Category: 2010

Categories
1989 2010 Film S Soundtracks Star Trek

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (Newly Expanded Edition)

4 min read

Released with little advance warning or fanfare at the end of 2010, Jerry Goldsmith‘s soundtrack from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is the archetypal “soundtrack that’s ripe for an expanded re-release” – it’s better music than its parent movie deserved, only a certain amount of the music has been available before (namely, a 45-minute soundtrack album that dates back to the twilight of the vinyl LP), and it pleases followers of both the Star Trek franchise and the late, great composer himself. Seriously, what’s not to love about this release?

The previously unreleased slices of Goldsmith’s soundtrack are, partly because of obscurity and partly because of quality, much more interesting than the stuff we have heard before. What we’ve been missing out on for over 20 years is material that clarifies the development of many of the movie’s musical themes: the unstable-but-noble Sybok theme, material both uncertain and religious/epic for his quest to find God, and lots of interesting new uses of Goldsmith’s by-now well-worn Star Trek: The Motion Picture Enterprise and Klingon themes (remember that, when this movie was released, that material had also been quoted and/or rearranged extensively for two seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation). That Goldsmith reclaims his material and puts a fresh spin on it is impressive.

There’s also much more of an adventurous, emotional feel to those themes this time around, rather than the somewhat unemotional treatment of the same material in his score for the first Star Trek movie (though that movie’s colder, more intellectual nature demanded the musical treatment that it received). If there’s one area where the music from Star Trek V falters even slightly, it’s some of the electronic instrumentation, especially a recurring, off-kilter motif for Sybok and his movement. Goldsmith is often hailed for his innovative use of electronics and his ability to make them part of the orchestra rather than making them sound like an oddball overdub, but by this point synths and electronic keyboards were off-the-shelf instruments with a somewhat limited palette of preset sounds. There’s an interesting synthesized “drone” for Sybok’s repeated demonstration of an ability to probe other characters’ pain, but other than that, nothing stands out like, say, Goldsmith’s use of analog synths in Logan’s Run or the unearthly Blaster Beam sound of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Unlike every other ’80s Star Trek soundtrack released in the past couple of years, Star Trek V was released by La-La Land Records, but in a collaboration of soundtrack boutique label all-stars, still sports an incredibly informative booklet by Film Score Monthly’s Lukas Kendall and Jeff Bond (the latter of whom wrote an entire chapter on the Trek V soundtrack in his book “The Music Of Star Trek“), so it’s still very consistent with the packaging and presentation of FSM’s other Trek music releases from 2010. And as with Film Score Monthly’s previous reissues of music from Star Trek II and Star Trek III, the second disc of this soundtrack replicates the original 1989 soundtrack album (and there are actually some differences between the album versions and film versions of some pieces), and uses the remaining run time of the second disc for alternates, early takes and a track of electronic “experiments.”

Hearing the music afresh raised my opinion of the soundtrack from Star Trek V considerably, and I almost 4 out of 4found myself wondering if perhaps the movie itself hasn’t gotten a bit of a bum rap, what with its plotline about a madman in a desert trying to manipulate a more powerful body (the Federation, by way of the Enterprise) in his quest to appease his god. With music like this, it’s almost enough to make one consider a rematch with the movie itself.

Order this CD

    Disc 1 – The Complete Film Score
  1. Nimbus III (2:01)
  2. The Mind-Meld (2:43)
  3. The Mountain [Main Title] (4:53)
  4. The Big Drop (0:26)
  5. Raid on Paradise (2:43)
  6. Not Alone (1:11)
  7. Target Practice (1:52)
  8. A Tall Ship (1:43)
  9. Plot Course (1:46)
  10. No Harm (2:13)
  11. Approaching Nimbus III (2:59)
  12. Open the Gates (3:01)
  13. Well Done (1:16)
  14. Without Help (4:55)
  15. Pick It Up (2:31)
  16. No Authority (0:30)
  17. It Exists (1:47)
  18. Free Minds (3:18)
  19. The Birth (3:53)
  20. The Barrier (2:52)
  21. A Busy Man (4:41)
  22. An Angry God (6:57)
  23. Let’s Get Out of Here [part 1] (3:42)
  24. Let’s Get Out of Here [part 2] (3:07)
  25. Cosmic Thoughts (1:16)
  26. Life Is a Dream [End Credits] (3:57)
    Disc 2 – The 1989 Soundtrack Album
  1. The Mountain (3:50)
  2. The Barrier (2:51)
  3. Without Help (4:18)
  4. A Busy Man (4:40)
  5. Open the Gates (3:00)
  6. An Angry God (6:55)
  7. Let’s Get Out of Here (5:13)
  8. Free Minds (3:17)
  9. Life Is a Dream (3:57)
  10. The Moon’s a Window to Heaven – performed by Hiroshima (4:00)

    Additional Music

  11. The Mountain (alternate) (4:45)
  12. A Busy Man (alternate) (4:42)
  13. Paradise Saloon (source) (2:42)
  14. The Moon’s a Window to Heaven (film version) (1:10)
  15. Vulcan Song / Row, Row, Row Your Boat (instrumental source) (1:33)
  16. Synclavier Effects (1:54)

Released by: La-La Land Records
Release date: 2010
Disc one total running time: 73:07
Disc two total running time: 59:28

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Categories
2010 D Doctor Who Soundtracks Television

Doctor Who: Series 5

5 min read

Following hot on the heels of the Series 4 – The Specials 2-CD set, Doctor Who: Series 5 uses much the same format – two CDs again, and as with The Specials, most of the music is presented as unedited individual cues instead of compilations. Most of the season’s episodes are represented here, so there’s something to keep everyone happy.

Following the suddenly-more-gothic-than-it-used-to-be new rendition of the theme music, The Eleventh Hour storms out of the gates, with Murray Gold’s music sounding very much as it did during the tenure of showrunner Russell T. Davies. But as the music from the season opener progresses, we get a very different musical picture than what we’re used to: darker, heavier with synths, and altogether more moody. Moments of traditional Gold bombast do crop up in several scores, but the brass section isn’t necessarily getting a workout with every episode.

It should be pointed out that this is not a bad thing. Without a change of composer, the new season of Doctor Who managed to sound like a completely different show after the opening titles rolled for The Eleventh Hour. Sinister things are afoot throughout the season, and they’re handled with sinister, slithering music. The major themes for the Doctor, Amy (both young and younger) and the lingering threat of Prisoner Zero / the Atraxi / the Silence (which, we are told repeatedly, will fall) are rolled out fairly early on, and the whole thing has a more mystical feel to it. Highlights of the first disc include the quirky “Fish Custard”, “Amy In The TARDIS”, the unnervingly abstract “Time Of The Angels”, and both tracks from “Amy’s Choice”, an episode that’s atypical both musically and in a narrative sense. Those looking for the Murray Gold sound of old won’t be let down: seek out “Down To Earth”, “Battle In The Sky” (from Victory Of The Daleks‘ silly Spitfires-in-space scene) and “The Silurians”.

Disc two kicks off with the season’s musical highlight, Vincent And The Doctor. I’m going to put my cards on the table and say that the track “With Love, Vincent” – accompanying a scene in which Vincent van Gogh helps the Doctor and Amy visualize the night sky as one of his paintings – is the best piece of music that anyone’s put on our TV screens in the past twelve months, with the only serious challenger to that being the music from Lost’s Ab Aeterno episode.

Other highlights on the second CD include “A Useful Striker” (underscoring a true oddity: a Doctor Who sports montage, from The Lodger), and the music heralding perhaps the quietest Doctor Who cliffhanger in the show’s storied history, “The Life and Death of Amy Pond”. Just about every note of music from the season-ending two-parter is found on this disc, from big set pieces (“Words Win Wars”) to nearly fairy-tale material (“Into The Museum”). I found the cue-by-cue approach – which was unfamiliar ground with the Series 4 – The Specials album – worked very well here. The music of the fifth season of new Who was much more interconnected than the disjointed (and disparately scheduled) final batch of Tennant episodes, and it’s interesting to hear the themes develop.

Minor complaint: as with Series 4 – The Specials, there are two iTunes exclusive tracks that mean you’d have to buy the album all over again in digital if you sprang for the physical CDs. Cut it out, guys. Even assuming 74-minute discs, there was enough room for these tracks on the CDs as well. (For the record, one track was from Victory Of The Daleks, and the other from Amy’s Choice.)

Murray Gold can still do music that makes it sound like the house is on fire, but where I was tiring of some of his orchestra-playing-to-a-rock-beat material under Russell T. Davies’ reign, he’s giving the 4 out of 4Moffat era a very fresh and enjoyable sound. At one point, I hoped that the shakeup of personnel might usher in a new composer, but after hearing Doctor Who: Series 5, I’m now of the opinion that Murray Gold can stick around as long as Dudley Simpson if he so chooses.

Order this CD

    Disc One
  1. Doctor Who XI (1:04)

    The Eleventh Hour

  2. Down To Earth (1:06)
  3. Little Amy (1:45)
  4. Fish Custard (2:00)
  5. Can I Come With You? (1:38)
  6. Little Amy: The Apple (1:12)
  7. The Sun’s Gone Wibbly (2:25)
  8. Zero (1:42)
  9. I Am The Doctor (4:04)
  10. The Mad Man With A Box (2:11)
  11. Amy In The TARDIS (4:18)

    The Beast Below

  12. The Beast Below (1:49)
  13. Amy’s Theme (2:06)
  14. A Lonely Decision (3:24)

    Victory Of The Daleks

  15. A Tyrannical Menace (2:03)
  16. Victory Of The Daleks (1:14)
  17. Battle In The Sky (3:25)

    The Time Of Angels / Flesh And Stone

  18. River’s Path (1:17)
  19. The Time Of Angels (3:59)

    The Vampires Of Venice

  20. I Offer You My Daughter (1:37)
  21. Chicken Casanova (1:24)
  22. Signora Rosanna Calvierri (4:26)
  23. Cab For Amy Pond (2:08)
  24. The Vampires Of Venice (4:50)

    Amy’s Choice

  25. Wedded Bliss (1:07)
  26. This Is The Dream (2:53)

    The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood

  27. Rio de Cwmtaff (4:03)
  28. The Silurians (2:02)
    Disc Two
    Vincent And The Doctor
  1. Paint (0:35)
  2. Vincent (2:00)
  3. Hidden Treasures (1:01)
  4. A Troubled Man (2:30)
  5. With Love, Vincent (3:27)

    The Lodger

  6. Adrift In The TARDIS (0:45)
  7. Friends And Neighbours (1:16)
  8. Doctor Gastronomy (1:08)
  9. You Must Like It Here (0:53)
  10. A Useful Striker (1:34)
  11. A Painful Exchange (1:11)
  12. Kiss The Girl (5:14)
  13. Thank You Craig (0:45)

    The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang

  14. River Runs Through It (1:28)
  15. Away On Horseback (1:25)
  16. Beneath Stonehenge (3:45)
  17. Who Else Is Coming (1:52)
  18. Amy And Rory (0:46)
  19. The Pandorica (2:00)
  20. Words Win Wars (1:49)
  21. The Life And Death Of Amy Pond (3:12)
  22. Amy’s Starless Life (1:41)
  23. Into The Museum (1:17)
  24. This Is Where It Gets Complicated (1:08)
  25. Roman Paradox (1:22)
  26. The Patient Centurion (2:49)
  27. The Same Sonic (0:55)
  28. Honey, I’m Home (2:13)
  29. The Perfect Prison (2:41)
  30. A River Of Tears (1:00)
  31. The Sad Man With A Box (3:18)
  32. You And Me, Amy (2:27)
  33. The Big Day (2:20)
  34. I Remember You (1:53)
  35. Onwards! (0:58)

Released by: Silva Screen
Release date: 2010
Disc one total running time: 67:12
Disc two total running time: 64:38

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Categories
2010 A Art Of Noise Artists (by group or surname) Non-Soundtrack Music

Art Of Noise – Influence: Best Of The Art Of Noise

Influence: Best Of The Art Of NoiseA while back, this site reviewed a 4-disc Art Of Noise box set, And What Have You Done With My Body, God?, which spent its entire running time on the group’s first EP and first full-length album, and the various detours that led them there, in essence rehashing the same handful of songs in subtly different evolutionary stages over the entire running time of 4 CDs. It’s a very strange thing to think that, for an encore, we now get Influence, a mere 2-CD set which spans the group’s entire career.

What’s more, Influence rolls out some mixes that I haven’t heard before: a stand-alone single version of “Legs” that wraps up within its own style rather than crashing abruptly into the next song on its original album, a very different mix of “Paranoimia” (but still with Matt “Max Headroom” Frewer vocals), and so on. In other words, unlike a best-of album that rehashes what you’ve heard, it gives you some slightly different takes on the familiar expected hits and near-misses (and, atypically for an Art Of Noise retrospective, The Seduction of Claude Debussy is very well represented, though we barely hear anything from the album Below The Waste). There are also a great many things here that I’ve never heard before: TV theme songs, ad jingles, and other oddities. There’s also an intriguing track called “Something Missing” that hints at different creative directions that may have been under consideration for what became the Claude Debussy album.

If there’s a disappointment with Influence, it’s the fact that the career-spanning collection wasn’t given the 4-disc breathing room that And What Have You Done With My Body, God? was; that earlier box set was a bit of a masturbatory exercise in lamenting what plans Trevor Horn and Paul Morley originally had for Art Of Noise (which also seemed to be the point of the much earlier – and appropriately titled – Daft compilation…okay, guys, we get it). Influence deserved at least equal space, simply because Art Of Noise, at all points in its history, is worth a retrospective that truly has some scope. The two discs that are there, however, are hugely enjoyable and highly recommended – to 4 out of 4this day, the Art Of Noise in its various incarnations simply do not get their due for changing the course of electronic music, opening up the eyes of both the listening public and fellow musicians to the possibilities offered by the then-approaching age of sampling real world sounds, both musical and non-musical in origin, to build songs out of.

Order this CD

    Disc One
  1. A Is For Beginning (2:02)
  2. Moments In Love (4:39)
  3. Beat Box (Diversion) (3:59)
  4. Close (To The Edit) (4:11)
  5. Love Beat (5:15)
  6. Promenade One (0:36)
  7. Legs (3:30)
  8. Peter Gunn (featuring Duane Eddy) (3:58)
  9. Paranoimia (Paranoid Mix) (featuring Max Headroom) (6:33)
  10. Dragnet (Art Of Noise 7″ mix) (3:04)
  11. Promenade Two (0:40)
  12. Ode To Don Jose (4:14)
  13. Acton Art (2:51)
  14. The Krypton Factor Theme (0:52)
  15. Kiss (featuring Tom Jones) (3:32)
  16. Finale (2:40)
  17. Metaforce (5:46)
  18. Something Is Missing (5:21)
  19. The Holy Egoism Of Genius (7:59)
  20. Bonus Track (2:32)
    Disc Two
  1. Interlude One (0:15)
  2. Beep Beep (3:57)
  3. Beat Box (4:43)
  4. A Time For Fear (J.J.’s 12″ mix) (4:07)
  5. Dainty (1:44)
  6. Moments In Love (Anne To Tears Mix) (3:52)
  7. Moments In Love (Monitor Mix) (featuring Lucky Gordon) (2:09)
  8. Interlude Two (featuring Lucky Gordon) (0:17)
  9. This Is Your Life (1:59)
  10. This Is Your Life (4:35)
  11. I’m A Stranger Here Myself (5:22)
  12. Cassandra (6:03)
  13. Interlude Three (1:32)
  14. Dr. Gradus (1:12)
  15. Dreaming In Colour (via Way Out West) (6:46)
  16. On Being Blue (New Mix) (5:48)
  17. Beau Soir (2:51)
  18. Balance (3:18)
  19. Dr. Gradus (1:01)
  20. The Invention Of Love (2:50)
  21. Bonus Track (1:47)

Released by: Salvo
Release date: 2010
Disc one total running time: 74:14
Disc two total running time: 66:08

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Categories
2009 2010 Film S Soundtracks Star Trek

Star Trek (Newly Expanded Edition) – music by Michael Giacchino

4 min read

Released to a combination of applause from Trek music completists and complaints of double-dipping from other observers, Varese Sarabande – not to be outdone by Film Score Monthly’s recent definitive editions of the music from Star Trek II and III – has now made the complete Michael Giacchino score from 2009’s Star Trek available as a swanky, limited-edition double-CD package (in, curiously, packaging normally used for two-disc Blu-Ray releases).

Is it worth going back to the well for every single note from the movie? Put simply and unequivocally: yes. Some of the best moments of the music from Star Trek were omitted from the single-CD soundtrack album that Varese issued at the time of the movie’s theatrical release. Those moments are restored in more or less chronological order here. I thought that both of the shuttlecraft rides to the Narada (Captain Robau’s and, later, Captain Pike’s) were awesomely menacing stuff, with enough harp to give the average John Williams score a run for its money, and those sequences can be found here. The thrilling orbital skydive to Nero’s drilling platform – a major action setpiece that was curiously left off of the original soundtrack album – is a piece of music likely to keep the fans happy.

Some of the best tracks, however, are those which musically signify Spock’s Vulcan heritage, frequently taking the form of a wistful solo ehru. These cues were mixed down in the movie, and left off of the original soundtrack altogether, and yet they’re some of the film’s best music, as well as one of the most interesting and memorable themes Giacchino has composed to date (and I’m counting his work on Alias, Lost, The Incredibles, Fringe and Ratatouille there too).

I’m going to go on the record as saying that I love Giacchino’s self-penned, punishingly punny track/cue titles, but they require a little bit of lateral thinking and a sense of humor: “Dad’s Route To School” (i.e. the “evicted” Kirk trudging through snow, uphill, both ways) and “Galaxy’s Worst Sushi Bar” (Captain Pike having a poor man’s Ceti eel shoved down his throat) are a couple of my favorite titles. The packaging, while it is indeed awkward to slot into a CD shelf, is gorgeous; the discs themselves are top-down renderings of the saucer sections of the Enterprise (disc one) and the ill-fated U.S.S. Kelvin (disc two). My one complaint is that Varese’s sales pitch made a big deal out of new liner notes by founding Starlog editor Kerry O’ Quinn, a man whose columns and writings in the heyday of (tragically now-defunct) Starlog Magazine are largely responsible for inspiring me to be here writing this now; it’s actually more like one page.

The Star Trek soundtrack is a much 4 out of 4more cohesive listen in this form than it was as the first release’s “edited highlights,” in some places making it very clear that Giacchino’s music wasn’t as uninteresting as some listeners found it from the single CD release. It’s just a pity that it wasn’t released in this form from the beginning – the real good stuff is, once again, relegated to the collectors’ market. Well worth seeking out, though at the time of this writing, the 3,000-copy print run of this edition was very close to being sold out.

Order this CD

    Disc One
  1. Star Trek (2:28)
  2. Narada Boom (2:48)
  3. Hack To The Future (1:25)
  4. Nailin’ The Kelvin (2:09)
  5. Labor Of Love (2:44)
  6. Main Title (0:46)
  7. Head To Heart Conversation (1:10)
  8. One Proud Mother (1:37)
  9. Hella Bar Talk (1:56)
  10. The Flask At Hand (0:28)
  11. Welcome Back, Spock (1:09)
  12. Vulcan Gets A Good Drilling (1:30)
  13. Hangar Management (2:47)
  14. Enterprising Young Men (3:05)
  15. Flying Into A Trphlthdl (3:23)
  16. Nero Sighted (3:23)
  17. Matter? I Barely Know Her! (2:07)
  18. Jehosafats (3:02)
  19. Chutes And Matter (3:29)
  20. A Whole In My Hearth (0:56)
  21. I’ve Fallen And I Can’t Beam Up! (1:51)
  22. Spock Goes Spelunking (1:30)
  23. An Endangered Species (3:09)
  24. Galaxy’s Worst Sushi Bar (2:16)
  25. Mandatory Leave Of Absence (1:18)
  26. Dad’s Route To School (0:35)
  27. Frozen Dinner (1:30)
  28. You Snowin’ Me? (0:49)
    Disc Two
  1. Nice To Meld You (3:13)
  2. Hail To The Chief (0:51)
  3. I Gotta Beam Me (2:02)
  4. Scotty’s Tanked (1:39)
  5. What’s With You? (2:12)
  6. Either Way, Someone’s Going Down (2:43)
  7. Trekking Down The Narada (2:32)
  8. Run And Shoot Offense (2:02)
  9. Does It Still McFly? (2:02)
  10. Nero Death Experience (5:38)
  11. Nero Fiddles, Narada Burns (2:29)
  12. Black Holes Have A Lot Of Pull (0:56)
  13. Back From Black (0:58)
  14. That New Car Smell (4:45)
  15. To Boldly Go (0:26)
  16. End Credits (9:11)

Released by: Varese Sarabande
Release date: 2010
Disc one total running time: 55:20
Disc two total running time: 43:39

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Categories
2010 Artists (by group or surname) C Crowded House Non-Soundtrack Music

Crowded House – Intriguer

Crowded House - IntriguerThe announcement that Crowded House was getting back together was nothing short of a major surprise, and the first album following that announcement was a strange mix that started life as Neil Finn’s third solo album and really only included a handful of songs actually played by the reconstituted lineup of the band. Single selection was an even more awkward and political thing: strong songs were passed over in favor of those few that included the full lineup. The new album, Intriguer, has no such issues: the pre-publicity points out that the entire album emerged from band jams, and every track features the new lineup of Finn, Nick Seymour, Mark Hart and Matt Sherrod. Oddly enough, though, the result winds up sounding more like a Finn solo album than a Crowded House album, though at this point it’s probably a given that Finn solo is interchangeable with Crowded House at any given point, sort of like Jeff Lynne = ELO these days.

That’s not to say that it’s a bad album, not by a long stretch. And that’s also not to say that the Crowdies’ sound has ever been frozen in amber: the densely atmospheric Together Alone was a culture shock after the first three Mitchell Froom-produced albums. Intriguer is produced by Finn with Wilco producer Jim Scott, and the result winds up being neither as timeless as the Froom years, nor quite as adventurous as Together Alone. As with 2007’s Time On Earth and its lead single, this album is led by a rather unadventurous single, “Saturday Sun” – not a bad song, but not really attention-grabbing musically or stylistically.

Things get much more interesting with the third track, “Amsterdam”, which laments the city’s infamous reputation as a place where morality gets put on hold, in the form of a pleasant if downbeat ballad. The following track, “Either Side Of The World”, is very off-the-beaten-path for Crowded House, resembling – more than anything – “Paradise (Wherever You Are)” from the first Finn Brothers album. It’s got a jaunty tropical beat in which Sherrod really comes into his own at the drums – it’s a song that I can’t imagine Paul Hester playing, at least not this way. It’s odd that my favorite Crowded House songs these days sound nothing like what most people envision (i.e. Froom’s Hammond organ breaks) when they think of Crowded House. “Either Side” is an anthem to monogamy which goes more than skin-deep on the subject – not exactly a frequent topic of modern song lyrics.

“Isolation” seems to have been inspired by the pacing and arrangements of classic 1950s rock ballads, and is the second song to feature vocal contributions from Finn’s wife Sharon. Straight-ahead rocker “Twice If You’re Lucky” is probably the closest Intriguer comes to the early Crowded House sound, and it burrows its way into your subconscious quickly, along with the bittersweet “Even If”. But the experimentation is by no means a bad thing: the glue that holds every song together is Neil Finn’s rock-solid songwriting. (As legend would have it, when asked during an interview 4 out of 4what it’s like to be the greatest songwriter alive, Paul McCartney declined to answer on the grounds that Finn should hold that title. While I haven’t been able to source this oft-quoted interview, I’ll just settle for saying: ’nuff said.) No matter how “exotic” the style becomes, the songs at least have that going for them. “Even If” and “Elephants” deliver a double dose of wistful poignancy to slowly wind things to a close – which just means it’s time to start from the beginning again. Intriguer may take a little time to grow on you, but rest assured, it will.

Order this CD

  1. Saturday Sun (3:26)
  2. Archer’s Arrows (4:04)
  3. Amsterdam (3:34)
  4. Either Side Of The World (4:35)
  5. Falling Dove (4:35)
  6. Isolation (4:37)
  7. Twice If You’re Lucky (3:33)
  8. Inside Out (3:19)
  9. Even If (4:02)
  10. Elephants (4:30)

Released by: Fantasy
Release date: 2010
Total running time: 40:15

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Categories
2010 Artists (by group or surname) D Devo Non-Soundtrack Music

Devo – Something For Everybody

Devo is back, sounding remarkably like they did back in the day (give or take a few advances in technology that showed up in recording studios in the intervening years), and this is one of the most welcome reunions I can think of in recent years. Because the secret to Devo wasn’t just their eccentric synth-heavy sound – it was that they applied that sound to some of the catchiest songs to come out of the ’70s and ’80s.

Something For Everyone brings the original lineup back together, and most of the material here, while brand new, sits comfortably alongside their classic output. One song toward the end of the album, “No Place Like Home”, is about the only song that shows any signs that anyone had even the slightest inclination to modernize the signature Devo sound. Everything else is instant classic Devo.

Highlights include “Mind Games” (which explores another vintage ’80s sound with some quasi-chiptune elements), “Sumthing” (which tackles some clearly modern topics with its lyrics), and a new Devo anthem, “Later Is Now”. These songs – well, just about all of the songs on Something For Everyone – are as catchy as Devo’s ’80s favorites, without being slavish imitations of the material that the group has already done. It’s just about what they used to call “an album full of singles”. If there’s a low point, it’s the goofy spy spoof tune “Cameo”… and even then, it’s not that bad, just not up to the standard of the rest of the material.

If you’ve ever listened to a band get back together and then wondered “What happened to the sound I loved?”, Something For 4 out of 4
Everyone is proof that not every reunion is doomed to play out like that. Fortunately for Devo fans of old (or anyone who likes a catchy tune, for that matter), the New Traditionalists are back on the case. Given that it sometimes seems like the band’s old mantra of “devolution” seems to have come to pass in many parts of society, one wonders how we ever got by without them.

Order this CD

  1. Fresh (2:59)
  2. What We Do (3:17)
  3. Please Baby Please (2:41)
  4. Don’t Shoot (I’m A Man) (3:26)
  5. Mind Games (2:30)
  6. Human Rocket (3:22)
  7. Sumthin’ (2:46)
  8. Step Up (3:00)
  9. Cameo (2:49)
  10. Later Is Now (3:52)
  11. No Place Like Home (3:18)
  12. March On (3:50)

Released by: Warner Bros.
Release date: 2010
Total running time: 37:50

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2010 Alan Parsons Artists (by group or surname) Non-Soundtrack Music P

Alan Parsons – All Our Yesterdays

Six years after his last studio album (and mere months after his Eye 2 Eye live album), Alan Parsons is back with… a single? Essentially, that’s what this quietly-released digital duo is: an A-side and a B-side, sans album: a digital 45.

Parsons hasn’t been sitting idle, however; he’s spent the past few years shooting and editing an instructional DVD set, The Art & Science Of Sound Recording, covering the entire process of creating, recording and releasing music, and it’s from that other Alan Parsons project (sorry, couldn’t resist) that this single springs. The A-side, “All Our Yesterdays”, is followed throughout the DVDs as an example, from its inception through the final recording. The instrumental track “Alpha Centauri” is the theme music from the DVDs. In essence, these two songs make up the soundtrack of The Art & Science Of Sound Recording – and they’re a nice little spin-off on their own.

Anyone expecting more of the same from A Valid Path may think this is a step back, however. “All Our Yesterdays” isn’t quite low-tech, but it’s a more traditional rock number than A Valid Path‘s electronica-infused songs. (It fits nicely alongside material from Parsons’ On Air album in “feel”.) “Alpha Centauri” is an epic instrumental in classic Parsons style: hypnotically repeating echoplexed guitar riffs? Check. Orchestral backing that gradually builds in intensity? Check. Basically, “Alpha Centauri” follows in the mold of great Parsons instrumentals like “Mammagamma”.

4 out of 4Parsons has said that he’s considering commencing work on a new studio album in 2010, but with a new tour (with a new touring band) announced for this summer as well, smart money is on a 2011 or later release. In the meantime, “All Our Yesterdays” and “Alpha Centauri” make for a nice bite-sized preview: hopefully Parsons isn’t done honing his own art (and/or science) of sound recording under his own name.

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  1. All Our Yesterdays (4:31)
  2. Alpha Centauri (3:19)

Released by: Authentik
Release date: 2010
Total running time: 7:50

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Categories
1984 2010 Film S Soundtracks Star Trek

Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (Newly Expanded Edition) – music by James Horner

Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (Newly Expanded Edition)Fresh from the spectacular success – in archival soundtrack release terms – of last year’s complete score from Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, Film Score Monthly (via its Retrograde Records imprint) did the “logical” thing and began work on a complete score release of the next movie in the classic Trek cycle, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. Now, I’ve always been of the opinion that the Trek III score was less impressive than the music for Trek II by several orders of magnitude, but I began to wonder if perhaps that opinion was the product of poor choices made in the track selection and sequencing for the 45-or-so minute soundtrack release that’s been available all these years. Would the Trek III re-release, like that of its predecessor, reveal hidden depths that we’d been denied all these years?

The answer is a roughly equal mix of yes and no. As with Trek II, the original release of Trek III‘s soundtrack bizarrely omitted some of the movie’s most iconic moments. The destruction of the Enterprise (“A Fighting Chance To Live”) is a rather major event in Trek history, but the music accompanying that scene didn’t rate inclusion on the old soundtrack release. It’s a beautiful piece, Horner at his best, and at nearly five minutes, it’s not a piece that’s so short that you could blink and miss it (a frequent excuse for not including a prominent cue on a soundtracka album). Another scene that always struck me musically – accompanied by the track “Sunset On Genesis” – is also a long-lost treasure. It’s nice to have the film version (rather than an “album edit”) of “Stealing The Enterprise”, though the difference isn’t enormous.

Unlike some critics, I’ve always thought Horner’s unique take on a musical signature for the Klingons was appropriate, fitting nicely alongside the “Klingon Battle” piece from The Motion Picture, but even wilder. (In any case, Goldsmith’s Klingon music from the first movie was almost more of a theme for V’Ger, and didn’t gain its signature bombast – a la Horner – until 1989’s Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.) It’s nice to hear Horner’s Klingon motif put through its paces (as in the track “Grissom Destroyed”).

Where things fall down is when the music slips into a single-high-note drone, mainly covering what could be called “Vulcan mysticism scenes”. They may have been appropriate for the film, but they’re extremely tedious as stand-alone listening. I would just skip these tracks and count off a few points, except that by the last third of the soundtrack, these tracks are so prevalent. Basically, after the Genesis planet is destroyed and Kirk & co. make off with their newly-acquired Klingon Bird of Pray, I tend to skip straight to the end. The first CD is rounded out by a selection of “source” music heard in the bar scenes as the Spock-possessed McCoy tries to wheel and deal for passage to the Genesis planet.

Due to contractual constraints involving the label that originally released the Trek III soundtrack LP, a second disc tags along with the first, replicating that LP in its entirety (although it’s been remastered, so it’s not a total loss). The second disc is essentially the same disc as what was released by GNP Crescendo in the early 1990s, and is the same as the original EMI LP released in 1984. The version of “Stealing The Enterprise” heard here differs slightly from the film version, but the real saving grace of the LP is the very dated, Meco-esque “Group 87” synth-disco cover of the theme music. Over-serious, dyed-in-the-wool soundtrack afficionados may hate it, but I’m glad to see it preserved here, even though it means a second CD that increased the price of the set.

3 out of 4Overall, the new Trek III soundtrack is a worthy upgrade, but that worthiness is sometimes a little harder to find than it was with the much more listenable complete score from Trek II. There are persistent rumors – which, interestingly, haven’t been denied outright – that Film Score Monthly isn’t done mining Paramount’s music vaults for Star Trek material this year, so hopefully more musical delights await us from the final frontier.

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    Disc One
  1. Prologue and Main Title (6:32)
  2. Klingons (5:59)
  3. Spock’s Cabin (1:41)
  4. The Klingon’s Plan (1:03)
  5. The Mind-Meld (2:32)
  6. Stealing The Enterprise (8:41)
  7. Grissom Destroyed (1:04)
  8. Sunset On Genesis (2:18)
  9. Spock Endures Pon Farr (3:04)
  10. Bird Of Prey Decloaks (3:48)
  11. A Fighting Chance To Live (3:54)
  12. Genesis Destroyed (2:43)
  13. Returning To Vulcan (4:58)
  14. The Katra Ritual (4:31)
  15. End Titles (6:19)
  16. That Old Black Magic / Tangerine / I Remember You (10:32)
    Disc Two
  1. Prologue and Main Title (6:30)
  2. Klingons (5:58)
  3. Stealing The Enterprise (8:35)
  4. Discuss it!The Mind-Meld (2:32)
  5. Bird Of Prey Decloaks (3:48)
  6. Returning To Vulcan (4:56)
  7. The Katra Ritual (4:31)
  8. End Titles (6:20)
  9. The Search For Spock performed by Group 87 (3:43)

Released by: Film Score Monthly / Retrograde Records
Release date: 2010
Disc one total running time: 79:39
Disc two total running time: 46:53

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2010 D Soundtracks Video Game / Computer Game

Dark Void – music by Bear McCreary

Dark Void - music by Bear McCrearyBest known for his densely percussive music for the revival of Battlestar Galactica, composer Bear McCreary makes no secret of his lifelong love of video games. If anything, that fixation is on display: a picture published on his blog several years ago reveals that the external hard drives containing the raw recording sound files of his sessions aren’t labeled with numbers or obvious names like “Galactica sessions”… instead, they’re named after characters from Capcom‘s Mega Man games, complete with colorful labels. So it’s fitting that Capcom should give McCreary his first shot at scoring a video game – but Dark Void definitely doesn’t sound like Mega Man.

For one thing, McCreary refused to back down on his requirements for a real orchestra, real percussionists, and so on; Dark Void‘s music budget almost certainly took off like it had a jetpack of its own… but hey, it’s Bear McCreary. Sales of the soundtrack album almost certainly recouped what was an unusually large music budget for a video game – even in this day and age of games whose costs run into the millions of dollars and years of development.

And the music itself? Put simply, if you loved McCreary’s music for the Galactica finale, Daybreak (which is also out on CD), you’ll dig Dark Void. The music is fairly different – there aren’t any melodic similarities between Galactica’s heroic musical warfare and Dark Void‘s wistful main theme. But the execution is similar: the same blend of orchestra, a wall of exotic percussion and unusual instruments gives it the same feel as Galactica, without playing identical music.

And as for the 8-bit Mega Man tunes McCreary fell in love with before his mega-career in film music kicked off? He does chiptunes too (though we knew that from the Eureka soundtrack): the album closes out with an authentic, NES-style rendition of the Dark Void theme. McCreary did this track on his own time as an in-joke for the folks at Capcom, and they wound up inventing an entire extra game around it (the equally 8-bit-flavored DSware title Dark Void Zero, 4 out of 4which will have its own full soundtrack release as well). Talk about a composer influencing the project he’s working on!

Whether or not you’ve played the game, Dark Void is an outstanding treat for McCreary fans who may be mourning the end of “the Galactica sound.” The Dark Void score is like an unexpected encore at the end of a great concert.

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  1. Theme From Dark Void (2:56)
  2. Prologue and Main Title (2:10)
  3. Village Attack (1:47)
  4. A Mysterious Jungle (4:20)
  5. Altar Sacrifice (1:09)
  6. Archon (3:19)
  7. Ava and the Rocket (2:01)
  8. Tesla’s Laboratory (1:21)
  9. The Prophesized One (2:58)
  10. Taking Flight (2:21)
  11. Crash Site (3:09)
  12. Void Requiem (7:49)
  13. Ava and Tesla Return (0:47)
  14. Above The Canopy (5:01)
  15. Hieroglyphs and Betrayal (3:03)
  16. Defending The Ark (5:45)
  17. The Collector (3:18)
  18. Survivor Camp Combat (6:17)
  19. The Watcher Airship (2:52)
  20. Watcher Prison (3:19)
  21. The Imperator (1:22)
  22. Will and Ava (1:52)
  23. The Dweller (3:46)
  24. Ava’s Sacrifice (3:17)
  25. Will At The River (0:38)
  26. Dark Void End Credits (2:02)

    27. Discuss it in our forum

  27. Theme from Dark Void (Mega Version Bonus Track) (1:53)

Released by: Sumthing
Release date: 2010
Total running time: 79:33

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2010 B Battlestar Galactica Soundtracks Television

Battlestar Galactica: Razor / The Plan – music by Bear McCreary

4 min read

Order this CDThe new Battlestar Galactica gets one final hurrah in this soundtrack release covering the two made-for-DVD (and later broadcast on TV as a bit of an afterthought) movies, Razor and The Plan. Unlike earlier “season” soundtracks from the series, which followed a more or less chronological progression, this album becomes a bit more of a concept piece just by the novelty of its sequencing.

I hadn’t thought about it before seeing the CD’s track listing, but Razor and The Plan share a common story element: both show us the flip-side of past events that we’d either witnessed only from the perspective of Galactica’s crew, or heard about second-hand. Both movies’ flashbacks chronicle the Cylon destruction of the Twelve Colonies: The Plan shows it from the ground, Razor shows the destruction of the main Colonial shipyard (and the escape of one solitary battlestar). Composer Bear McCreary therefore took the unconventional approach of sequencing tracks in strict chronological order from inside the story: the tracks from both movies’ scenes of the Colonies’ destruction are grouped together, for example. With Razor and The Plan having been made and released a year apart, you might not expect much cohesion, but thanks to McCreary’s thoughtful approach to scoring the Galactica saga, everything fits together better than you might think.

The chief exception to this chronological ordering scheme is the first track, which is actually the end credit music from The Plan. Starting with a solo vocal version of the show’s main theme, “Apocalypse” quickly gets around to showing off its main feature, a crunchy heavy metal guitar riff by Anthrax axeman (and Galactica fan) Scott Ian. Much has been made of Ian’s contribution, and it’s a fairly unique sound for Galactica; the guitar work in the rest of the series has largely been done by Oingo Boingo’s Steve Bartek, and has been fairly intricate even when in screaming/searing mode. Ian’s guitar work is, by comparison, less ornamented – but with the unstoppable approach of the Cylons, maybe that’s the point: it’s the musical equivalent of the brutal bootsteps of an invading army. If you like the studio version of “Apocalypse” – which also appears in the extended, two-part version used within The Plan itself – there’s a great live version, performed by McCreary and the BSG Orchestra, that closes the album out.

But “Apocalypse” is an oddball here; much of the music from Razor and The Plan is what we’ve come to expect from McCreary’s nearly-unerring dramatic and musical sensibilities. Highlights include the attack on the Colonial shipyards (from which Pegasus narrowly escapes) in Razor, the whole “[insert planet name here] is burning!” sequence from The Plan, and the reappearance of Stu Phillips’ original Galactica theme in Razor‘s young-Adama-vs.-Cylon-parachutist flashback. Though it probably flies under most people’s radar here, I was also delighted to hear McCreary’s beautiful theme for Caprica from Daybreak resurface toward the end of The Plan‘s “Main Title” track.

For Galactica fans, this release neatly caps off the show’s musical canon; both movies sound like the series of which they are a part, and yet they also sound unique in their own right. But the inventive 4 out of 4sequencing which mixes-and-matches moments from both movies (though it never puts cues from both movies in the same track) reminds us that the similarities are greater than the differences – if there was a message to the whole show by the time The Plan‘s end credits rolled, I think that was it. As always, highly recommended.

By the way, if the live track at the end is a taster for a potential BSG Orchestra live album, I think that’d be a dandy thing to hear. Just sayin’.

  1. Apocalypse featuring Raya Yarbrough (4:07)
  2. Razor Main Title (2:13)
  3. Arriving At Pegasus (2:26)
  4. The Plan Main Title (4:34)
  5. Attack On The Scorpion Shipyards (3:37)
  6. Apocalypse, Part I (6:37)
  7. Apocalypse, Part II (2:36)
  8. Pegasus Aftermath (4:10)
  9. Kendra’s Memories (2:43)
  10. Mayhem On The Colonies (3:28)
  11. Civilian Standoff On The Scylla (2:57)
  12. Husker In Combat (1:54)
  13. Major Kendra Shaw (5:02)
  14. Cavil Kills and Cavil Spares featuring Raya Yarbrough (2:13)
  15. The Hybrid Awaits (2:43)
  16. Kendra And The Hybrid (6:06)
  17. Princes Of The Universe (3:57)
  18. Starbuck’s Destiny (0:41)
  19. Apocalypse (Live) (6:23)

Released by: La-La Land Records
Release date: 2010
Total running time: 68:27

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