THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK

10cc´s third album The Original Soundtrack is a bit different from the previous album Sheet Music which is an album I really enjoy. Humour is still a big part of 10cc´s music which is really great. I love their humour. The humour is toned a bit down on some of the songs though and The Original Soundtrack is generally more commercial than Sheet Music. There are still some great songs here though that makes the presence of 10cc on a prog rock site legitimate.

The album starts with the wonderful Une Nuit a Paris which is a mini epic of some sort. The humour is great here and even though french people might not enjoy this much I think it´s hilarious. There are many different sections in the song and the arrangement is really great. A pure masterpiece song if you ask me. I'm Not in Love is a very commercial song that I didn´t enjoy for a while. It was just too commercial for me to enjoy but I am converted now. It´s still a bit too commercial to ever become my favorite song, but listen to the arrangement in that song. This is such high class and typical for 10cc to be able to make such intrigueing compositions. I also enjoy Blackmail very much and again the lyrics are clever and funny. The rest of the songs don´t stand out that much, they are just good and not really excellent which is kind of a shame. The last song The Film of My Love does stand out though for being exceptionally bad. Yes the humour is there, but the music sounds like german schlager music to me. This is truly horrible and not worth my time.

The musicians are all outstanding, just look at the arsenal of music instruments they play. The singing is as always very impressive. Both lead and harmony vocals are very well arranged.

The production is excellent and can´t be praised enough. I´m so impressed with how this sounds. The many layers of instruments and voices are controlled to perfection. You have to listen to this album if not for the music then for the beautiful production.

The Original Soundtrack is a bit of a mixed bag to me as I think there are a couple of excellent songs and even a masterpiece song in Une Nuit a Paris, but most of the songs are pretty average and there´s even a very horrible one too. I´ll have to go for a 3 star rating here as there is simply to much mediocrity here to satisfy me beyond that. I think it´s recommendable though.