Customer Reviews

The Perfect Storm: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

James Horner is one of the best composers working on movies nowadays, there's no question about that. His music has a habit of breathing life into a movie, like a soul into a body. However, James Horner, at times, is not the most original composer in the world, and I say this as one of his major fans. He quotes liberally from his own compositions for other films, as he did with the recent 'Bicentennial Man'. While sounding beautiful, and except for some innovative and original cues, 'Bicentennial Man' was essentially a re-hash of 'Braveheart' and, to some extent, 'Legends of the Fall'. And I'm really not complaining, because the music for those two movies is probably my favourite of all time!

The Perfect Storm is not like that.

While at times sounding rather similar to other James Horner classics like 'Apollo 13', 'Titanic', and even 'The Mask of Zorro', Horner's composition for 'The Perfect Storm' is also, in my opinion, The Perfect Score. With a beautiful theme the likes of which we haven't heard since the haunting theme for Braveheart, and with inventive use of Electric Guitars, 'The Perfect Storm' is a pleasure to listen to, both on-screen and off! The music perfectly reflects the changing moods of the sea - from peaceful and beautiful, to wild, loud and terrifying. The Electric Guitars, used in certain key segments like the swordfish catch parts, provide a beautiful and exhilarating contrast to the peaceful, moving theme.

Whilst often having to compete with the action on-screen, especially the huge, thundering crashes of the waves that brought down the Andrea Gail, the score emerges as the winner - a clear, beautiful and moving character in its own right! Like so many previous Horner Scores, the music winds up being another main actor, weaving itself into the action and drama, and infusing it with a vivid, moving spirit.

And the final song with John Mellencamp, 'Yours Forever', isn't bad at all. In fact, it is probably one of the best in a Horner-score movie to date.

Although I have not seen the movie yet, I am very excited to do so after hearing this CD. This music reminds me of why James Horner is probably the single most saught after composer in Hollywood today.

By turns lovely and melancholy as well as energetically rousing, THE PERFECT STORM clearly tells the story of the film in a haunting, memorable orchestral score. Thematically, it obviously owes a lot to his hugely successful score to TITANIC, but even so this CD holds it own fantastically well. The Mellencamp song is a bit of a letdown, but no matter. Even at nearly 80 minutes long, this disc never overstays its welcome - a real feat for any score.

Even if you are occasionally irritated by Horner's sometimes tendency to repeat himself, this album deserves to be counted as one of the exceptions. Really, really wonderful.

James Horner has created some of the best scores that film history has had to offer. Some of his most excellent work is clearly seen in his scores for "Apollo 13", "Braveheart", "Legends of the Fall" and the best-selling composed album of all time, "Titanic". However, the strangely disappointing record for "The Perfect Storm" seems mediocre by all means -- and just boring if compared to Horner's previous work.

"The Perfect Storm"'s storyline provides for what would seem like amazing music. However, after listening intently on the album itself, it is quite regular. It seems that Horner threw the compositions together hastily as if he were needing to get to another project (which could, in reality, be true).

No, the entire album is not by any means awful. It is just a normal, slightly above average score. Reason why "above average" was even mentioned is simply for the fact of the amazing track "There's No Goodbye...Only Love". This amazingly beautifully orchestrated piece is the grand achievement of the record itself and deserves completely to be recognized.

The album, as mentioned before, is not in any way "bad" -- but is in no way "great". It stands out as another score that would be pleasant to have softly playing in the background or on your headphones while you relax.

Overall Grade: C

'The Perfect Storm' is what I consider one of James Horner's best. He has the talent of expressing the emotions that is portrayed in the film through his music. The first track on this CD is a perfect example(no pun intended). Listening to it, I can see fishing boats pulling into and out of the harbor. I've lived by the ocean and James captured the feeling beautifully.
This is a must-get soundtrack. The whole CD contains beautiful and brilliant music that will just captivate your mind.

Man against nature. Man against storm and sea. These are classic elements for a tragic and heroic tale, and familiar ground for composer James Horner who has already proven himself in this area with his music to "Titanic." How do you top yourself when your first effort at scoring a saga of man and the sea was an award winner? Director Wolfgang Petersen's "The Perfect Storm" presents a different story, to be sure, but the temptation to simply follow musical channels already mapped must have been great. And admittedly, Horner does give us a number of familiar motifs here. But this score focuses on simple men and the sea and their heroic efforts to survive the storm of the century. The themes echo the heroism of the common man, not titanic and invincible vessels, and of course there is the ever present, underlying tone of inevitable doom. Amazingly, Horner presents a score that is both familiar and new. He gives us the determination of simple men and the power of the sea driven by a storm of almost supernatural proportions. There are a number of great film scores for sea tales: Bernard Herrmann's "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" and "Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef," John William's "Jaws," John Barry's "The Dove," and Horner's own "Titanic." But "The Perfect Storm" is in many ways more deserving of this great company than Horner's earlier achievement, and that is quite a claim. Horner's music for "The Perfect Storm" is a classical film score with some contemporary twists. His main theme is a fitting testament to men and women who have faced the storm and sea and in many cases have lost. And both the sea and the storm are also dramatically portrayed in this score. Fans (and critics) of Horner's music will note some familiarities with his earlier work ("Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," "Star Trek III: The Search For Spock," "Something Wicked This Way Comes," "Willow," "Braveheart," "Legends of the Fall," "The Mask of Zorro," and "Titanic"). One is more generally reminded of stirring passages from his two "Star Trek" films which afterall were about "ships" on another level. But this is a powerful and epic score that stands well on its own. John Mellencamp's vocal rendition of the main theme also works quite well and is a nice fit to the score and this soudtrack album, unlike other vocals that are far too often tolerated or quite forgetable. And at almost eighty minutes, there is a good deal of music to be enjoyed here.

James Horner takes us out to sea again, this time with "The Perfect Storm" - a strong and powerful score with a large scale orchestra treatment. The title theme is very melodic with bold overtones sure to please any listener who craves adventure on the high seas. What's new and interesting is Horner's return to the electric guitar, with a gut wrenching tempo that is enthralling, then returning to a full string orchestra, very simple, but moving. Horner with the entire ensemble creates the swells of the ocean with grandeur, making each note to the tempo pure perfection.

This new and original Horner score is exciting and inspirational. A splendid voyage through - THE PERFECT STORM!

Total Time: 79:10 on 10 Tracks/ Sony Classical - SK 89282 (2000)

Although the sdtk is excellent, I bought it because I watched the movie and liked ALL of the featured music, not just the theme and instrumentals. There are some songs missing, such as the music they played in the bar the night they came home from their 1st trip. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE I CAN FIND THOSE SONGS? Thanks.

This is great... full of emotion... it brought clear pictures of the movie back to me. My favorites include John Mellencamp's "Yours Forever" and "The Fog's Just Lifting." James Horner is an awesome composer and I hope he writes more music of this nature in the very near future! You will not go wrong in buying this CD!

This soundtrack brings me to tears when i listen to it. Especially the soft, beautiful songs "Yours Forever" and "Coming Home From The Sea". Even if i had never seen this movie i would buy htis cd. James Horner is the most talented composer i have ever heard and his music makes me to love life.

From even a cursory glance of the opinions offered by listeners of James Horner's latest offering, I don't think even the casual reader would miss out that the general feeling is that listeners have quite heard the music here before elsewhere. In the course of the audio CD, there was indeed a noticeable mix of Horner's music from his other motion pictures; the list runs from Titanic, Apollo 13, Braveheart to Courage under Fire. There is indeed a strong duplication of at least both of the central themes in the disc, one of which has a six note motiff that's been pointed out in other online reviews of this disc.

Despite the obvious self-plagiarism, the question that begs answering is whether the music itself is still enjoyable to listen to, and does it remind one of the powerful visual imagery in the motion picture itself? My opinion on the disc is that it's still completely listenable, even despite that by the time one gets to track 3 or so, one has essentially heard most of the music that's on the disc. Horner is blessed with very good full-bodied, well-balanced sound in the recording; and it helps tremendously that the disc is very well-filled at close to maximum capacity (nearly 80 minutes). Horner's compositions always make full use of massive orchestral forces, and in this album there's even the supporting use of electric guitars thrown in for good measure. The central melodies- yes, the ones that are repeated throughout most of the album- are easy on the ear and aren't entirely unattractive. The representation to the powerful visual and audio onslaught is less successful though. In fact, aside from the empirical representations of "sailing forward so here we go", "dark clouds looking in the distance", and that of "oh boy another big wave", the music here didn't really remind me that much of the picture at all. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that one could have easily substituted the soundtrack of The Perfect Storm for the Titanic one, and wouldn't have noticed too much of a difference.

So, ultimately, my take of it is that it's still a disc not entirely without merits, that I happily added to my collection of soundtrack CDs. It surely could had been better if Horner had introduced more new material and not so mercilessly pillaged his former works. Even then, if the repeated motiffs do bother you, just don't have to listen to the entire disc at a go :)