Customer Reviews

Mercury Rising: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

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

 

 

Sometimes people buy soundtrack music merely because they liked the movie. Such people may miss out on some of the most beautiful music of this century composed by John Barry. Sound effects from a movie can cover up a rich score, and the music in the movie may be cut short to fit a scene. Once again, John Barry's music (Mercury Rising) is even better on CD than heard in the movie. A good portion of the music carries the mystique, intrigue, and drama that would go well with John Barry's James Bonds scores. Other motifs in the score are warm and endearing. I was thrilled to hear my favorite composer on the face of the earth back at his craft. The CD is supremely satisfying! The sound quality of the recording is excellent. My great regret about the CD is that it did not include the romantic jazz music heard in the movie at the cocktail party. In fact, the CD is fairly void of any romantic music--undoubtedly because Mr. Barry always defers his music to the motion picture story. I hope John Barry will not retire soon, we need more of his music. He has virtually created his own gener of style; his music is the best music I have ever heard. And Mercury Rising adds another wornderful addition to his life's work.

Although it has simularities to "Dances with Wolves" several of the tracks from Mercury Rising are arguably among John's best work. Just about any track that includes the name "Simon" will feature Barry's theme for the young, autistic boy. Simon's theme is really what makes this soundtrack superb! I'd say the track that does it the best would be "I'm a Friend of Simon's" towards the end of the CD. As with nearly all film scores, this CD does have tense moments but I've always found these to be the least-likeable parts of the score (i.e. they're not beautiful). Personally I think this is definitely a good score to buy be aware; since it has been long out of print it's a little pricy!

While waiting for another movie to come on, I happened to catch the closing credits of Mercury Rising and as I listened to the music, I recognized immediately that it HAD to be a John Barry score--he has such a distinctive, signature sound--I didn't need to watch the opening of the movie to know who did the score--and it's quite lovely, BTW.

It was what I was expecting the music represents the themes in the movie well, suspensful to touching. If you like instrumental suspense this is a good option.