Customer Reviews

The Music of Command & Conquer - Red Alert

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Frank Klepacki / The Music of Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Label: Westwood Studios
Year: 1998
Track Title
1. Hell March
2. Radio
3. Crush
4. Roll Out
5. Mud
6. Twin Cannon
7. Face The Enemy
8. Run
9. Terminate
10. Bigfoot
11. Workmen
12. Militant Force
13. Dense
14. Vector
15. Smash

This soundtrack is top quality. Not only does it fit the game, but the music is excellent to listen to on its own. This was the score that brought a new level to in game music that is now standard among the blockbuster games. A must have.

I love Red Alert and part of it is because of this amazing soundtrack. It's just SO good. Every time i listen to it, it makes me feel good and make me remember how much fun i had playing it. Also it makes you feel kinda special and bad-ass cos when you hear the music, you remember how you seriously kicked ass in the game destroying Soviet or Allied forces and buildings etc. :D The music is just right for the game. Hell of a soundtrack for hell of a game :)
Hell march especially is awesome, it's a legend already. Actually the whole soundtrack and game is.

As Barney says it in How i met your mother, it's LEGENDARY!

Hell march is one single track that i love.
It is absolutely amazing and fitting for a War game.

since i lost the game. having the soundtrack was what i needed to remember even if thats all i remember.

Like my fellow reviewer 'Alvaro Jimenez V "Isbjorn"', I too have wanted to buy this album for over 10 years - since the game came out in fact. The trouble is that the soundtrack has ironically suffered from the curse of being associated with THE best computer game ever made & so has been heard the world over, but not by anyone who's actually bought the album!

The interesting thing is, though, that if you play the game nowadays, only three things have not dated: the missions, the storyline/ films & this soundtrack. And, of the three, this remains the true timeless diamond.

And the best part is that, when you buy this CD is that it seperates the excellent music from the game. Sure - the atmospheric nature of the music could only be from the game, but the songs are powerful enough to stand out in their own right as electronic masterpieces.

Take 'Hell March', for instance (which another reviewer has said makes this worth the price alone). 'Hell March' (along with 'Bigfoot') defines Red Alert & the game would just be another RTS without it. But then you realise that these tracks are masterpieces of their kind - electronic yet human & almost spiritual. Appealing in the way a rock band is but electronic.

And then there are the other tracks - the often forgotten 'Crush' (which includes Gregorian chanting 10 years before Halo did) & 'Run' & 'Terminate', which are clearly influenced by Terminator 2.
Perhaps unexpectedly, there are also 3 tracks on this CD which, far from being Hard Rock/ Dance, are actually chill-out (tracks 4, 5 & 14 - 'Roll Out', 'Mud' & 'Vector'). Take these tracks alone & you soon realise that they are different to the others yet fit snugly within the album.

Best of all there is 'Twin Cannon', which is one of the definitive songs of the game (the soundtrack for the final allied mission in Moscow). No matter how many times you hear this song, it still is a masterpiece of loud, powerful music & has few rivals (except possibly Freebird).

In addition to the music, there is also the detail on the sleevenotes, such as the note from Frank Klepacki:

"This is the part where you say something cool about Frank.
Frank has nothing to say to you.
He's a Musician, not a Gamer Guru.
He doesn't have an email address
Because he has never been on
The Internet... Once.
And all those photographs of him
With his hair long are lies.
He cut his hair."

Anyhow, this soundtrack is a electronic classic & should rightfully have a place in everyone's record collection. I really wish I'd bought it earlier & made it more popular as it is, to my mind, like an album The Prodigy never wrote - filled with electronic music written by someone who also has a talent for metal/rock - a formidable combination.

So, if you haven't bought it, then do so. Now. Or Frank will kill you.

When I was younger, I used to spent days playing Red Alert with my friends, back then, I wished I was able to listen to its music all day long, now, several years later, I can.

I can't tell what I was thinking, can't remember, getting old. I'm way too old to be buying stuff like this. it was used and very cheap though. It's nice to be able to find used stuff like this on Amazon.