Thought it was time I reviewed some of the CDs that I’ve received in the last few months (Christmas and birthday). First up, the Serenity soundtrack, composed by David Newman. (available from Amazon and other good bookstores)
I own a few movie soundtracks, and they tend to vary in quality. You generally get 2 types – movies that have used existing music, and movies that have compositions written for them. Obviously many movies do have a bit of both, but most only have enough of one or the other for their soundtrack CD. A notable exception is Romeo and Juliet (the Baz Luhrman version) which had 1 CD of both, and both of which are excellent. By way of contrast, The Wedding Singer was mostly pre-written (80s) music, and Lord of the Rings was most composed (excellent by Howard Shore).
The choice of David Newman for the Serenity music was not without it’s controversy; Greg Edmondson had so excellently scored the Firefly TV series, to the point where the fans created enough interest for Fox to release not only a soundtrack CD, but now also a copy of the score. It is fair to say that many were upset that Greg was overlooked for the film, but I believe there were studio considerations. That said, Newman has done an excellent job, and I believe that the music, as film music should, enhanced the film, without becoming obtrusive.
However, there are a few problems with the music as a soundtrack CD. While I do not regret having a copy at all, it is not the most listenable albums in my collection. Much of the music is quite short, to fit with the sections of film, and in places feels a little “un-finished”. Unlike some soundtracks, I found it quite difficult to imagine the scene of the film from which the music came. A lot of the music is also quite quiet and moody, which doesn’t make for good listening on the daily commute, which requires quite a short range of audio, with a high base level of volume.
As a Firefly fan, this is a must-have CD for your collection. As a film music fan, I would suggest that maybe it is missable. Probably better would be to buy the Firefly soundtrack, although I only have that on good word as I have not listened to it personally.
Next up will be Skillet: Comatose and Pillar: Where do we go from here?
mrBen
Interestingly, was just watching Serenity and thinking about the soundtrack. Also thinking about LotR (no comparison). I’d use the latter as an argument that soundtracks can be noticed consistently and with a good effect. Shore and Jackson adorn each scene with music – and the cumulative effect is fantastic.
I like the individual themes too – when hobbits were introduced, the fellowship, Rohan, Gondor!
With Serenity, however, I only noticed the theme music at the beginning when I went back and heard Whedon introduce it. It kinda gets sacrificed to sound effects and the continuing background story. The only bits that I thought, ‘this music fits’, were at the reveal where we find out that River wasn’t being mauled by Reavers, but was doing the mauling… and where the crew are refitting the ship. However – think that’s all just a general, film-not-as-good-as-series thing. Not that I’m complaining – its good the film got made, if no more episodes were to be forthcoming.
Last theme music I got was from ‘Daredevil’ (songs not orchestral). Not too shabby, but completely missing the song I bought it for (neh-neh neh-neh neh-neh neh-neh-neh ‘I’m a gangster’).