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The Shaft Anthology: His Big Score And More!

By Earl Green
March 14, 2024

7 min read

Released in 2008 (to an audience that almost immediately bought out the print run of all 3,000 copies that were pressed), Film Score Monthly’s The Shaft Anthology is a revelation even if you’re already familiar with the existing release of Isaac Hayes’ album of music from the original movie. For one thing, the album released by Hayes alongside the film did not contain the original recordings as heard in the movie, but took the common approach of a more album-friendly re-recording that had better flow as a listening experience. (This frequently happens because film scores tend to contain a lot of discrete cues that might seem to be jarringly short to those not accustomed to listening to scores in their original form, hence the time-honored tradition – upheld by Williams, Goldsmith, and many others – of re-recording “concert” arrangements that sew the better short pieces together with linking material.) As a result, there is much here that was not on Hayes’ hit album – and even where there’s material that the two albums have in common (such as “Theme from Shaft”), the film version is a different recording, sometimes quite noticeably different. FSM’s 3-CD set aimed to deliver the full score from Shaft down to its shortest track, and with Hayes backed by the Bar-Kays or Movement (or some combination thereof) as his backing band, even the briefest track is a treat to hear.

The plan was to bring Hayes back for the sequel, Shaft’s Big Score!, but as the original film and its soundtrack had made him a hot commodity, Hayes simply didn’t have an opening in his schedule to handle scoring duties on the second movie. Tom McIntosh, who had lent orchestration expertise to Hayes on the first film, was still under contract to MGM and present on the studio lot, expecting to assist Hayes again, but instead found himself collaborating with director Gordon Parks, who opted to try his hand at scoring his own picture (paving the way for John Carpenter). (The delicate subject of who did the most actual musical work on Shaft’s Big Score! – and thus who should get the toplining screen credit – remained something of a long-running point of contention between Parks and McIntosh.) Whoever did the work, the Shaft’s Big Score! is better than you might expect. On the one hand, you’re probably not expecting the songcraft to be on Hayes’ level, but it’s certainly not lacking in either effort or orchestration. (Needless to say, everything in this entire box set is expertly played and extraordinarily well-produced – Hayes’ score from the original film is populated by musicians from the Stax Records stable of players, so it seems to be understood that, with that as the starting point, everything else in the Shaft franchise has to be at that level.) It may not be Hayes and his backing band, but the music of Shaft’s Big Score! is also not a letdown. Since the film’s director had direct input into the score, the second movie’s soundtrack is arguably more “soundtrackish” than the first, but still finds time to pause for a song (“Type Thang”, “Don’t Misunderstand”, “Move On In”) or two. The template established by Shaft is hewed to closely.

Though the extensive liner notes booklet acknowledges Shaft In Africa, it also reveals that the rights to that soundtrack – available elsewhere – did not allow it to appear in the box set, which means that almost half of disc two and all of disc three are devoted to the previously-unreleased-in-any-form complete episode scores from CBS’ short-lived Shaft TV series. That such a series happened at all – with Richard Roundtree remaining in the starring role, and on CBS, arguably the stodgiest old-school network on TV at the time – is still one of the most counter-intuitive moves in the history of film and TV, though to no one’s surprise, the television rendering of Shaft was vastly watered down from the far less filtered version of the character from the big screen. The result was a show that heavily compromised the films’ version of John Shaft, and probably made CBS’ older, largely white audience break out in a cold sweat. Still, the music tries to hold up its end of the bargain of connecting to the film franchise: the melody of Hayes’ “Theme From Shaft” is quoted often, and the TV episode scores spend equal time trying to summon the movies’ classic soul vibe, and dwelling in the space where a lot of ’70s TV music dwells (i.e. we can’t afford as large an orchestra as a movie, but we’re going to make the best of it). When there are tracks like “Cars And Bridges” connecting the TV series to the sound of the movies, There’s still a lot to love within the reduced expectations of Shaft: The Series.

Long out of print and much sought after, at least parts of The Shaft Anthology live on in other releases (Shaft’s Big Score! is available separately, and the first disc (minus the last two tracks) containing the complete score from Shaft itself is now part of Craft Records’ more easily attainable 2017 release Shaft: Deluxe Edition. This leaves the television scores as the real “killer app” of The Shaft Anthology, taking up nearly half of the box set. It’s gotten pricey on the secondary market, but the whole set is worth tracking down.

Disc One: Shaft ((1971)
Title Shaft (Theme From Shaft) (4:34)

Shaft’s First Fight (1:46)

Reel 2 Part 2 / Cat Oughta Be Here (1:43)

Bumpy’s Theme (Bumpy’s Lament) (1:44)

Harlem Montage (Soulsville) (3:32)

Love Scene Ellie (Ellie’s Love Theme) (1:43)

Shaft’s Cab Ride / Shaft Enters Building (1:38)

I Can’t Get Over Losin’ You (2:06)

Reel 4 Part 6 (1:37)

Reel 5 Part 1 (1:35)

Reel 5 Part 2 (A Friend’s Place) (1:44)

Source No. 1—6M1A (Bumpy’s Blues) (3:05)

Source No. 1—6M1B (Bumpy’s Lament) (1:32)

Source No. 1—6M1C (Early Sunday Morning) (3:05)

Source No. 2—7M1A (Do Your Thang) (3:21)

Source No. 2—7M1B (Be Yourself) (1:54)

Source No. 2—7M1C (No Name Bar) (2:28)

Shaft Strikes Again/Return of Shaft (1:36)

Source No. 3 (Caffe Reggio) (4:23)

Shaft’s Walk To Hideout (Walk From Reggio) (2:27)

Shaft’s Pain (3:03)

Rescue / Roll Up (10:44)

Bonus Tracks)

Theme From The Men (4:09)

Type Thang (From Shaft’s Big Score!) (3:53)

Disc Two: Shaft’s Big Score! (1972)
Blowin’ Your Mind (Main Title) (3:30)

The Other Side (1:49)

Smart Money (2:10)

The Search/Sad Circles (2:31)

Asby-Kelly Man (1:45)

First Meeting (1:56)

Don’t Misunderstand (1:46)

Fight Scene (1:06)

Ike’s Place (4:09)

Move on In (3:38)

8M1/8M2 (1:25)

Funeral Home (4:02)

Don’t Misunderstand (instrumental) (1:53)

9M3 (0:44)

Symphony for Shafted Souls (Take-Off / Dance of the Cars / Water Ballet / Call and Response / The Last Amen) (14:06)

End Title (1:16)

Don’t Misunderstand (demo) (2:00)
Shaft (Television Series, 1973-74)
The Executioners

Courtroom/Leaving Court (2:36)

Dawson’s Trial (1:58)

Shaft Leaves Barbara / East River / He’s Dead, Barb / Cunningham’s Breakfast (1:58)

Visiting Jane / Act End / Jury Meets (2:02)

Cars and Bridges (2:43)

Leaving Airfield / Shaft Checks Hospital (2:22)

Shaft Gets Shot / Shaft In Car (1:29)

Night Blues (1:02)

Day Blues (1:04)

Pimp Gets Shot (2:59)

Handle It / Follow Cunningham (3:31)

Shaft Escapes / Stalking Menace (2:42)

End Theme (0:30)

Disc Three: Shaft (Television Series, 1973-74)
The Killing
Opening (2:33)

Diana In Hospital (2:37)

Window Shop / Leaving Hospital / Ciao (1:28)

Restaurant Scene / Punchin’ Sonny (2:52)

Hotel Room (3:05)

Diana Splits / Booking Shaft (1:31)

Shaft Gets Sprung / Searchin’ (2:09)

Pimps / Lick Her Store / Wettin’ His Hand / Diana Ducks Out (2:12)

Juke Box / Hands In The Box (2:31)

Shaft (2:53)

Iggie’s Tail (2:21)

Kyle Goes Down / Case Dismissed (1:21)
Hit-Run

Opening (1:57)

He’s The Best / Reenact / Good Day (2:38)

Travel Shaft (0:42)

Coffin Time (1:34)

To the Club (1:22)

Ann Appears / Shaft Gets It (2:14)

Jacquard (2:31)

Dart Board / Kissin’ Time (3:09)

Omelette (1:55)

Cheek Pat / Don’t Shoot / Shaft’s Move (1:05)

Funny Time (0:58)

At the Club (2:12)

Ending (1:49)
The Kidnapping

Chasin’ Shaft (3:00)

Sleep, Dog, Sleep (1:37)

Here Comes The Fuzz (2:11)

I Said Goodnight / Walkie Talkie (3:46)

Shoot Out (2:34)
The Cop Killers

Rossi Gets It / Hospital / Who The Hell Are You? (2:06)

Honky Horn (1:22)

Sleeping Pigs (1:35)

Splash Time (1:32)

Shaft Gets It (1:50)

Vacate The Van (1:41)

Fork Lift (2:09)

Shaft Theme (End Credit Version) (0:30)

Released by: Film Score Monthly
Release date: September 10, 2008
Disc one total running time: 1:10:18
Disc two total running time: 1:17:50
Disc three total running time: 1:18:49

2008 I Soundtracks Television

Invasion – music by Jon Ehrlich & Jason Derlatka

By Earl Green
August 27, 2012

3 min read

Promoted heavily going into the fall 2005 television season, Invasion seemed like the perfect stablemate for ABC’s Lost. They both had running, peel-back-the-onion-layers mystery storylines, set in relatively affordable locations for production purposes. Invasion also had Shaun Cassidy on its side – the former pop star turned writer/producer had created cult hits before, including the creepy and much-loved American Gothic. Surely, sooner or later, Cassidy’s way with plot and characters would hit one out of the park, and maybe Invasion would be the ball that went sailing over the fence. Right?

Not so fast. Mere weeks before its premiere, Invasion’s premise – strange things going on in a Florida community ravaged by a gigantic hurricane – had its thunder stolen by the real-life Hurricane Katrina, which turned the vibrant city of New Orleans into something worse than any disaster movie had ever shown us. ABC yanked the show’s promotion immediately, stealing Invasion’s thunder; a series of frequent time slot changes seemed to indicate that the network was quietly hoping that Invasion and its potentially-insensitive hurricane plotline would vanish before it caused any controversy.

The series was rather gripping stuff, and it got a fascinating musical treatment from composers Jon Erlich and Jason Derlatka – a bit of a side gig for the duo that was also scoring every episode of another new series called House M.D. Erlich and Derlatka created a web of interlocking themes and compositions that fit the show’s characters like a glove, from the solo string lament of alien-possessed Dr. Mariel Underlay (Earth: Final Conflict’s Kari Matchett) to the menacing rumble of her husband, who was somehow behind the whole plan to give an alien presence a foothold on Earth, using the mayhem of the hurricane as a cover for their operation. The seamy underbelly of the south is always present, but so too is are blasts of orchestra – all the more surprising because the show wasn’t wall-to-wall orchestra – signifying the alien presence in motion. Two conjoined tracks in particular, “Hybrids And Labor” and “Hurricane Approaching”, are truly big-screen stuff.

Curiously missing is the ten-second burst of discord that stood in for opening titles (a case of ABC pushing too hard to mold Invasion into the perfect partner for Lost, which had a similar opening title treatment). Many of the tracks are exceedingly short by the standard of commercially-released soundtrack albums, but they also fade into the next track gracefully – unless you’re watching the numbers on your CD player, you’d probably think you’re listening to longer, continuous compositions.

Invasion amassed a cult following noisy enough to request/demand a soundtrack release, but not a very big one: Swedish soundtrack boutique label Moviescore Media released only 1,000 copies of Invasion worldwide, one of the only pieces of merchandise that Invasion ever spawned (and it wasn’t released until long after the series’ cancellation). The soundtrack covers most of the key moments of Invasion’s solitary season on television, and it holds up well even without the sweaty tropical visuals of the show.

The Lights (2:02)

Russ & Larkin (1:31)

Mariel Swims / They’ve Lost Their Mother (2:33)

Sirk’s Abduction (1:37)

Szura (1:20)

The Rose (2:28)

Angel Mariel / Island Of Hybrid Castaways (2:55)

The Locket (1:14)

M.R.I. (2:10)

Hybrids In Labor (0:35)

Hurricane Approaching (0:38)

Couldn’t Save Them (0:40)

Pria’s Story (0:48)

Finding Mariel (1:57)

Emily’s Theme (1:17)

There’s A Boat Coming (3:11)

Kira & Sirk (1:38)

Hybrid Experiments (1:19)

Larkin Crashes (0:47)

Species Transformation (2:49)

The Battle (1:43)

Help Arrives (1:38)

Blogspeak (1:49)

Baby Steps (1:32)

Leon (2:20)

Last Moments (1:18)

Stalker (1:06)

Scrub It (1:45)

Larkin’s Shower (1:29)

Evolution (3:25)

Human Genocide (0:57)

When They First Met (2:06)

Do You Care Now? (2:17)

Mob Rule / Moving Toward The Light (1:37)

Full Circle (2:58)

Released by: MovieScore Media
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 61:29

2008 Film Soundtracks W

WALL-E – music by Thomas Newman

By Earl Green
November 14, 2011

5 min read

This is the soundtrack of a movie whose composer was either in love with the assignment, or lived in fear of it. Most movie scores are tasked with the job of underlining the emotional intent of any given scene, but with most movies this job is occasionally obscured by dialogue or sound effects. WALL-E had sound effects aplenty, but instead of dialogue, virtually the first half hour of the movie is expressed in terms of “robotic” processed grunts and exclamations. There are visual cues to the emotions being expressed, but the bulk of the legwork falls to the music: a unique opportunity for any composer to shine, but also a daunting task for modern-day composers accustomed to dialing the music back to make room for dialogue.

Thomas Newman, who had already worked with Pixar on Finding Nemo, took on the task and delivered what may be one of the best film scores of the 2000s, hands down. There’s a lot of music on the CD – and there’s a heap of music in the movie as well. Occasionally there’s a little burst of sound effects and “robot dialogue” from the movie in between songs, but to its credit, it never overlaps the music – and to be honest, I’d buy a whole CD of Ben Burtt’s brilliant soundscapes because the former Star Wars sound guru topped himself here.

The three songs heard prominently in the movie are heard here – the Louis Armstrong version of “La Vie En Rose” and the two numbers from Hello Dolly! – as well as Peter Gabriel‘s hammer-the-theme-of-the-movie-home end credits song “Down To Earth” (which, to be honest, I liked better than either of the albums he’s foisted on us since being involved with this movie).

The bulk of the soundtrack is taken up with Newman’s intricate, well-thought-out score, though. In some ways, he does the same thing Jerry Goldsmith did with Logan’s Run, but in reverse order: the “exterior” scenes on Earth and treated orchestrally, but once WALL-E boards the Axiom and enters the woeful artificial environment now inhabited by the descendants of the human race, our glimpses into life aboard that ship and the scenes involving the Axiom robots are given an electronic (but still melodic and playful) sound. As the action centers more and more on the fate of the sample of a live plant from Earth, the music returns to the orchestral vein, because the Earth is what’s at stake.

Tracks such as “The Spaceship”, “Worry Wait”, “EVE Retrieve”, “Hyperjump” and “WALL-E’s Pod Adventure” are orchestral spectaculars befitting just about any big-screen science fiction epic you could name. The music here has the entire weight of carrying the implications to the audience, and does the job brilliantly. Newman treats these scenes as Serious Events without worrying about scaring the kids off with spooky or scary music – so much so that even my own son has been asking me what the music “means,” enabling me to kick open some interesting conversations about soundtrack music and music in general with him. At the age of four. Thank you, Mr. Newman, for not “talking down” to the audience.

That’s not to say that the soundtrack doesn’t have a sense of humor. “First Date,” accompanying a montage of WALL-E sheltering the inert EVE from the elements (scenes that director Andrew Stanton reportedly wanted set to the vapid tune of “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head”), gets the kind of music you’d expect from a first date movie montage, except that most movies don’t have the girlfriend sitting comatose and unresponsive throughout the proceedings. The music is deceptively cheerful and becomes its own punch line.

Aboard the Axiom, there are some standout electronic and electronic/orchestral tracks – “Foreign Contaminant”, “Repair Ward” and “72 Degrees And Sunny” among them – which convey the robotic precision of the Axiom’s automated crew a mixture of acoustic and electronic percussion and a lot of intricate guitar progressions from George Doering (a veteran session guitarist who’s also played on numerous Star Trek soundtracks). The dreamy “Define Dancing” was rescored late in production so Newman could hint at “Down To Earth,” which he co-wrote with Peter Gabriel.

Late in the movie, as the humans have to shake off the shackles of their own mechanical support systems in order to regain some semblance of a human existence and return to Earth, tracks like “March Of The Gels”, “Tilt”, “Desperate EVE” and “Mutiny!” – the latter of which sounds in places like it could’ve been part of The Matrix, of all things – combine the two approaches.

It’s a brilliantly cohesive collection of music for a movie that actually has meaning, and I applaud Disney for putting an entire album of orchestral score out there for the young set. The soundtrack album from WALL-E may just have the effect on my son’s generation that the soundtrack from Star Wars had on me. And that’s not a bad thing at all. This is one of the best genre soundtracks of the past decade from one of the best genre movies of the past decade.

Put On Your Sunday Clothes performed by Michael Crawford (1:17)

2815 A.D. (3:28)

WALL-E (2:00)

The Spaceship (1:42)

EVE (1:02)

Thrust (0:41)

Bubble Wrap (0:50)

La Vie En Rose performed by Louis Armstrong (3:24)

Eye Surgery (0:40)

Worry Wait (1:19)

First Date (1:19)

EVE Retrieve (2:19)

The Axiom (2:24)

BNL (0:20)

Foreign Contaminant (2:06)

Repair Ward (2:20)

72 Degrees and Sunny (3:12)

Typing Bot (0:47)

Septuacentennial (0:15)

Gopher (0:40)

WALL-E’s Pod Adventure (1:13)

Define Dancing (2:23)

No Splashing No Diving (0:47)

All That Love’s About (0:37)

M-O (0:47)

Directive A-113 (2:05)

Mutiny! (1:28)

Fixing WALL-E (2:08)

Rogue Robots (2:03)

March of the Gels (0:54)

Tilt (2:00)

The Holo-Detector (1:07)

Hyperjump (1:04)

Desperate EVE (0:57)

Static (1:43)

It Only Takes a Moment performed by Michael Crawford (1:07)

Down to Earth performed by Peter Gabriel (5:58)

Horizon 12.2 (1:27)

Released by: Walt Disney Records
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 61:54

2008 Artists (by group or surname) Non-Soundtrack Music R Rubber Universe

Rubber Universe – Parliament Of Fooles

By Earl Green
January 24, 2010

Rubber Universe - Parliament Of Fooles A few years ago, I raved at great length about L.E.O., a loose collective of (largely) indie label power-pop veterans joining forces to pay a “stylistic” tribute to Electric Light Orchestra without covering any of the band’s existing songs. I’ve always held ELO and Alan Parsons Project in a similarly high esteem – both of them routinely turning out engrossing, lush music with stellar production – so it’s good to find Rubber Universe, a band which offers up a similar “stylistic tribute” to Parsons.

Where it was easy to figure out the object of L.E.O.’s musical affections, Rubber Universe is almost like a tribute – or, better yet, a whole new entry – to prog rock in general. The band states up front that their chief inspiration was Parsons, but in a couple of places (namely on the tracks “Paint My World” and “Nine Minutes ‘Till Midnight”) they also remind one forcefully of the Moody Blues at the height of their early ’70s experimentation (i.e. when their every release was mind-blowing and not just in service of a paint-by-numbers tour), and occasionally – especially in those songs with a healthy dose of female vocals – Clannad comes to mind.

Not that Rubber Universe is slavishly imitating anyone. The admission to having sprung from a tribute/cover band may be a way to automatically grab the attention of a certain fanbase, but Parliament Of Fooles is a fresh new entry in the prog rock pantheon on its own; the whole “former cover band” line in the publicity material may end up being counterproductive. The project (no pun intended) may have started as a cover band that wanted to do something original, but while Parsons fans will appreciate it, it’s nothing that screams “Hey, they’re trying to sound like the Alan Parsons Project.”

Though in a few places, they kinda do, with a little help from their friends: Project guitar god Ian Bairnson contributes to one track, while Godfrey Townsend, Parsons’ current touring guitarist, plays on another. The real coup, however – if those two weren’t enough to lend it the seal of Parsons Project authenticity – is a spoken-word intro for “Let Me Rule Your Heart” by the Project’s most famous vocalist and co-founder, the late Eric Woolfson.

If there’s one trap that Parliament Of Fooles falls victim to, it’s a tendency for most of the songs to hover in the same mid-tempo territory. The good news is that, when a song that breaks that mold comes along (i.e. “Romance Of The Illusion”), it instantly stands out, but much of the album sticks around the same tempo; any second effort from Rubber Universe would do well to vary things a bit more.

But for a freshman outing by a new band, especially one that has one hell of a musical and production pedigree to live up to, built into its mission statement, Rubber Universe is an outfit that bears close watching – and repeat listening. Though fans of the Alan Parsons Project, they’ve proven that they’re more than ready to carve their own path, and with Parsons’ own output having dropped to less-than-prodigious levels in the past 20 years, I’d welcome a new entity making music with the same expansive feel.

Negative Spaces (4:23)

Dream Catcher (6:53)

Romance Of The Illusion (2:16)

Madness In Slumberland (4:18)

Garden Of Earthly Delights (3:54)

Let Me Rule Your Heart featuring Eric Woolfson (5:36)

Paint My World (3:35)

We Insist (Place De Greve Mix) (5:05)

Goodbye My Love (2:02)

Trying To Go On (4:40)

Nine Minutes ‘Till Midnight featuring Godfrey Townsend (4:04)

Parliament Of Fooles featuring Ian Bairnson (5:47)

Released by: Rubber Universe
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 52:33

2008 8-Bit Weapon R Soundtracks Video Game / Computer Game

Reset Generation – music by 8-Bit Weapon

By Earl Green
April 17, 2009

Reset Generation - music by 8-Bit Weapon A collection of short, punchy instrumental pieces composed for Nokia’s Reset Generation game – which itself pays tribute to numerous games of yesteryear – 8-Bit Weapon’s soundtrack has a lot in common with the old video games that I like: the tunes are addictive, make me want to come back for more, and don’t hang around long enough to get old. Not a bad combination, really.

One thing that may throw listeners off, however, is the brevity I’m talking about above: many of the tracks barely clock in at over one minute, and many of them begin and end very abruptly. The latter is no accident: the tracks are meant to “loop” repeatedly during specific scenes and levels of Reset Generation itself. Fortunately, the tracks are timed out in such a way that one tune’s end leads directly into the next track almost seamlessly. Any one track by itself might seem to be an abrupt listening experience, but the entire soundtrack is a fun listen.

Highlights include “Power Up Pumpin'”, “Micro Anthem 2a03” (named after the NES’ sound chip), “64 Rocker”, “Rock Music Entry 6581” and the Leviathan mix of the Reset Generation theme – to name just a few. Those are just my favorites, but to an extent, all of the Reset Generation tracks are earworms that will prove difficult to dislodge from your head after you’ve heard them.

Included as a bonus track is “2D Died”, a riff on Don McLean’s “American Pie” (as in “the day 2D [gaming] died”) which does a great job of updating the original song into a chiptune extravaganza with vocoder-ized vocals. My one issue with “2D Died” is the same issue I have with “American Pie” itself (or, for that matter, “Sweet Home Alabama”: the first three minutes or so are okay, and after that I start looking at track time remaining because the same melody/chord structure is just repeating. I don’t know if that’s even 4 out of 4 something to dock points for: 8-Bit Weapon is only paying homage to the 7+ minute original. And in any case, I like it better than Madonna’s update of the same song, but it’s just not something I feel compelled to listen to repeatedly, though its lyrics are pretty clever. But the rest of the album – which, by the way, can be downloaded free via the link below – is 8-Bit Weapon gold: repeat listening is compulsory (and with the loop-ready nature of the tracks, it’s even repeat-button-friendly!).

Reset Generation Anthem (3:42)

Aphex Tweek (1:26)

Dungeon Derivative (0:54)

Blip Bwop (1:16)

Little Lost Lazer Boy (1:01)

Lethargic Menace (1:16)

Bubble Twin Bonanza (1:04)

Where Fools Tread (1:01)

Chiptune Chump (1:19)

Commodore Base (1:20)

Micro Anthem 2a03 (1:35)

64 Rocker (1:12)

Krafty Noob (1:16)

Tricky Game (1:04)

Reset Generation Anthem – Leviathan Mix (1:22)

Nin10do Raver (0:59)

Breakin’ Bits (1:20)

Macro Boogie (0:57)

Power Up Pumpin’ (1:20)

BootySoft Inc. (0:57)

Corrupt Conscript Festival (1:25)

SID Vicious (1:55)

Rock Music Entry 6581 (1:04)

Reset Generation Anthem – Sinister Mix (1:13)

2D Died (7:43)

Released by: 8-Bit Weapon / Nokia
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 39:41

2008 F Non-Soundtrack Music Tim Finn

Tim Finn – The Conversation

By Earl Green
March 16, 2009

3 min read

Some concept albums try to tell a specific story, while, with some concept albums, the “concept” is built around specific musical parameters – we’re only going to use these instruments, or we’re only going to play live with no overdubs. In the case of Tim Finn’s The Conversation, it’s the latter kind of concept album: reuniting with fellow Split Enz alumni Eddie Rayner on piano and Miles Golding on violin, Tim Finn aims for nothing less than a folk-rock version of chamber music.

Now, this isn’t to say that it’s strictly lo-fi. Within that very specific combination of instruments, there are plenty of possibilities for a variety of sounds. The opening track, “Straw To Gold”, ends with a searing duet between violin and electric guitar. “Only A Dream” takes on a dreamy, almost-old-school bluegrass/country flavor with its guitar work. Out of the entire album, only “Forever Thursday” has drums at all. One guest musician brings a special touch to one particular song; “The Saw And The Tree”, which turns out to be an anti-domestic-violence song, features an actual saw solo that, against Golding’s violin work in the background, is positively haunting. The “limited range of instruments” turns out not to be much of a limit at all here.

The presence of Split Enz musicians doesn’t mean that this is a particularly Enz-y album, although it seems as though Finn’s Enz experiences inform the lyrics in many cases. Musically, the closest The Conversation gets to the Split Enz ethos is the light-hearted “Great Return”, and the Enz-iest element of that song is Rayner’s piano work. As Golding was dropped from the Enz lineup very early in the 1970s, when the band went from acoustic to electric, it’s hard to nail any of his performances down as particularly Enz in nature, and even so, there are almost 40 years of professional classical concert performance that stand a slightly better chance of being a musical influence on him. Lyrically, “Fall From Grace” references the Enz song “Maybe” and seems to be Finn’s equivalent of “All Those Years Ago”, while one wonders if “More Fool Me” isn’t a song whose words are pointed at a certain Mr. Judd.

In the end, though, The Conversation is not only uniquely Tim Finn, but it’s fairly unique within Tim Finn’s body of work; I’d be very surprised to hear him do another album in this style, but The Conversation – despite its sparse arrangements – is substantial enough that it’s a very worthwhile detour from Finn’s usual fare.

Straw To Gold (3:57)

Out Of This World (3:01)

The Saw & The Tree (4:04)

Slow Mystery (4:00)

Rearview Mirror (3:43)

Only A Dream (2:31)

Fall From Grace (2:42)

Invisible (3:51)

Snowbound (2:57)

Great Return (3:02)

Imaginary Kingdom (3:17)

Forever Thursday (2:57)

More Fool Me (3:41)

Released by: Capitol
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 43:43

2008 Soundtracks T Television

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – music by Bear McCreary

By Earl Green
February 16, 2009

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Since making a splash in the film music scene with his distinctive music for the new Battlestar Galactica, Bear McCreary has earned not only acclaim, but a very busy schedule on the scoring stage. In addition to direct-to-DVD horror movies like the Rest Stop series, McCreary has also taken over the musical duties on Sci-Fi’s Eureka, and in each case, he’s done so in such a way that the results don’t scream “This is the guy who does the music for Battlestar Galactica” – and really, that’s a good thing. That’s the sort of diverse talent that keeps composers employed.

For those wishing that there was more music in the same vein as Galactica’s percussive moodiness, though, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles fits the bill. The series itself kicked off with the same kind of world-weary hope-in-the-face-of-a-fatalistic-future tone that Galactica has carried throughout its run, but let’s face it, it’s almost certain that Galactica’s wall-of-percussion action scenes are what landed McCreary this job. The Sarah Connor Chronicles utilizes plenty of metallic percussion, though often sampled and processed heavily – appropriate for a show that deals with robotic assassins from the future.

Galactica fans will also find this show’s use of a small string ensemble familiar, appearing at several points in the soundtrack to deliver low-key, almost mournful moments in stark contrast to the pounding percussion. Both elements come together in the show’s end title theme, with an effect that’s equal parts apocalyptic and Celtic. Unlike the main title theme, which is heavy on percussion and light on melody, the end titles are based on “Sarah Connor’s Theme” (heard in full on track 3).

On the opposite end of the spectrum from that theme, there’s the busy, almost Art Of Noise-like “Motorcycle Robot Chase”, loaded with scraping metal percussion, stuttering electronic sting notes, and just plain noise. Needless to say, this track goes nuts in a way that wouldn’t fit on Galactica – it’s uniquely Sarah Connor Chronicles, and easily the busiest track on the entire album by miles.

Two songs are included, “Samson And Delilah” (performed by Shirley Manson of Garbage, who joined the cast as part of a rethink of the show’s format in season two), and the raucous “Ain’t We Famous”, performed by Brendan McCreary and his band (also responsible for some of Galactica’s more mainstream musical moments, such as “All Along The Watchtower”). “Samson And Delilah” didn’t really strike me as radically different from anything I’ve heard from Ms. Manson before, but “Ain’t We Famous” is a fun, rockin’ number that stands up to repeat listening better. An homage to Carl Stalling – about the last thing I expected to hear here – is included as well (“Atomic Al’s Merry Melody”).

4 out of 4 I’m going to fess up that I’m not a huge fan of the show itself, but its music is certainly worthy of attention. Fans of Battlestar Galactica’s music will enjoy this one, whether they’ve followed the series or not, because it’s on very familiar ground (and yet slightly different) musically. This’ll tide you over until the next Galactica soundtrack quite nicely.

Samson And Delilah (4:58)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Main Titles (0:45)

Sarah Connor’s Theme (3:17)

Cromartie In The Hospital (1:10)

Andy Goode’s Turk (3:11)

Central America (1:34)

John And Riley (2:27)

Derek Reese (2:53)

Ain’t We Famous (3:36)

Motorcycle Robot Chase (2:50)

The Hand Of God (3:10)

Prisoners Of War (6:26)

Miles Dyson’s Grave (2:43)

Atomic Al’s Merry Melody (1:23)

The Reese Boys (1:41)

Removing Cameron’s Chip (3:15)

Ellison Spared (2:23)

I Love You (2:30)

Catherine Weaver (2:05)

Derek’s Mission (1:47)

There’s A Storm Coming (3:02)

Highway Battle (3:58)

Perfect Creatures (2:15)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles End Titles (0:35)

Released by: La-La Land Records
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 63:54

2008 Ben Folds F Non-Soundtrack Music

Ben Folds – Way To Normal

By Earl Green
January 5, 2009

Ben Folds - Way To Normal Ben Folds’ first entire album of new material since 2005’s Songs For Silverman (Supersunnyspeedgraphic really just being a compilation of material that had been tried out on limited-run EPs first), Way To Normal heralds Folds’ return to the U.S. (accompanied by the almost prerequisite seismic changes in his personal life), and as a result, the musical tone shifts wildly from song to song.

There are songs that are immediately accessible (the duet “You Don’t Know Me”, set to a drum machine beat with sampled strings, and “Cologne” and “Kylie From Connecticut”, both reminiscent of Folds’ best ballads), and some that may take a bit of time to grow accustomed to. “The Frown Song” is a nifty little number whose mosquito-like synths may be off-putting at first, and “Brainwashed” with its overpowering drum beat instantly brought New Radicals’ “You Get What You Give” to mind. “Errant Dog” and “Bitch Went Nuts” will appeal to fans of quirky Ben Folds Five numbers like “Song For The Dumped”. I can’t quite get my head around “Free Coffee”, but that’s simply because of the production choices made and not the song itself – there’s a very hissy, high-frequency sound running through most of the song that I just find irritating. As a fan of production-driven orchestrated rock, I’m all for trying out daring things at the mixing board, but if it drives the listener away, what’s the point?

3 out of 4 The usual caveats apply to Folds’ music – no-holds-barred language (it definitely earns its dreaded “parental advisory” sticker on the cover) being chief among them – but long-term Folds fans will probably be (mostly) pleased. It’s just that there are a couple of tracks here that might throw even the devout followers; the album title itself seems to hint that Folds is trying to find his way back to normal (no, it’s not a text-message-speak-era typo of “way too normal”)…and maybe the next album will be a four-star offering once he gets there and life settles down a bit for him.

Hiroshima (B-B-B-Benny Hit His Head) (3:37)

Dr. Yang (2:30)

The Frown Song (3:37)

You Don’t Know Me featuring Regina Spektor (3:11)

Before Cologne (0:53)

Cologne (5:02)

Errant Dog (2:24)

Free Coffee (4:01)

Bitch Went Nuts (3:06)

Brainwascht (3:48)

Effington (3:32)

Kylie From Connecticut (4:44)

Released by: Sony
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 40:25

1987 2008 A Alan Parsons Project Non-Soundtrack Music

Alan Parsons Project – Gaudi (remastered)

By Earl Green
December 22, 2008

4 min read

The last Alan Parsons Project album to be released under that band name is also the last of the Alan Parsons Project remasters, and thus Gaudi ends two stories at the same time. I can’t really tell how much actual remastering was done here – Gaudi was originally recorded on fairly high-end digital equipment to begin with, and though that means digital-to-tape rather than a hard drive, it was always a very sharp recording. It’s probably best known for “Closer To Heaven” and “Money Talks”, both of which appeared on Miami Vice at the time of the original release, and “Paseo de Gracia”, which I remember being a staple of the Weather Channel forecast music at the time.

In remastered form, we get to hear the gestation of several of the songs, with early drafts of “Paseo de Gracia” and “La Sagrada Familia” on display, and an interesting look at the sonic components that made up “Money Talks”. The first draft of “Too Late” is heard here, with Eric Woolfson “la-la-ing” his way through the rhythm for the still-to-be-written vocals, though apparently it was already known that the song would be “Too Late” (however, even the placement and expression of that phrase within the embryonic lyrics is vastly different from what finally appeared). In this form, the song also has a wildly ’80s intro that vanished before the final recorded version.

I was never the biggest fan of Gaudi at the time of its release; it has, in “Standing On Higher Ground” and “Too Late”, two of the best straight-ahead, unaffected rock songs that the Project turned out in the 1980s, and in “Inside Looking Out”, one of Eric Woolfson’s best ballads. I seem to recall not being a huge fan of Stereotomy, Gaudi‘s immediate forerunner, too, though going back and listening to those albums with Woolfson’s post-Project musicals in mind, I can now appreciate Gaudi and Stereotomy for what they were: course corrections of varying degrees trying to keep the Project on a rock/prog rock/pop music path rather than giving in to Woolfson’s theatrical tendencies.

Don’t get me wrong: the final Project album with Woolfson (the concept album for Freudiana, which was credited to Woolfson himself rather than the Project despite featuring Parsons and all of the usual studio suspects) is great stuff, but in many places it really ceases to be rock music. Gaudi was the last gasp of Woolfson even trying to make it look like he wanted to be doing rock music. Following Freudiana, Parsons and Woolfson went their separate ways with wildly divergent solo careers both heavily influenced by the Project. Parsons’ first post-Project album, 1993’s Try Anything Once, was almost indistinguishable from a Project album except for Woolfson’s absence; Woolfson would go on to create a string of musicals using new arrangements of classic Project tunes revamped for the theater stage.

Gaudi still elicits the same sitting-on-the-fence response from me now that it did back then – some great songs, but also some material that I can live without. In retrospect, perhaps it was best for the Project to split at this point, as the different musical directions of the group’s two principals was on the verge of giving us a schizophrenic sound. With Woolfson continuing to fill theaters with his musicals, and Parsons venturing solidly into electronica, it’s hard to imagine two more divergent musical directions – whether it ended at Gaudi or Freudiana, the only thing that seems certain is that it would’ve ended sooner rather than later.

La Sagrada Familia (8:47)

Too Late (4:30)

Closer To Heaven (5:53)

Standing On Higher Ground (5:48)

Money Talks (4:26)

Inside Looking Out (6:26)

Paseo de Gracia (3:47)

Too Late (Eric Woolfson’s rough guide vocal) (4:13)

Standing On Higher Ground / Losing Proposition (vocal experiments) (3:58)

Money Talks (Chris Rainbow / percussion overdubs) (0:37)

Money Talks (rough mix backing track) (4:28)

Closer to Heaven (Chris Rainbow / sax overdub section) (0:50)

Paseo de Gracia (rough mix) (3:46)

La Sagrada Familia (rough mix) (7:25)

Released by: Sony / Arista
Release date: 1987 (remastered version released in 2008)
Total running time: 68:46

2008 D Doctor Who Soundtracks Television

Doctor Who: Series 4 – music by Murray Gold

By Earl Green
December 8, 2008

4 min read

It just goes to follow that, as I liked season 4 of the new Doctor Who better than season 3, I hold its soundtrack album in a similar regard. In terms of both story and soundtrack, the new Who’s fourth season is everything I wanted – but didn’t get – from the third season, and composer-in-residence Murray Gold delivered music to match the more effective storytelling.

Most of the season’s highlights are represented here, with a wealth of music from Voyage Of The Damned, Silence In The Library / Forest Of The Dead, Turn Left, The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End, and even slightly less obvious gems like Midnight. Voyage is represented by a ten-minute suite of highlights from that expanded, nearly-movie-length Christmas special, while there’s no shortage of music from the season’s two-parters – with one disappointing exception. The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison Sky sported some suspenseful, brassy music to accompany the attempted invasion by the warlike spuds, only one piece of which – a rehash of the first soundtrack volume’s UNIT theme – shows up here. As fearsome as this two-parter made the Sontarans out to be, their music is notable by its absence here.

Fan favorites such as the Ood songs from Planet Of The Ood (reprised in the climactic moments of Journey’s End), the reverse-echoed rendition of the Doctor’s theme from Turn Left, and even the rapid-fire techno-action piece “Hanging On The Tablaphone” (which, aside from being a play on a Blondie song title, underscored frantic preparations in Torchwood during the finale) can be found here. My favorite surprise is the brutal music from Midnight, truly scary in its intensity (and apparently the composer’s homage to Jerry Goldsmith’s music from Planet Of The Apes). It’s an exhausting listen, even with its just-over-three-minute running time, and really makes you feel like you’ve been beaten up by the end of it. It’s interesting to note that some of the Midnight music – whose howling, descending trombones call to mind Michael Giacchino’s music from Lost – also shows up in the “Davros” track.

The real question now is: will Murray Gold stay? Several major behind-the-scenes figures are following departing showrunner Russell T. Davies out the door after what has almost certainly been an exhausting four years, and even David Tennant is going to bow out in the last of the 2009 special episodes (airing in place of a full season). Having collaborated on such projects as Second Coming, Torchwood and Queer As Folk with Davies, Murray Gold is definitely a Davies loyalist. It remains to be seen if he’ll follow his boss out the door, though – if I’d been asked a season ago, I would’ve said that it was perhaps time for a chance in the show’s creative and musical directions. But season four was so engrossing that I’d like to see Gold stick around long enough to score some Steven Moffat episodes with the 11th Doctor – and yet at the same time, I’ll admit that I could do with fewer appearances of the “orchestra plus a rock drummer” sound. Time, as always, will tell.

Doctor Who Season Four Opening Credits (0:46)

A Noble Girl About Town (2:14)

Life Among the Distant Stars (2:30)

Corridors And Fire Escapes (1:12)

The Sybilline Sisterhood (1:53)

Songs Of Captivity And Freedom (4:03)

UNIT Rocks (1:11)

The Doctor’s Daughter (1:38)

The Source (3:21)

The Unicorn And The Wasp (3:11)

The Doctor’s Theme Season Four (2:47)

Voyage Of The Damned Suite (10:21)

The Girl With No Name (2:45)

The Song Of Song (2:14)

All In The Mind (1:18)

Silence In The Library (2:57)

The Greatest Story Never Told (6:17)

Midnight (3:07)

Turn Left (2:20)

A Dazzling End (2:22)

The Rueful Fate Of Donna Noble (2:44)

Davros (2:07)

The Dark And Endless Dalek Night (3:44)

A Pressing Need To Save The World (4:55)

Hanging On The Tablaphone (1:07)

Song Of Freedom (2:51)

Doctor Who Season Four Closing Credits (1:07)

Released by: Silva Screen
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 76:27

Category: 2008

The Shaft Anthology: His Big Score And More!

Invasion – music by Jon Ehrlich & Jason Derlatka

WALL-E – music by Thomas Newman

Rubber Universe – Parliament Of Fooles

Reset Generation – music by 8-Bit Weapon

Tim Finn – The Conversation

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – music by Bear McCreary

Ben Folds – Way To Normal

Alan Parsons Project – Gaudi (remastered)

Doctor Who: Series 4 – music by Murray Gold

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