| Secret Weapons Over Normandy (Michael Giacchino) | ||
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Orchestrated and Conducted by Tim Simonec
Produced by Michael Giacchino and Ford A. Thaxton
Release Date: December 30th, 2003
After Michael Giacchino departed from the Medal of Honor franchise, it would seem that it might be a while before we would be treated to another score of that nature. Such would not be the case, however, as 2003 found Giacchino scoring two WW2 games, Call of Duty (from Activision) and Secret Weapons Over Normandy (courtesy of LucasArts). With Secret Weapons Over Normandy, the focus of the war switches to what took place in the skies over Europe. Such a change would require more from Giacchino than a simple rehashing of the style that he developed for the Medal of Honor series, so those looking for more of the same will likely be taken aback when they first pop this in. However, the change is a welcome one and Giacchino shows that he can still deliver an enjoyable score while taking the music in new directions. The score begins with the Main Theme, which is a delightful overture that proves to be a nice showcase for the rest of the album. Unashamedly heroic in nature, the music literally takes off right at the beginning and gives a good sense of music that one would associate with the grace and beauty of flight. If nothing else, this sounds like music that would accompany this sort of game. Given that the sequence of events in the game (which details the early days of the war), the overture presents a melancholy feeling as well, though nothing as bittersweet as the theme from Medal of Honor: Frontline. This feeling is carried further for the next two cues, Dunkirk Harbor and Battle of Britain, with only the brass refrains of the main theme reminding us that the good guys are still out there. Things get interesting as more variations of style appear with such tracks as Zauara and The Siamese Coast, proving again that scoring to the musical styles of exotic locations is always the way to go. Even more of a treat is the powerful chorus that shows up in the last third of the score that really spices things up. With a heavy Eastern European style, the chorus adds yet another texture to the music that makes this score a constantly delight as it continues to build on itself. In a way, this score is slightly more thematic than its predecessors, though Giacchino has slightly retarded the themes in a way. Their construction is effective, if not very complex, and it can take a few listens to pick up on them. The music takes a step back from the epic nature that Frontline occasionally peaked at, and instead pulls away to emulate the nature of war scores from the such films as Where Eagles Dare and Patton (with more obvious influence coming from the former). This is an exceptionally nice release from La-La Land records. The two disc set contains the primary score arrangement on the first disc, with the second disc containing short alternate cues and a set of video features in the QuickTime format (accessible through any regular PC). There isn’t any loading screen or main page for those videos (there is a simple text file that gives their description), but that may be a blessing for those who have struggled with the “Enhanced CD-ROM” features that usually threaten to shanghai your machine. The liner notes contain a nice track-by-track analysis from Paul Tonks, along with plenty of interesting pictures that detail the scoring process. |
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Different,
yet pleasantly so, from Medal of Honor, Giacchino has delivered yet
another strong entry into this genre of which he has pretty much dominated
since 1999. If you’ve enjoyed his music thus far, then you absolutely have
no excuse.
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| Track Listing | ||
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Disc 1 1 - Main Theme
(4:56) |
Disc 2 1 - Gold Guy
Logo (0:07)
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| Total Running Time: 68:55 | Total Running Time: 14:02 | |
