Along with the expanded edition of David
Arnold's score for Tomorrow Never Dies, Chapter III
Records released the soundtrack
to the Playstation adaptation of the film. Unfortunately, Medal
of Honor this isn't. Instead it just relies on the standard synth
scoring that most video games rely on. Still, for those of you who aren't
completely turned off by this genre, this CD can be enjoyable.
The disc starts off with the synth version of
the James Bond theme. It's not synth in the way Eric Serra composed it for Goldeneye,
instead it is a pretty good MIDI-sounding version of the theme. The remix of the main
theme by Sonic Mayhem (Confrontation) is interesting, but it tends to
fall apart at the middle of the piece. Following Sonic Mayhem's lead, all of
the rest of the score is pretty much in a techno style (a style that a lot
of video game scores seem to demand). This is a shame since the handful of
tracks that attempt to emulate at least part of the traditional Bond sound
are actually pretty good. As it is, the cues run hot and cold. Most of the
low-keyed "sneaking" cues work well (Outpost and Infrared
are two of the best ones), while the action-oriented pieces are way too
techno-heavy (with the worst easily being Convoy). One thing that was
nice about Tallarico's score is that he doesn't stay completely away from
referencing Arnold's music. There are numerous quotes from the Surrender
theme, although he only uses the first phrase of it which can be a
irritating at times. Outpost is probably the coolest in this regard
since it is essentially Serra meets Arnold (along with samples from Arnold's
actual score). Quotes from both composers make up
this piece and it is quite interesting. Another intriguing cue is the Letter
from Paris track. I guess Tallarico wanted to do the whole bit with a
Bond score and so he also composed a mock title song. It has a nice
interweaving of the Bond theme, but the song is nowhere near the quality of
Arnold's Surrender, and it's even worse than Sheryl Crow's Tomorrow
Never Dies, but it is still a good effort for what is probably a
first-time attempt. A small technical problem with the track is that the
reverb on the background music is so overdone at times that it makes it
slightly difficult to decipher the lyrics.
This CD is definitely not going to appeal to
everyone. It is really not a companion to Arnold's score, but
if you take it for what it is then you can have a good experience with it.
If you dislike almost all video game music, however, then you'd better steer
clear of this one as it doesn't really break any new ground like Giacchino's
Medal of Honor did. ***
