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Watch the Skies |
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Music Composed and Conducted by Various Artists Release Date: 1999
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Watch the Skis is a compilation of themes from famous "alien invasion" movies and television specials. This 70+ minute album presents a wide variety of musical styles from a wide variety of composers. Only a handful of tracks are from the original soundtrack recording, but the re-recorded themes sound excellent and I have no complaints there. The Cincinnati Pops and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra do some excellent renditions of some famous sci-fi music. The CD opens with The Day the Earth Stood Still. While this is an old score from the ‘50s by Bernhard Herrmann, the Cincinnati Pops manages to give it an more modern sound. Since I’ve never heard the original recording of this theme, I have no idea whether Herrmann’s scoring was timeless, or whether it was more the quality of the orchestra and recording technology. More than likely it is a mixture of the two. Nevertheless, it is still good stuff, and I’d like to hear the full score. Species is another good one, a more quiet peace with lots of strings that is pretty common for sci-fi/horror film music. Two recent Danny Elfman themes are present as well: Mars Attacks, and Men In Black. While the re-recordings manage to capture the inherit weirdness of ‘ole Danno, they really aren’t all that great, but Mars Attacks is the better of the two. The biggest stinker in this compilation is Invasion of the Body Snatchers with it’s low sound quality. It really isn’t all that special anyway, as it sounds like B movie horror music (which is probably what the movie is in the first place). I would’ve preferred the end titles of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Probably the best track on the whole CD is the Independence Day end titles. It is performed excellently by the Prague orchestra and is definitely the highlight of the whole compilation. Still, it wasn’t anything too special since I already own the original score. This is a pretty nice compilation CD, with the only real drawback is that you probably already own the complete scores to most of these tracks. It would be a good buy if the tracks appeal to you, or you always on the lookout for different recordings of your favorite music. ***
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Track Listing 1 - The Day the Earth Stood Still (3:58) 2 - Mars Attacks (3:58) 3 - Species (7:45) 4 - E.T. (4:13) 5 - Contact (3:48) 6 - They Live (3:33) 7 - Men In Black (2:59) 8 - Predator (3:20) 9 - Aliens - The Ride (6:29) 10 - Alien (2:47) 11 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (4:13) 12 - Roswell (3:12) 13 - The Tommyknockers (7:54) 14 - Dark Skies (3:20) 15 - The X-Files (4:24) 16 - Independence Day (8:59) Total Running Time: 73:31 |
