Customer Reviews

Birdy

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This 1985 album is a soundtrack to the 1984 movie entitled 'Birdy' and what a haunting soundtrack! The album cover of the moonlight illuminating the dark room through a window sets the general mood of this album: Dark & Haunting. There are no lyrics anywhere on this soundtrack but there are some tracks that borrow elements from several tracks from the Melting Face & Security LPs. It's really something to listen to the sampled tracks in a totally different setting especially the one where the piano intro of Family Snapshot is sampled on the track Close Up. The Heat is simply The Rhythm Of The Heat as an instrumental. The opening track At Night though is my personal favorite. It's dark, haunting & very gloomy, totally opposite to such tracks as Sledgehammer or Big Time. Fans of SO, US or even of his first two albums might find the Birdy soundtrack to be a bit difficult to immediately enjoy but for die-hard fans or the more adventurous this soundtrack is a must have.

This is the warning that Mr. Gabriel provides to listeners of this album when you first open its booklet...

Immaculately produced by Gabriel himself and Daniel Lanois, this album, which served as the musical background to the Alan Parker movie 'Birdy' contains 12 tracks, 5 of which are instrumental versions of the songs "Family Snapshot," "Not One Of Us," "Rhythm Of The Heat," "Wallflower" and "San Jacinto," from PG's third and fourth albums. The remaining tracks are instrumentals of incredible beauty, where Gabriel plays alongside his long time contributors Larry Fast, Tony Levin, Jerry Marotta and David Rhodes, among others.

This is one of those soundtracks that, more than standing by itself (which it does) is an essential component of the movie it was made to accompany.

This soundtrack is Peter Gabriel's first foray into movie scores but it is a really good soundtrack that stands on it's own. The movie itself is just amazing and the soundtrack perfectly fits in the weird tone of the movie.

Be warned: The soundtrack is very gloomy and may leave you depressed.

As some are aware of, five of the songs life up parts of tracks from Gabriel's third and fourth CDs and the album label arns that this record contains no lyrics. The remaining seven are extraordinarily haunting and beautiful. My favorite of the retooled older songs is "Birdy's Flight" which lifts up the fast-paced ending minute of "Not One of Us" and giving it a totally different feel altogether.

The best of the original tracks is "Floating Dogs" which is a very scary but beautiful track that becomes a very twisted trancy piece.

Do not let the fact that this is overshadowed by "PassioN". "Birdy" is a really excellent score and should be included in any Gabriel fan's collection.

This first score from Peter Gabriel is a great soundtrack to a great movie. Some of the songs are retooled edits of tracks from his 1980 and 1982 albums. It may not be up there with "Passion" but it is a great soundtrack anyway.

The best song is the odd "Floating Dogs" which is a very scary and odd track. The other best is "Birdy's Flight" which samples "Not One of Us" from PG3.

I wish that this album was longer and/or the songs longer. Still though, there's no reason to pass this one by.

"Birdy" is not a must-own for anybody other than true Peter Gabriel fans, but those fans will be well rewarded. "Passion" remains Gabriel's best film soundtrack (there are now three), but "Birdy," his first soundtrack, makes for a more interesting listen than the new "Long Walk Home," which is good but basically background music. "Birdy" is close to the sound Gabriel featured on "Security," minus the vocal tracks. Indeed, several tracks on "Security" appear in different forms on "Birdy," including "The Rhythm of the Heat." Longtime Gabriel fans know that he has a penchant for remixing songs and releasing them as extra tracks on CD singles, and if you find those interesting, you will likely find "Birdy" to be interesting. Of course, there is also a lot of new material to enjoy as well.

The new remastered edition of "Birdy" improves the sound quality of the original CD release (which when first released was available only as an expensive import), and changes the packaging somewhat. Gabriel's statement of artistic intent is still present. There are extra photos from the film, but they are all reduced in size. The limited edition packaging is made of paper instead of coming in the standard jewel box, and offers little other than the fact that it is a numbered limited edition.

Certainly the most obscure and unknown of the great, former/original [before Phil Collins] vocalist for '70's/80's progressive rock group, Genesis. Virtually no singing, but some vocalizing. Superb "background" music. I found this back in the late '80's, as a cassette tape, in a grocery store, and have loved it ever since. Favorite tracks? "At Night", "Floating Dogs", "The Heat" and "Slow Water." All tracks flow together, so it's difficult to identify each selection as a separate part.

Birdy really lets Peter Gabriel show off his skills as a keyboardist (he played his first keyboard an Accodian on the Genesis album Trespass), his playing is all over here. This was Gabriels first time delving deeply into instrumentals (he wrote and played previously only on the Genesis tracks After The Ordeal and Silent Sorrow On Empty Boats as well as Start from his own third album) and he really shows why hes as much a musician/arranger as he is a Singer/Songwriter. The only drawback is that this album lifts musically quite a bit from his former work.

Like Peter Gabriel himself says in the liner notes, his 1985 instrumental soundtrack album for the film, "Birdy," is a mish-mash sort of Gabriel album---7 original tracks, plus 5 tracks based on previously recorded material (ex: "Close Up" is a brief instrumental version of "Family Snapshot," "The Heat" is a shorter, instrumental version of "Rhythm Of The Heat," etc., etc.). But the new versions of the familiar songs, hearing them in a different light, are all quite interesting, and the original material is very strong, indeed. Highlights include the suitably eerie "At Night," "Floating Dogs" is a crackling good rocker, and "Quiet And Alone" & "Slow Marimbas" both have a peaceful, soothing ambience to them. "Birdy" is not really an essential Peter Gabriel album to own if you're only a casual listener of the man, but if you're a diehard Gabriel follower like me, then this album is a must-have. As this was Gabriel's first attempt at a film score, I think he did an excellent job. "Birdy" is a fine soundtrack album from Mr. Gabriel, and an excellent foreshadowing to his classic score for "The Last Temptation Of Christ" four years later.

The cover of the album typifies the music inside; the coldness within the soul when the mind is pushed to the brink of madness while fighting in a war.

Released in March 1985, Peter Gabriel - who is working with producer Daniel Lanois for the first time - utilizes 12 instrumental tracks to convey various themes from the movie, though they are also solid stand alone numbers. There are seven new compositions, with the remaining utilizing instrumental sections from previously-released songs.

Though haunting and introspective, there is an artistic elegance in the vision that Gabriel weaves in each powerful soundscape.

Peter Gabriel ventured into the realm of soundtracks in 1985 after being asked to score Alan Parker's film BIRDY, starring Nicolas Cage. Parker wanted to use instrumental versions of Gabriel's songs as the soundtrack for the film; Gabriel decided that the film needed some original material to accompany the recycled material. Thus we have BIRDY, and album that is about 40% recycled and 60% original.

The album belongs to a trio of experimental Gabriel albums inspired by tribal music (the other two albums being Gabriel's fourth self-titled release, a.k.a. SECURITY, and PASSION, the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese's controversial drama THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST). BIRDY is the most lonely and cold of these albums, at times exuding a childlike innocence that seems chilling among the harsh soundscape. The music is largely synthesized, with some eerie woodwinds popping up frequently throughout. The original material has an isolated, distant, and oddly peaceful sound to it.

The recycled material includes instrumental sections from "Family Snapshot" and "Not One Of Us" (from PETER GABRIEL 3, a.k.a. MELT), "Wallflower" and "San Jacinto" (from SECURITY), and an instrumental version of "Rhythm Of The Heat". This material is good, but it's just not as powerful without Gabriel's passionate singing and full arrangements.

The big problem with BIRDY is that it's just powerful enough to be moving, but it offers no strong emotional attachment or power, unlike Gabriel's 1988 masterpiece PASSION. Nonetheless, BIRDY is fantastic mood music, and while it may not appeal to the general public, it's a delicious snack for hungry Gabriel fans.

TRIVIA: The opening from "Birdy's Flight" was also used in a pivotal scene from John Woo's 1986 action masterpiece A BETTER TOMORROW.