of world music with some flourishes of orchestral grandeur. The six-minute piece “Outer Space (Suite for Vibraphone & Contrabass)” has a feel that’s unique on the entire album. Also unique is “Stubborn”, which picks up and develops a story theme from Ambition and builds a nice, somewhat dark, pop song around it. All of this nicely complements the three tracks of music from Ambition itself (which are grouped at the end of the album), managing to feel like it’s all of a piece. It’s a very relaxing, mesmerizing listen, and you don’t have to be intimately acquainted with the subject matter or the film to “get” it. (But hey, the film is embedded below anyway, because it’s neat.)

4 out of 4It’s worth noting that this album exists in two versions: a more recent reissue (an odd thing when both versions of the album are only available digitally) deletes the “Gravitational Slingshot (MarsShake)” track for reasons unknown, and presents the remaining 14 tracks in a different order. The track listing here, as well as the links to purchase the album in theLogBook.com Store, reflects the original 15-track version of the album.

  1. Next Generation of Space Exploration (Rosetta Launch)​ featuring Prof. David Southwood & Alexander Gerst (03:56)
  2. People’s World (Extended) featuring Marta Zalewska (01:56)
  3. Probe (Philae Spacecraft) (01:50)
  4. Outer Space (Suite for Vibraphone and Contrabass) (06:16)
  5. Key to Life on Earth (Water Extended) (02:31)
  6. People’s World (A Singing Comet) featuring Manuel Senfft and Marta Zalewska (01:42)
  7. Gravitational Slingshot (MarsShake) (01:48)
  8. Agilkia ​(The Landing Site)​ featuring ESA Operations (02:50)
  9. Adrift (Cluster II Satellites) (01:40)
  10. Stubborn​ featuring MAVIN (03:54)
  11. Visitors (Into the Night Sky) featuring Prof. Mark McCaughrean (03:00)
  12. Prologue (original soundtrack) (01:21)
  13. Rosetta Mission (original soundtrack) (01:09)
  14. Water (original soundtrack) (01:16)
  15. Let There Be Light (Coda) (03:26)

Released by: IDMusic
Release date: January 15, 2015
Total running time: 38:27

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Categories
2011 A F Film Soundtracks

Another Earth – music by Fall On Your Sword

It’s an interesting notion, pairing a somewhat morose, navel-gazing (but still compelling) movie with a soundtrack that veers between percolating electronica and moody piano and cello, but the resulting soundtrack is an interesting new entry in the debate about electronica-as-film-score (a conversation that’s been unavoidable since Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won an Oscar with their music from The Social Network.

The main themes of the movie are laid out in two punchy pieces of electronic music, “The First Time I Saw Jupiter” and “Rhoda’s Theme”. The former isn’t a piece of music with any great variety – it stays mostly within a single chord – but it does have an insistent, almost Morse-Code-like rhythm. “Rhoda’s Theme” is more interesting musically, by far, with a repeating but long-lined tune that evolves additional layers and counterpoints, eventually including a wordless female vocal and cello. A new sound emerges in “The End Of The World”, but as it mostly consists of a wall of noise and industrial percussion, it’s difficult to classify it as a theme.

Tracks like “The House Theme” and “Naked On The Ice” are no less synthesized than the tracks mentioned above, but they achieve a more “organic” feel simply by leaving the drum machine off. “The Specialist: Am I Alone?” and “Making Contact” lean more heavily in the electronic direction, without becoming dance tracks like “Rhoda’s Theme.” “I Am Over There” and “Purdeep’s Theme” employ percussion without quite becoming rave-worthy.

Fall On Your Sword turns in a decent score, but somehow it never 3 out of 4quite fits the movie like a glove. The subtler cues are the most at home within the movie, and the more “active” music, while it’s a better stand-alone listening experience, never quite fits as well. It may be best to hear the soundtrack before the movie, and soak up the music independent of the imagery, rather than the other way around.

Order this CD

  1. The First Time I Saw Jupiter (2:54)
  2. Bob The Robot (1:12)
  3. The Specialist: Am I Alone (4:52)
  4. Naked On The Ice (1:46)
  5. Rhoda’s Theme (5:54)
  6. The House Theme (1:22)
  7. The End Of The World (1:54)
  8. Rhoda’s Application (1:37)
  9. Making Contact (1:15)
  10. I Am Over There (4:14)
  11. Purdeep’s Theme (4:22)
  12. The Cosmonaut (2:01)
  13. The Specialist: Look At Ourselves (3:59)
  14. Sonatina In D Minor by Phaedon Papadopoulos (1:18)
  15. Rhoda’s Theme / Running To John (3:50)
  16. Forgive (2:39)
  17. Love Theme (1:58)
  18. The Other You (1:43)
  19. The First Time I Saw Jupiter / End Titles (5:21)

Released by: Milan Records
Release date: 2011
Total running time: 54:11

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Categories
2005 A Film Soundtracks

Alien Nation – music by Jerry Goldsmith

2 min read

Order this CDThe differences between Alien Nation‘s movie and TV incarnations are so significant that they almost shouldn’t share the name. Both had shortcomings: the TV series delved into the concept more fully, but was often cutesy in an ’80s-family-drama kind of way; the movie was a bit edgier, but ultimately less successful in fleshing out the concept.

The soundtrack of Alien Nation (the movie) wasn’t one of the things that made it edgier. It was also the second soundtrack the film went through: Jerry Goldsmith had originally been hired to score Alien Nation, and created an all-synth score which was subsequently rejected and replaced by the Curt Sobel score that was ultimately heard in theaters. The liner notes of this release paint this as the movie’s loss, but it may be a toss-up as to which composer would have serviced the movie better.

Here’s the problem: frankly, the TV series had better music, because it dared to give its alien characters alien music. There seem to be a few hints that Goldsmith had thoughts about going in that direction, but most of those hints take the form of unearthly noise sweeps at the beginning of some tracks. But for the most part, as unlikely as it may seem to describe anything composer by Jerry Goldsmith this way, Alien Nation a la Goldsmith is unremarkable.

2 out of 4It’s no better and no worse than any other synthesized score, but the music itself seems remarkably tame for what was meant to be an adventurous, high-concept new take on a classic genre. It almost sounds like a demo rather than a finished score, which may or may not have been the intention. And in any case, Goldsmith would go on to create better music for better projects than Alien Nation. Maybe the material just didn’t inspire him.

  1. Alien Landing (3:47)
  2. Out Back (2:01)
  3. Are You Alright? (1:50)
  4. Take It Easy (2:53)
  5. The Vial (2:13)
  6. Jerry’s Jam (1:51)
  7. Alien Dance (1:57)
  8. Are You There? (2:01)
  9. The Beach (3:42)
  10. Tow Truck Getaway (1:52)
  11. 772 / I Shall Remember (4:08)
  12. Tell Them (1:29)
  13. A Game Of Chicken (2:36)
  14. Overdose (2:26)
  15. Got A Match? (2:53)
  16. A Nice view (2:34)
  17. Just Ugly (1:57)
  18. The Wedding (4:43)

Released by: Varese Sarabande
Release date: 2005
Total running time: 46:43

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Categories
1971 2010 A Film Soundtracks

The Andromeda Strain – music by Gil Melle

3 min read

In the early 1970s, while the British viewing public had been treated to electronic music in films and TV via the likes of Tristram Cary and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the film scoring scene in America had stayed rooted in orchestral scores and, increasingly, pop-music-compilations-as-soundtracks. The Andromeda Strain was a bit of an aural shock for moviegoers in the U.S., and its score, rooted in radiophonic methods and sounds, was extremely unusual – probably the strangest film score since Forbidden Planet.

Melle is associated with more traditional scoring, especially in the suspense/horror genre (Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery being among his best-known work), but for this movie he used decidedly non-traditional means to create his music, with only a smattering of familiar instruments. The first three tracks really don’t make many concessions to an audience not already familiar with electronic music; “Desert Trip” is really the first truly tuneful track on the album. (“Desert Trip” also has a place in my own local history: one Fort Smith radio station which has held an annual Easter Egg hunt has used the middle portion of “Desert Trip” as the background music for on-air clues for as long as I can remember.)

“OP” and “Xenogensis” provide more material that borders on actually being melodic, but “Strobe Crystal Green” brings things full circle into the abstract. For those not accustomed to early electronic and radiophonic music, The Andromeda Strain soundtrack – away from the movie – can be a challenging listen at best, in the same vein as the music from the Doctor Who story The Sea Devils (broadcast the following year). Quite a bit of it isn’t just atonal, but eschews just about any notion of melody, harmony or rhythm, in either the western or eastern traditions. It’s not just noise, though: there is structure, just not in a traditional musical sense.

I frequently dock big points for a running time that clocks in well short of the capacity of a compact disc (especially at the premium price Intrada charges for its excellent limited-run soundtrack CDs), but there’s actually a historical reason for this one: when initially issued on 3 out of 4vinyl in 1971, The Andromeda Strain’s soundtrack was released as a hexagonal LP, and its running time was a byproduct of that unusual shape, since all of the tracks had to fit within a circular area within that hexagon. Intrada’s CD is round, but as it uses the LP master tapes as its source material, it has no more music than that hexagonal LP. Let the buyer beware of the running time vs. price ratio here.

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  1. Wildfire (2:46)
  2. Hex (4:00)
  3. Andromeda (2:24)
  4. Desert Trip (4:14)
  5. The Piedmont Elegy (2:23)
  6. OP (2:45)
  7. Xenogenesis (2:40)
  8. Strobe Crystal Green (4:55)

Released by: Intrada
Release date: 2010
Total running time: 26:07

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Categories
2009 A Film Soundtracks

Avatar – music by James Horner

Avatar - music by James HornerI always joke – well, it’s kind of a joke – that it’s not a James Horner score unless it sounds remarkably like a previous James Horner score. It was easy to make that joke in the ’80s; after Battle Beyond The Stars, a rather good score which was shoehorned into the same stylistic box as Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Horner’s boss, producer Roger Corman. That music led Horner to work on Star Trek for real with Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, and he then used much the same formula (and damn near the same music) for Star Trek III, Krull and his first gig with up-and-coming director James Cameron, Aliens. The similarity was strong enough that even people who, unlike your reviewer here, don’t listen to soundtrack music all day long noticed the similarities. To be fair, Horner has graced us with solid slices of musical Americana such as The Journey Of Natty Gann and Apollo 13 and perhaps the most popular soundtrack in history that doesn’t have the words “Star” and “Wars” anywhere on the cover, Titanic (also for Cameron).

Titanic also had the dubious distinction, at the time, of being the most expensive movie ever made (one which, luckily, also managed to make more of that money back than any more that came before it). When Cameron finally started production on Avatar – at $400,000,000, the new “most expensive movie ever” record-holder – it’s not surprising that Cameron called on the composer of his previous big-screen opus.

While there are a few rapid-fire brass blasts that immediately remind one of Horner’s works as far back as The Wrath Of Khan, generally the music from Avatar just about lives up to the hype of being something that Horner put a lot of time and thought into: it doesn’t actively sound like his previous works. In fact, it achieves something unexpected – at a time when world-music-inspired sounds are standing in for the otherworldly in nearly every other SF film/TV score out there (see: Battlestar Galactica, District 9, Lost, etc. etc. etc.), strongAvatar manages to not sound like anything else out there. I think this revelation hit me about the time I heard percussion that seemed to be imitating hummingbird wings: that’s kinda neat.

Unusually for a major label soundtrack release, Avatar is filled to the brim, and not with tiny bite-sized cues either: one track, “War”, weighs in heavier than 11 minutes, and those 11 minutes are neither typical action music nor typical James Horner action music. The Avatar score interestingly treats mind-expanding, contemplative moments as little triumphs, but doesn’t bestow triumphant bombast on moments of conflict. Horner and Cameron were clearly on the same page thematically, and the music serves the movie well.

4 out of 4So I’ll admit it: James Horner has returned to science fiction, and aside from maybe all of twenty seconds, it doesn’t sound like any movie he’s scored in that genre before. What’s more, it fits the movie like a glove, and it stands up to a listen on its own. I may yet find a reason to drop my skepticism and become a James Horner fan after all.

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  1. You Don’t Dream In Cryo (6:09)
  2. Jake Enters His Avatar World (5:23)
  3. Pure Spirits Of The Forest (8:50)
  4. The Bioluminescence Of The Night (3:36)
  5. Becoming One Of “The People” / Becoming One With Neytiri (7:41)
  6. Climbing Up Iknimaya / “The Path To Heaven” (3:14)
  7. Jake’s First Flight (4:48)
  8. Scorched Earth (3:30)
  9. Quaritch (5:00)
  10. The Destruction Of Hometree (6:44)
  11. Shutting Down Grace’s Lab (2:46)
  12. Gathering All The Na’Vi Clans For Battle (5:12)
  13. War (11:19)
  14. I See You (Theme From Avatar) (4:16)

Released by: Atlantic
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 78:28

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Categories
1980 2009 A Film Soundtracks

Airplane! – music by Elmer Bernstein

3 min read

Order this CDIn 1980, the majority of the movie-viewing public that had missed Kentucky Fried Movie got to know the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker production team by way of their big-budget, big-screen debut, Airplane!. Like ZAZ’s later (criminally short-lived) TV spoof Police Squad!, Airplane! had the virtue of starring Leslie Nielsen, whose businesslike demeanor and unshakeable poker-faced deadpan sells the whole endeavour.

And then there’s an absolutely brilliant score by the late, great Elmer Bernstein, which alternates between being just as straight-faced dramatic as Nielsen, and delivering musical punchlines unashamedly. It’s hard to overemphasize how important Bernstein’s music is to Airplane! – it straddles the fine line between truly dramatic music and schmaltzy cheese, and more to the point, Bernstein seemed to have an unerring instinct for which extreme was needed in a given scene. Many cues on the long-overdue soundtrack release could come from just about any big-screen drama, but occasionally, the music gets away with the kind of clowning that the directors told the cast to carefully avoid.

A prime example of this is the love theme – it’s a nice enough piece of music, but it’s arranged almost like elevator music; any true passion inherent in the tune itself gets wrapped up in a gooey layer of cheese. Later in the movie, as the tension picks up, the music does things that would be unthinkable in a straightforward dramatic context, building up the melodrama and then coming to a dead stop to let the cast get a punchline in. But the beauty of it is that it’s all so deadly serious-sounding until those moments arrive.

How this translates to a listening experience sans dialogue is largely down to how much of an Airplane! fan you are. I’ve loved this movie since I was about 10 years old, so yeah, I love the soundtrack. I only have one real complaint with the score. What is it? (It’s the music in a movie that the audience can hear but the characters can’t, but that’s not important right now.*) My only beef is that I had to wait this long to get it (between this score’s overdue release and the recent complete-score release of Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, there’s clearly been a sea change at 4 out of 4Paramount’s music department regarding exploitation of the back catalogue). I’d never before given serious thought to the possibility of an Airplane! score album…but I’m glad that someone at La-La Land did. It’s a great listening experience altogether.

* Strictly speaking, this CD also contains source cues as well – i.e. music that the characters do hear, including folk songs that are worth having your IV tube yanked out.

  1. Main Title (contains theme from Jaws) (1:53)
  2. Kiss Off (0:48)
  3. Ambulance Arrives (0:32)
  4. Hari Krishna / Ticket / Nervous (2:44)
  5. Lisa / Farewell / Take Off / Another Meeting (3:17)
  6. Fighting Girls (0:47)
  7. Love Theme From Airplane! (1:07)
  8. From Here To There (2:08)
  9. Head / Memory (1:13)
  10. Shimmer / Molumbo (1:02)
  11. Zip / Eggs / Roger, Take Over (2:34)
  12. Wild Violins / Sickness / Idea (2:25)
  13. Thar She Blows / Flash / Panel (2:23)
  14. “Where The Hell Is Rex Kramer?” / Trouble (1:02)
  15. Mayday (0:56)
  16. Punch-Up / Kramer (1:14)
  17. Clumsy (0:55)
  18. Dog Fight / Failure / Pep Talk / Victory March (3:45)
  19. News (0:56)
  20. “Runway Is Niner” / “The Gear Is Down And We’re Ready To Land” (1:03)
  21. Crasher (4:02)
  22. Resolution / Tag (1:52)
  23. Notre Dame Victory March (2:01)
  24. Tavern (0:35)
  25. Everything’s Coming Up Roses (0:20)
  26. Instruments (0:13)
  27. Disco (0:30)
  28. Kiss Off (Alternate) (0:47)
  29. Fighting Girls (Alternate) (0:44)
  30. From Here To There (Instrumental) (2:08)
  31. Molumbo (Alternate) (0:52)
  32. Zip (Original Version) (0:31)
  33. News (Alternates) (1:48)
  34. Dog Fight (Alternate) (0:37)
  35. “Runway Is Niner” (Alternate) (0:30)
  36. “The Gear Is Down And We’re Ready To Land” (Alternate) (0:30)
  37. Tag (Instrumental) (1:44)

Released by: La-La Land Records
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 52:28

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Categories
2003 A Soundtracks Television

Alias (Volume 1) – music by Michael Giacchino

Alias (Volume 1)As we’re counting down to the relaunch of the Enterprise on the big screen, I thought this would be an opportune time to check the back catalogue of the latest celebrated composer to put his stamp on the final frontier: Michael Giacchino. After laboring away in the often-anonymous field of video game music, Giacchino began making his name known as a potential A-list composer with J.J. Abrams’ Alias. I wasn’t a huge fan of Alias, but in listening to the two volumes of soundtracks released from the show, I have become a huge fan of its music.

The ironic thing is that, in its more introspective, moody moments, Alias leaned on orchestral music that’s nearly indistinguishable from the music for an episode of Lost (also produced by Abrams and scored by Giacchino). But much of Alias’ music leans in a completely different direction: upbeat, techno-beat-drenched pieces that seem to pay homage to, in equal parts, John Barry’s balls-to-the-wall brassy James Bond scores and the ethnic-location-of-the-week music from Mission: Impossible’s original TV run. Since these scenes almost always accompanied the sight of Jennifer Garner strutting her stuff or kicking butt (and, more often than not, doing both simultaneously), the beat seldom lets up.

The orchestra gets plenty to do in the action scenes, too, but in this case it sounds very little like Lost. One track in particular, though – “On To Paris” – spends a little bit of time combining the techno beats with the kind of low, snarling brass Giacchino frequently uses on Lost, and the effect is quite interesting – the addition of a simple drum beat completely changes the character and mood. One gets the impression very quickly that Alias is what landed Giacchino the scoring assignment for The Incredibles, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, and that’s led to nearly everything since, ranging from Ratatoullie to Star Trek. As calling cards go, you can’t do much better than the music from Alias: its ever-changing settings made for plenty of opportunities for musical variety, and Giacchino didn’t squander that opportunity by phoning in generic music.

4 out of 4 starsSo, should the beat-heavy Alias point the way for Giacchino’s Star Trek score? I’m going to hazard a guess that it probably won’t, but if it did…why not? The new movie is an exercise in trying to push classic Trek into a new style for a new audience. Michael Giacchino is one of a wave of incredibly talented young composers who are currently rewriting the books: not everything has to be in a European romantic style. Why not punch up the music and make it more modern? Alias proved that Giacchino was adept at splitting the difference between both styles.

Order this CD

  1. Alias (0:27)
  2. Dissolved (2:07)
  3. Red Hair Is Better (2:31)
  4. Spanish Heist (4:31)
  5. Double Life (1:54)
  6. Tunisia (4:14)
  7. In The Garden (2:32)
  8. Looking For A Man (3:54)
  9. Anna Shows Up (3:33)
  10. Home Movies (0:42)
  11. On To Paris (1:51)
  12. Page 47 (1:55)
  13. The Prophecy (2:11)
  14. Badenweiler (5:11)
  15. Arvin At The Poles (1:38)
  16. Sleeping Beauty (3:11)
  17. Blow’d Up (2:28)
  18. It’s Not The CIA (1:41)
  19. Oh My God!!! (3:19)
  20. The Tooth Doctor (2:01)
  21. It Was Anna (0:56)
  22. Wet Suits (2:40)
  23. Ball Buster (1:42)
  24. The End (0:58)
  25. Bristow & Bristow (3:31)
  26. SD-6 Dance Party (3:18)

Released by: Varese Sarabande
Release date: 2003
Total running time: 64:56

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Categories
2006 A Soundtracks Television

Amazing Stories: Anthology Two

6 min read

Order this CDThe second volume of music from Steven Spielberg’s short-lived TV anthology series Amazing Stories presents the complete scores from another dozen episodes, boasting the most diverse musical talent gathered on any of Intrada’s three volumes of music from the show.

After one of John Williams’ alternate takes on the show’s main theme, the late Jerry Goldsmith’s single contribution to the show – at the behest of director (and Gremlins collaborator) Joe Dante – kicks things off. Boo! starred Robert Picardo in one of his most obnoxious roles (and that’s saying something), and it seems like whenever I happen to catch a rerun of Amazing Stories, this is the episode I’m most likely to see for some reason. Goldsmith’s music here isn’t quite up to Gremlins standards, though – it’s very much a novelty piece, and – at least in this listener (and Goldsmith fan)’s opinion – not one of his better ones.

Billy Goldenberg’s score for What If…? is a bit more serious, but lovely, pleasant stuff – though it’s associated with an episode that I always felt was more heartbreaking than anything else. Dorothy And Ben, an episode I don’t recall ever having seen, certainly sounds heartbreaking; Georges Delerue was one of Amazing Stories’ most prolific composers and certainly seemed to be the go-to guy for those installments that wore their hearts on their sleeves. The Main Attraction embraces its setting by combining marching band music with occasional moments of tension and synthesizer musical effects-as-sound effects. David Newman (Galaxy Quest, Serenity) contributes the music for Such Interesting Neighbors (which stands next only to Boo! as the episode of which I’m most likely to see a rerun), and as one his earlier works it succumbs to a film scoring cliche or two, but he uses his orchestra well and comes up with what I’d describe as a fond homage to the John Williams style.

Thanksgiving, scored by Bruce Broughton (another musical frequent flyer on this series), goes down as my favorite episode of Amazing Stories, simply because it’s the one installment that reminded me, more than any other episode, of the great anthologies that started it all – The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits – complete with a macabre but poetically just sting in its tail. It’s probably my favorite suite on this anthology as well, with Broughton pouring on bravado (for David Carradine’s belligerently macho character) and wonder in just the right places.

David Shire is back for Hell Toupee on the second CD, a big, brassy homage to the way movies used to be scored, while Johnny Mandel (M*A*S*H, Being There) gives us almost cartoon-esque music for One For The Road. Arthur B. Rubenstein (Blue Thunder, WarGames) tackles the all-star Remote Control Man, an episode – predating the John Ritter movie Stay Tuned – about a guy whose new remote has some magical properties, and in this case it seems to bring characters to life who hail almost exclusively from the Universal Studios/NBC stable circa 1985/86. Rubenstein thus gets to hint at a number of theme tunes from that era, after an opening act of decent mysterioso music.

John Addison is up next with The Greibble, which darts madly between mystery and comedy every time the titular critter makes an appearance. Leonard Rosenman (Star Trek IV) cranks up the tension with the WWII-themed No Day At The Beach, which combines typical war movie action sequences with more somber passages. Another member of the Newman family gets in on the Amazing Stories action, with Thomas Newman lending a humorous, Christmas-carol-inspired score to Santa ’85.

4 out of 4Again, the packaging and liner notes detailing each episode and its music are almost worth the price of admission alone. Though there are plenty of familiar faces here, this second 2-CD set is also packed with composers who only did a single score for Amazing Stories, making it a completely different experience from the first volume, but still very worthwhile.

    Disc one
  1. Amazing Stories Main Title, Alternate #1 (1:03)

    Boo! – music by Jerry Goldsmith

  2. The House / Sheena (0:36)
  3. Those People / Practice / Strange Feelings (2:57)
  4. Sharp Teeth / Let’s Scare ‘Em (1:50)
  5. What Fun / It’s OK / Jungle Zombie (1:57)
  6. Zombie Attack / Each Other (1:21)
  7. The Bike (0:26)
  8. The Jewelry (1:12)
  9. Catch Us / No Fall (1:35)

    What If…? – music by Billy Goldenberg

  10. Bubbles / Nails / Kitchen Odyssey (4:34)
  11. Obnoxious (1:47)
  12. Pregnant Lady (0:57)
  13. Crossing Guard / Steve / Born (5:04)

    Dorothy And Ben – music by Georges Delerue

  14. Twenty Three Thousand Dollars (0:47)
  15. Wrinkles (0:38)
  16. Be Quiet / Ben Leaves (2:45)
  17. Face Changes (0:59)
  18. Dorothy (4:49)

    The Main Attraction – music by Craig Safan

  19. Brad’s March / Brad’s Parking Space (1:58)
  20. Shirley (1:42)
  21. Meteor / Brad’s Fear / Attracting / Attractions (4:10)
  22. Brad Runs / Locker Room / Brad’s Honor (2:07)
  23. Magnetic Love (2:01)

    Such Interesting Neighbors – music by David Newman

  24. Al Driving Home (1:30)
  25. Water Vibrates (0:51)
  26. Through The Window / Off To Meet The Neighbors / Glad To Know You / Rose Eater (5:20)
  27. May Have Something (0:41)
  28. Microwave And Meatloaf / Off Kilter (2:54)
  29. Heat Seeker On Al (0:43)
  30. Emotional (2:31)
  31. Wide-Eyed Reaction (2:23)

    Thanksgiving – music by Bruce Broughton

  32. Momma’s Breath / The Package (2:39)
  33. Dora’s Message (2:12)
  34. Dora’s Gifts / Calvin Returns (2:33)
  35. Chicken Preferred / Turkey (4:42)
    Disc Two
  1. Amazing Stories Bumper #2 (0:04)

    Hell Toupee – music by David Shire

  2. I’m Harry Valentine (0:30)
  3. Can’t Remember / …As A Woman (2:47)
  4. Hell Toupee (0:17)
  5. Scratched Head / The Escape (2:00)
  6. Toupee Shop / Change Your Life (1:49)
  7. What Is It? / The Chase (5:10)
  8. Finale (0:53)

    One For The Road – music by Johnny Mandel

  9. Brainstorm (0:42)
  10. Free Drinks All Around (0:30)
  11. The Cupboard Was Bare / Pass The Oil (1:58)
  12. To Your Health (2:06)
  13. The Banquet (1:36)
  14. The Bridge (1:02)
  15. Reincarnation (0:30)

    Remote Control Man – music by Arthur B. Rubenstein

  16. Walter (1:47)
  17. From The Forties (0:34)
  18. Right Away (0:51)
  19. Super Over Source (0:50)
  20. Neon Signs And Fog (1:15)
  21. Something Just For You / Queen And Mrs. Cleaver (4:00)
  22. Simmons (0:45)
  23. Enjoying Yourself? (0:24)
  24. No Mice (0:35)
  25. To Bed (0:58)
  26. Pop Off (0:28)

    The Greibble – music by John Addison

  27. Off To Work / Tidying Up (1:40)
  28. Daily Soap (1:00)
  29. First Encounter / Is It Dangerous? (3:44)
  30. Lamp Eater (1:08)
  31. Nummy, Nummy (1:36)
  32. Hardware Dump (2:10)
  33. Gun Threat (0:58)
  34. Friends (1:10)
  35. Revelation (1:54)

    No Day At The Beach – music by Leonard Rosenman

  36. No Day At The Beach / Picking Up Cards / Turkey In The Face (2:06)
  37. Hey Casey / Get Some Sleep (1:32)
  38. Battle Stations (0:25)
  39. Gun Fire (0:22)
  40. Charging Pill Box (1:54)
  41. Dead Arnold (0:16)
  42. He Never Got Off The Boat (4:11)

    Santa ’85 – music by Thomas Newman

  43. From The Sky Above The House / From The House To The Within / From The Chimney And In Through The Window (5:42)
  44. Caught By The Law (1:42)
  45. The Reindeer / No Fingerprints / From The Jail To The Chase To Left Off (5:18)
  46. The Ray Gun (0:50)
  47. By Candlelight (0:28)
  48. Amazing Stories End Credits (0:29)
  49. Amblin Logo – Christmas Version (0:15)

Released by: Intrada
Release date: 2006
Disc one total running time: 78:03
Disc two total running time: 76:28

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