Customer Reviews

Octopussy

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

 

 

The OCTOPUSSY soundtrack seems a bit truncated but it is still a good John Barry - James Bond CD. The soundtrack to OCTOPUSSY seems not so much a mixture of styles but rather the ambiguous culmination of those styles. The suspense, exotic and romantic elements of the score are impressive. "That's My Little Octopussy" and "Bond Meets Octopussy" are very beautiful love pieces based on the main title: "All Time High" that are reminiscent to the true nature of "We Have All the Time In the World" from ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. The character of Octopussy, played against formula, in this film seems like a genuine love interest of James Bond as is reflected in these pieces. Impressive too are "Bond At the Monsoon Palace" and "The Chase-Bomb Theme" reminiscent of Barry's scoring of some of his "cold war" films from the 1960s. In other parts of the score Barry seems to be tiring. His passion and penchant for scoring action scenes seems to be on the wane here. "Yo Yo Fight" and parts of "The Palace Fight" seem unimaginative and lackluster. Still, this soundtrack contains many tracks with elements of "The James Bond Theme" and this is where Barry seems to have compensated himself. "Bond Look-Alike" is a tour de force of the 007 mystique. "Bond Look-Alike" is a rich composition based on "The James Bond Theme" and is one of the best tracks to be found on any of the James Bond soundtracks. It is good to see that the original artwork was restored with Roger Moore in the traditional 007-tuxedo gun pose for this re-issue.

The new remastered score for Octopussy is a masterpiece. All Time High by Rita Coolidge is a favorite of fans and sounds vey well on this CD. Filled with many variations of the James Bond Theme as well a mysterious music with slow strings and little brass. Exciting music is also available in tracks Bond Look Alike, Chase Bond Theme, The Palace Fight and Yo Yo Fight. Bond Meets Octopussy and Arrival at Octopussy Island are slow and sound very well. All Time High returns again as the 11th and last track on the CD. The only complaint is the rather short amount of 11 tracks and 36 minutes of music. It still is one of the best soundtracks and is a must for all 007 music fans!

I was pleased to get my hands on this reissue of a solid John Barry entery in the 007 series. The remastered cd sounds fantastic, though it does not include any bonus tracks. Also, it drops the qoutes from the film found on the first Rykodisk reissue. The score itself is a fine effort, though not as exciting as Barry's next two efforts ("A View to a Kill" and "The Living Daylights"). The real standout here is the love theme, "That's My Little Octopussy," a nice orchestral arrangement of the pleasent theme song "All Time High" by Rita Coolidge. The best of the action cues is "The Chase Bond Theme," elements of which Barry would incorporate into the next two, more action packed scores. If you're collecting the Bond score reissues, or even just the Barry albums, this is a no-brainer, especially if (like me) you missed the '97 Rykodisk album. Though I would have liked to have seen the score expanded with bonus tracks, "Octopussy" remains a fine album.

After Diamonds Are Forever (which is my personal favorite John Barry Bond score), Barry's reportoire became more melodical with less of the hard edged horn sections but Barry almost never disapoints with the lush exotic sound that Octopussy has. My beef with this soundtrack is there are no extra musical tracks in it, the reason for this is the producer of the re-mastered library of
Bond soundtracks had not enough budget allocated by the record company to include extra tracks on all the remastered Bond music, so therefore he picked the ones that he thought were most deserved to have extra tracks. Unfortunately, Octopussy was not one of the ones budgeted for extra tracks. Thank the stars above that Diamonds are Forever was allocated extra tracks, but alas, it was not to be for Octopussy.

This soundtrack is perfect for the consumate Bond fan. The cd contains most of the music from the film and is great purchase for anyone who loves the movie. Each track will immediately bring to mind the scene from the movie. I would buy it again.