BATMAN RETURNS
Rating: 
Original Review: Wow! Batman Returns! This score rocks! Dark and powerful! Danny Elfman is the coolest!... Sorry. Just lapsed into on-line soundtrack reviewer mode there for a second. Anyway, like I was saying - Batman Returns is by far the better of the two Elfman Batman scores, as this is more thematically developed. The bombastic Batman March is still very much in evidence, and sounds wonderful in the opening title cue, Birth of a Penguin, which also introduces us to a new theme for The Penguin himself: as always with Elfman it is a melancholy dirge played on violins which has an ethereal, dreamlike quality to it. The other main theme is the theme for Catwoman, which first appears in the cue Selina Transforms and contains a string section which, rather appropriately, sounds like a cat's miaow. These themes appear liberally throughout the score, between Elfman's superior action cues and the album finishes wonderfully well with The Finale and End Credits, my favourite themes which contain the most rousing and exciting renditions of all the main themes. As usual, Elfman's trademark la-la choir is evident throughout and fans of his style will certainly not be disappointed. Also, at the end of the album is a cracking song by Siouxsie and the Banshees - 'Face to Face' - with Siouxsie Sioux's normally tuneless voice (which I normally don't like) lending the perfect edge to the lyrics.
Track Listing:
- Birth of a Pengiun (5:37)
- The Lair (5:46)
- Selina Transforms (5:27)
- The Cemetery (2:55)
- Cat Suite (5:42)
- Batman vs. The Circus (2:35)
- The Rise and Fall From Grace (5:49)
- Sore Spots (2:16)
- Rooftops/Wild Ride (7:55)
- The Children's Hour (1:47)
- The Final Confrontation (10:07)
- The Finale (5:00)
- End Credits (4:42)
- Face To Face (written by Danny Elfman and Siouxsie Sioux, performed by Siouxsie and the Banshees) (4:17)
Running Time: 69 minutes 55 seconds
Warner Bros. (1992)
Music composed by Danny Elfman. Conducted by Jonathan Sheffer. Orchestrations by Steve Bartek and Mark McKenzie. Recorded and mixed by Shawn Murphy. Edited by Bob Badami and Bill Bernstein. Album produced by Danny Elfman and Steve Bartek.
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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1997. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.