AWE Soundtrack

[Caraccioli]

You can pre-order it at Amazon for $12.99.

Go here.

I am starting this separate from the merch. thread because I expect I will have much to say about this one way or the other once I get it and give it a few listens. While I am a soundtrack collector in general, I rarely buy them in advance...here's hoping for a soundtrack full of good music.

[Iron Bess]

I have this already... and it's not typical POTC music although I have to say the last track, Drink up me Hearties, is awesome!

[Caraccioli]

Does it use any of the themes from the previous album? I would miss the Crossed Swords and Jack Sparrow themes.

[Iron Bess]

It uses them sparingly... has some good new Music though.

It's why I love the last track, a really fresh version of the old music.

[Black Hearted Pearl]

Iron Bess: Teaser or Torturer? What say the rest of you?

I say, Torturer!

[Caraccioli]

Not me. I now know something no one else on the soundtrack site where I post knows.

[Capt. Sterling]

Some where online you can get samples of it... youtube I think..Have to check with the Fanantic...I mean my daughter the fan....different but still good and worth the purchase...

[Capn_Enigma]

I don't think the AWE Soundtrack is much of a highlight, perhaps with the exception of "I Don't Think Now Is The Best Time" and maybe "Drink Up Me Hearties". The rest is just vanilla POTC tracks in their nth variation.

"Parlay" is even a blatant plagiarism from Ennio Morricone's "Once Upon a Time In The West" and "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly" themes, including e guitar and harmonica.

Nothing really new there. Hopefully the movie makes good for this.

[Caraccioli]

"Parlay" is even a blatant plagiarism from Ennio Morricone's "Once Upon a Time In The West" and "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly" themes, including e guitar and harmonica.

Well at least Zimmer used good source material.

While I have the GBU soundtrack (bought it primarily for the title track, kept listening to it because I liked the track "The Desert"), I don't own Once Upon a Time in the West. I've never felt compelled to purchase much of Morricone's music for reasons I don't myself understand. However, that eerie harmonica tune in West is so striking and memorable, that I'm surprised I don't own it. Perhaps I should consider that one for my collection.

[Iron Bess]

The third track, *At Wit's End* make good use of choral back fill and intro's the new main theme*AWE* that pops us through the film.

It also mixes in a wonderful bit with Davy Jones theme that is both frightening and bitterly sad at the same time.

It’s growing on me… the more I listen the more I’m enjoying it.

[The Doctor]

If I must interject (wink, wink), I love the AWE soundtrack. I've been listening to it over the past two days, along with the expanded score of PotC1. Wonderful stuff!

[Iron Bess]

No winks necessary mate!

I love the *Singapore* track. Very surprising!

[Christine]

Usually Amazon has samples of the tracks, but I didn't see any for this. So, I found a website that does:

http://www.soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=231

The music is indeed awesome, much different than the last 2 movies. I'm loving it just from listening to the samples. I will definitely be buying this CD!

[Caraccioli]

Well, I like it after the first listen. Nothing really fresh or original in there, but it's a nice collection of stuff for the most part. It uses Jack's theme and Crossed Swords quite a bit as well. In fact, every track that sounds like a fight song has smatterings of Crossed Swords in it. So good on them for that.

It does seem to steal rather shamelessly from the Good, the Bad and the Ugly in both Parlay and, to a lesser degree, I Don't Think Now is the Best Time (the strident building stuff reminds me some of the ending of Morricone's music for GBU.) Actually, that last track borrows from all over the place, including, if I'm not mistaken, Zimmer's own Backdraft. But that's another pretty good place to steal from. Lots of choral in this one. I guess we're supposed to see meaning and fate in everything, eh? (Haven't seen it yet. May not until next week or weekend.) Some nice humorous turns in the music as well, particularly with Jack's theme.

A lot of Jack's theme scattered around, actually. Not bad. I might like it even better after I see the flick. It beats all hell out of the last one IMO.

[HildeKitten]

I quite liked the music from AWE.

I'll get the soundtrack, I've got that of the first two movies too :)

[King's Pyrate]

I downloaded it from Wal Mart for $9.44 then burned it on some CDs for traveling....Love it!

[Caraccioli]

I need to edit my last - there is quite a bit of new stuff, it's just very well integrated into the old stuff. After several listens, I agree with Bess that At Wit's End is one of the standout tracks with the new theme intermixed with the old themes. I also really like the jolly Up is Down which contains a new theme that is similar to the old soundtracks. Even the stone crabs (heh) get their own theme in Multiple Jacks (which is pretty cool). My favorite is probably I Don't Think Now is the Best Time which is a mix of everything from everywhere including the old and new stuff, the hammer struck chime/martial sort of stuff Zimmer used in Backdraft and touches of that Morricone influence which was so baldly ripped off in Parlay. But then, I've always been a sucker for action music.

Singapore is fine (and new), but it's basically a flavor of what I call James Bond traveling music; in many of the Bond soundtracks, they pick a musical style that is similar to the location and give it to us strong, gradually segueing into a traditional Bond motif of some form. Same thing here. From the Oriental sound to the traditional POTC stuff. It's decent enough, though.

Something particularly cool, I think, are the drums in Hoist the Colors. After seeing the movie (saw it last night despite myself ), I understand what this is supposed to be, but if you toss out your knowledge of the scene, it sounds like waves crashing on the shore. I might sample that and cut out the vocals just to play with it a little. It's pretty neat.

The more I listen, the more I like it. Just like the first soundtrack, actually.

[King's Pyrate]

I downloaded it from Wal Mart for $9.44 then burned it on some CDs for traveling....Love it!

Hoist the Colors

The king and his men

stole the queen from her bed

and bound her in her Bones.

The seas be ours

and by the powers

where we will we'll roam.

Yo, ho, haul together, hoist the Colors high.

Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die.

Some men have died and some are alive and others sail on the sea –

with the keys to the cage...

and the Devil to pay

we lay to Fiddler's Green.

The bell has been raised

from it's watery grave...

Do you hear it's sepulchral tone?

We are a call to all,

pay head the squall

and turn your sail toward home.

Yo, ho, haul together, hoist the Colors high...

Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die

Found the words to Hoist the Colors at

wikipedia

It was driving me crazy trying to understand the words.

[The Doctor]

Zimmer really outdid himself on this one. Amazing stuff!

And "What Shall We Die For" really gets the blood racing.

[Capn_Enigma]

Zimmer really outdid himself on this one.  Amazing stuff!

Given that most numbers are the third variation of the POTC theme and that one was openly stolen from "Once Upon A Time In The West", I find that a bold statement.

[The Doctor]

I find it interesting that John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith (for example) reused themes and devices from their previous scores, not to mention borrowing styles and devices from other composers, and never came under similar criticism...

[Black Hearted Pearl]

Mad Jack, I'm sure that Williams and Goldsmith were, somewhere on the seas of the internet, too criticized. If we all agreed, it would be much harder to find the things we covet. I say, let them be, more for me.

[Caraccioli]

Curiously, Zimmer is much reviled in many soundtrack "expert" circles while Goldsmith is quite revered. (Which, in Goldsmith's case, makes since to me since his body of work is nothing short of astounding IMHO. The man crossed so many styles in his career that I think most people would be hard pressed to say much bad about him. But that's just my thoughts.)

Williams has his boosters and detractors - mostly, I suspect, because he has long been one of the most recognized and sought-after soundtrack composers. His soundtrack for Star Wars (or A New Hope for all you youngsters who never saw it the first time it was released ) is probably most responsible for purely compositional soundtracks enjoying the much greater mainstream success they have in recent decades.

My personal opinion on this is that whenever you become successful, there are a group of people who are unsuccessful and, thus, often jealous of the fact that someone else made it when they didn't (or, more likely, wouldn't do what is required), so they pick the successful person apart in an effort to make themselves look and/or feel better. Ironically, this almost never works because tearing other people down actually (subconsciously) makes one feel worse.

In the soundtrack fandom arena, I think this is part of the issue. The other part is that some people just want to be different and not like the person whom everyone else likes, so they find the inevitable faults in their work and then focus on them. In music, as in life, you get more of what you focus upon - so if you focus on the Sousa-like aspects of William's work, that's all I suspect you're going to hear. But I digress, per usual.

Williams aside, the primary complaints I've heard about Zimmer is that he basically gets a bunch of lesser or un-known composers to do the bulk of the work for him and then slaps his name on the project. He is also accused of stealing styles and ideas rather outright from other composers, as the Morricone track attests. So a lot of soundtrack aficionados are biased against him. There is some validity to this from my POV, however, I think the whole "my favorite composer is better than your favorite composer" mantra is absurd beyond reason. Who cares who composed the music? Does it make sense to listen to music primarily because of the personality whose name is attached to it?

In the end, if I like the music, I like the music and I could generally give a good gorram whose name is attached to the enclosed CD literature. But that's just me.

[Iron Bess]

I downloaded it from Wal Mart for $9.44 then burned it on some CDs for traveling....Love it!

Hoist the Colors

The king and his men

stole the queen from her bed

and bound her in her Bones.

The seas be ours

and by the powers

where we will we'll roam.

Yo, ho, haul together, hoist the Colors high.

Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die.

Some men have died and some are alive and others sail on the sea –

with the keys to the cage...

and the Devil to pay

we lay to Fiddler's Green.

The bell has been raised

from it's watery grave...

Do you hear it's sepulchral tone?

We are a call to all,

pay head the squall

and turn your sail toward home.

Yo, ho, haul together, hoist the Colors high...

Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die

Found the words to Hoist the Colors at

wikipedia

It was driving me crazy trying to understand the words.

The music was written not only by Hans but by Gore and the Lyrics are pure Ted and Terry.