SOUNDTRACKS

I like soundtracks, for videogames, movies, whatever, they give more focus into what's happening on screen, but at the sametime, is a place where musicians can experiment with whatever genre they like without feeling guilty or overwhelmed by what's done outside, while also maintining the context that's needed for the music. So, while the producers put the idea, you are mostly free to make whatever music you want and they'll pay you, but there's another catch, you still need to not go that much overboard or you'll work overtime, maintain the music pieces to be no much more longer that the scene that its going to be for.

I'm really no expert in the process for soundtracks, but i can see the limitations and liberties that i pointed out, i don't see many movies only using pop songs as soundtracks, they need music for every moment and some of those very creative musicians add a little of their spice, such as making pieces based on classical music while also inking it with a little 70s rock, techniques and odd-times.

This review its a little special, as it is a box-set, we have music from 2 movies, i won't go too much on details, but for example "Quicksilver" got its soundtrack released and has almost every song that where on the movie, here it is obviously only what Tony did, and the details are that those releases have little differences, i won't point out that. At the same time, it seems obvious that we need the context of the scenes, the problem is that i heard this music before watching the films and already had an idea for what they where, i still haven't watched the movies but got a glimpse of them and i thought "well, this soundtracks are better suited for what i imagined than for what they are", so i'll be concentrating on the music itself, that's not a surprise really.

A.- Quicksilver I only saw the trailer and the Final Chase scene, i honestly thought that it was a cool space movie by the name and the soundtrack, i'm a little dissapointed but not quite, the movie looks ok and reminds of some other recent movie that's not bad either.

A.1.- Shortcut to Somewhere 5/10 Really 80s, standard and a little boring, with the voice of Phil Fish (Marillion), not a really good start, repetitive. Curiously enough, this is the only song from Tony that has been played by Genesis (40th Atlantic Record Anniversary).

A.2.- Smilin' Jack Casey 8/10 A song from the Commodore 64 game called "The Big Deal"... no, that's not it, Tony probably doesn't know that one of his soundtracks was featured in a videogame, it has the typical Tony Banks flavor, yet it gets a little boring near the end, mainly because the synth-drum pattern takes too much space on this song. Solid work overall.

A.3.- Rebirth 6/10 Starting as something glorious that is emerging and then going to the upbeat principal track, played differently, i like the principal track, not so sure about this variation, it is slower and adds some unnecesary stuff.

A.4.- Gipsy 8/10 Misterious. I like what it does, i can see me in an alley filled with smoke walking to a misteriour person who's going to tell my future, the setting is like the one on Bladerunner or the video of Tonight, tonight, tonight... wait, is the same thing! The song morfs and goes upbeat, i can hear some synth dogs, is this a fight of some sorts? From what i watched from the movie, i feel like this track wasted potential here.

A.5.- Final Chase 9/10 This final score mixes everything that was played earlier into a grand final that i feel it should've been used in a more cience fiction film, it also reminds me a little of Lorca in terms of structure.

B.- Redwing Bad movie according to many people on the internet, i watched the start of the movie and i got horribly bored, i can't bother into watching it in its entirety, either way. It has a good soundtrack that was cut out from the US release because of copyright.

B.1.- You Call This Victory 7/10 The starting is absolutely pretty, then it goes into a repetitive pop song, although not a bad one. The instrumental is ok and could've been improved into another instrumental song.

B.2.- Lion of Symmetry 9/10 Toyah, what a great name and singer, this song is a test of that, it is a complex pop song with a more serious idea behind it, this is the real deal, the best pop song made by Tony. It gets a little bit repetitive but its really catchy.

B.3.- Redwing 10/10 Going all out on that science fiction, reminded me a little of the X-Files theme for a bit, this could well be the introduction to a SNES JRPG, its aweosome.

B.4.- Lorca 10/10 This is it, a music so good that had to be used on another song called "Queen of Darkness". This could perfectly work on a videogame as well, maybe in a racing or shoot em' up scene.

B.5.- Kid and Detective Droid 8/10 This could also be used on a JRPG, like on a cutscene where someone is telling the story of the continent at the chimney. It is also a reworked version of the principal track, not the best version.

B.6.- Lift Off 6/10 There's something that i haven't pointed out from this album, and is that the mixing and the synth sounds selected make the album sound really outdated, there are albums that sound like that but still pass the test of time, while albums like this one suffer from sounding less good than it should. In the case of this music, the vocal synth sound gets a little annoying, it is a beautyful track but it could've benefited from a better sound bank. It sounds like church instead of something space related.

B.7.- Death of Abby 7/10 Don't listen to this at midnight with the window open, it might scare you at the start, then it goes to another version of the principal track, worse than kid and detective droid.

At the end of the day, the entire box-set gets a 78/100, wich is 4-start, i liked it, specially Lorca, Final Chase, Lion of Symmetry and Redwing, nice job on those, Tony should make a soundtrack for an space shoot-em-up.

A little update here, i fixed my "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" review, mainly the wording. I'll continue to review Tony Banks albums and after that i'll probably get back to Genesis and then something else that's Genesis related

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