WATCH THE SKIES

VARIOUS

Rating:

Original Review: In much the same way that Silva Screen released last year's Space and Beyond compilations, Sonic Images have jumped on the bandwagon with Watch The Skies, a collection of memorable themes from movies which share a common subject: alien invaders on planet earth. In terms of the variety of music included on the CD, Watch The Skies is a better compilation than either of the previous Silva ones. Whereas they contained all the regular mainstays such as Star Wars, Star Trek and Close Encounters, this one features tracks from much less well-known scores, and is much more interesting as a result. However, unlike Silva's compilations (which are all performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic), Sonic have culled tracks from numerous sources to make this compilation, and the disparate nature of the various orchestras and solo performers who contribute to the Watch The Skies is slightly detrimental to the sound quality of the album overall. Nevertheless, Watch The Skies is a mouth-watering prospect from a collector's point of view, as there are four world premiere recordings included on the CD: Richard Band's heartstopping music from the Aliens theme park ride, which is based in part on James Horner's original score; Elliot Goldenthal's eerie piano and harp main title from the alien crash-landing cover-up movie Roswell; Christopher Franke's mysterious suite of music from the TV mini-series The Tommyknockers, based on Stephen King's classic novel; and Michael Hoenig's moody trumpet theme from the TV series Dark Skies. As well as these rare items, the CD has its fair share of classics, like the wailing theremin of the Prelude to Bernard Herrmann's The Day The Earth Stood Still, Danny Elfman's wacky retro main title tune from Mars Attacks!, the ice-cold choir of Chris Young's Species, Jerry Goldsmith's tempestuous End Credits from Alien, and the massively overblown patriotism and excitement of David Arnold's Independence Day which brings the album to a resounding close. There are also two fantastic arrangements of Men In Black and Predator by the ever-reliable John Beal, who has somehow managed to make both of them sound better here than they do on the OST - no mean feat. There are a couple of unusual oddballs thrown in for good measure, like Alan Howarth's funky guitar theme from Rowdy Roddy Piper's 1988 horror classic They Live, and Denny Zeitlin's surrealistic, percussive main title from the incredibly chilling 1970s remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Michael Chertoff's solo piano performance of John Williams' theme from E.T. is pleasant enough, but somewhat unusual, sounding more like a lounge jazz rendition than anything like the original soundtrack. Similarly, Mark Snow's fabulous whistled theme from The X-Files is altered beyond all recognition by arranger Donald Fraser, and is now done in the style of someone called Alan Hovhaness, and which comes across as like something Mozart himself might have written, were he alive today and doing film scores. Compilation CDs are always somewhat difficult to review, mainly because each piece of music usually has to be judged as a standalone track on its individual merits rather than an album as a whole. With Watch The Skies, every track is generally enjoyable (admittedly some more than others), all the selections are interesting and original, the packaging is good, and the inserts basic but informative. You can't ask for more than that.

Track Listing: Running Time: 73 minutes 31 seconds

Sonic Images SID-8901 (1999)

Conducted by Erich Kunzel, Nic Raine, Paul Bateman, Richard Band, Bill Broughton, Grant Gershon and Nicholas Dodd. Performed by The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, The City of Prague Philharmonic, The Orchestra of the Americas and The Crouch End Festival Chorus with Michael Chertock, Alan Howarth, John Beal, Elliot Goldenthal, Christopher Franke, Michael Hoenig and Burnette Dillon. Edited and mastered by James Nelson. Album produced by Ford A. Thaxton.


Home Page | Reviews A-M | Reviews N-Z | Composers | Links

Movie Music U.K is designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton (c) 1999. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those the University of Sheffield. All photos and album artwork used on Movie Music U.K. are only for the non-profit making promotional purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.