Customer Reviews

Angel Heart

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The music to Angel Heart was a key asset to the film -- departing from the book on which it was based, the film takes the viewer to New Orleans midway through, and this provides a valuable texture to the story.

The music on this album is good, and it is probably worth a purchase - but I have to mark it down because of the glaring ommision of two of the best pieces of music from the film.

First, the signature "Soul on Fire" by LaVern Baker, which is simply the most memorable song in the entire film. Haunting, longing, beautiful on its own -- the song takes on a new character in the context of the film. Fortunately, you can pick this song up on any LaVern Baker compilation.

Sadly, the other great song left off here is a funky little Cajun/Voodoo number by Dr. John, listed as Zuzu Man in the movie credits, but I have been unable to get my hands on the song anywhere. He seems to have multiple versions of the song, and the version from the film is elusive.

The absence of these two songs, along with a bit too much of the films dialogue, overshadow what is otherwise a memorable soundtrack. Probably only for the rabid fans of the film.

One would probably not be able to fully appreciate the Angel Heart soundtrack without seeing the movie, but hearing it afore will probably serve as an additional incentive to see the film. Director Alan Parker is known for his imaginative and inventive use of music in his films. As far as I'm concerned, Angel Heart is one of the finest examples of the use of music in films. The main character of the film, private detective Harry Angel is hired to find '30s crooner Johnny Favorite, his own alter-ego - something he gradually discovers, to his own horror. Says Parker: "In the script I had made Johnny Favorite's 30's hit pivotal to our story and I wanted it to haunt the movie as it had haunted Harry. From a mountain of 78's I chose "Girl of my Dreams" which was nostalgically familiar but not too connected with any one artist. Trevor Horn [composer, arranger and conductor of the original music] cleverly wove the old theme into his new atmospheric score and had the brain-wave of using the brilliant young Courtney Pine for the sax solo's." Cleverly indeed! And chillingly effective. Harry Angel whistles to himself "Girl of my Dreams" and as he discovers more about Johnny Favorite, the song and the main theme become more and more elaborate and complete, and eventually in one of the scenes the shy piano rendition of the theme gets orchestral backing as the mystery reveals itself to us... impressive. However, at less than 38 minutes, I find it unforgivable that Rourke's whistling at the beginning of his search and the original 78 single, at the end of it, are not included. Horn's orchestrations and sounds were synthesized on synclavier and for a moment I'd wished he had used the real orchestra instead. Overall however, this is an outstanding soundtrack to an excellent movie.

Although I usually find the inclusion of dialogue on a soundtrack to be intrusive, that's not the case here. Luckily it is not too overdone. The compositions by Trevor Jones and the sax of Courtney Pine bring back all the haunting beauty and terror of the film. There are no throwaway screeching scare tracks. At under 40 minutes, it is a beautiful rendering of a sinister mood that can be listened to again and again. More than a decade later, one might say the film doesn't keep it's "mystery" very well hidden but the music has held up. It's a superior example of a composer's ability to make a good film great and for that reason, I can watch it again and again. Note however, I could not watch the film without its score but I can spin the disc constantly. Alan Parker was a genius for choosing to go with atmosphere rather than musical hysterics. Never have the blues been so unnervingly hypnotic.

ONe listen to this album and you'll be trasported into the middle of South Rampart street, New Orleans.. Even though the sax sounds slightly dated, the rest of the atmospheric background sound more than makes up for it. The two blues numbers are great while the dialouge just adds that something extra. And lets face it. Who doesnt want to hear Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro converse in the middle of a Catholic church? One negative: OVERUSE OF THE HEARTBEAT!

this soundtrack is atmospheric and moving. It combines dialouge from the film and strange sounds as well as some beautifull pieces of jazz.If you enjoyed the film this is a great cd to listen to on cold rainy nights.

Anyone who saw ANGEL HEART and wasn't struck over the head by the overall atmosphere of the film is either blind, or deaf, or both. No discussion of film noir is complete without mentioning this flick: between the incredible visuals and the letter-perfect musical soundtrack, between the sweaty high-strung intensity of Mickey Rourke and the slightly playful villainy of Robert Di Nero, an absolute classic of modern film noir was produced. Seriously, if you can listen to the simple piano notes of "Girl of My Dreams" and not think of cigarettes and sweat, creaking fans and cheap liquor, you're a better man than I.

This album, which was was very eager to get my hands on, contains the following tracks:

1. Harry Angel
2. Honeyman Blues *
3. Nightmare
5. 'I Got This Thing About Chickens'.
6. The Right Key, But The Wrong Keyhole *
7. Rainy Rainy Day *
8. Looking For Johnny
9. Bloodmare
10. Johnny Favorite

The three tracks asterisked are actually blues songs featured in the film, and very good listens, especially if you like old blues, with its half-ironic odes to failed romance, poverty and pain. The rest of the songs are instrumentals, making heavy use of sax music, piano, throbbing heartbeats, and intense but subtle electronic beats ("Bloodmare") to get their point across. Of these, "Harry Angel" (with its terrific, screaming-with-desperation sax solos), "Looking For Johnny" and "Johnny Favorite" are among the best: each takes a somewhat different emotional picture, as Harry's story-arc goes from cheerfully desperate to confused and desperate to desperate and damned. The last, "Johnny Favorite" is just out and out chilling, the sax blowing a sort of mourful blues-tinged, quasi-religious dirge as Harry takes the elevator down to meet his fate. I've seldom seen a movie whose music mated so perfectly with the action on screen; everything just clicks, to the point where just listenin to the superb piano notes of "Girl of My Dreams" seem to give you the whole experience in just 49 seconds.

Having said all that, I gave the soundtrack three stars, because I found the use of the film's dialogue, which is woven into all the songs, to be extremely distracting and annoying. The music is so good, so thoughtful and played with so much emotion and soul, it needs no "gilding the lilly" or tricks to make it memorable or to evoke imagery. The use of "cut scenes" of pure dialogue BETWEEN tracks would have made much more sense, and allowed the producers to kill both birds with a single stone...great dialogue and great music. I found the voice-overs on the blues tracks particularly annoying, as some of them overlap the actual lyrics. This was simply not necessary, and it distracts from and diminishes the effect of the music.

Overall this is a very good album, but undermined by some needless meddling. Harry Angel wouldn't water down his whiskey, and neither should we.

Unfortunately this was a dissappointment in that it did not contain all the music from the movie and sounded as though it was put together by an amateur because you could hear the actual movie in the background. Definately not worth the money that was paid for it and it was not accurately described in the listing.

Product was good, one of the better soundtracks, even if the spoken bits are a little annoying and the movie's motif, "Girl of my dreams" isn't actually on it