Customer Reviews

The Princess and the Warrior

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anyone who has seen Tom Tykwer's epic third film, "The Princess & The Warrior", knows that there must have been a lot of money floating around when it was being made. The same can be said of the soundtrack also, as the co-composing team of Tykwer, Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek, under the newfound moniker Pale 3, have struck gold after cooking up a storm with their rave-flavoured accompaniment to "Run Lola Run". And like the film, the follow-up could not be anymore different, as the thumping beats of "Lola" are exchanged for heartbreaking strings and slow-burning stunners that add to the film's emotional texture unlike most plop-pop soundtracks that are geared to make money.

One nice little subversion is that Pale 3 have taken various score sections from the film itself and have transformed them into stirring pop songs that interlink with various moments and characters within the film. On the whole, it works, but will leave curious listeners who either haven't seen the film or didn't like it cold, as you're not going to feel moved when Louise Rhodes trills to chilling effect "I knew I'd find you there / Now our story can really start" unless you adored the film, not to mention Sissi and Bodo. That said, the best songs are Skin's "You Can't Find Peace" (singing as though she's in unspeakable pain), Rhodes' "Escape (Afraid Of No One)" (amazing ending!) and Beth Hirsch's "The Tunnel" (sampling one of the best score pieces from the film). And Franka Potente continues to follow Marianne Faithful in the name of spoken word with "Fly With Me", which again soars or falls judging on how much you enjoyed the film.

The other half of the CD is score cues taken from the film itself, and again highlights the amazing versatility of Pale 3. Combining low-fi electronica with some stirring string arrangements (recorded in California - classy!), the talented troika masterfully crank up the tension (hear "The Roof") as well as absorb the listener with soothing melody (hear "Opening (Sissi Search)"). But the humdinger here is "The Escape", which sounds exactly the opposite of what the title suggests. My advice: watch the film, be amazed, then blast this as loud as you can from your CD players! Truly wonderful.

As other reviews have noted, only half of this CD (about 35 minutes) contains actual music from the movie soundtrack. The rest is songs "inspired by" it, and although they're co-composed by Tykwer / Klimek / Heil themselves and the guest singers are fairly respectable, I just wasn't impressed. "Mediocre cookie-cutter trip-hop", say I (and I do like good trip-hop, e.g. Portishead or Laika, but this isn't it.) Now, the good news is that the bona fide soundtrack is very, very good. Like the movie itself, it's recognizably similar to "Run Lola Run" but very different in mood. Only "Truck Attack" has a driving beat; the rest pulses and hums, but only enough to make you nervous (in a good way). In particular, "The Roof" cranks up the tension steadily for seven minutes until it breaks into a flurry of piano arpeggios -- the big jump of course -- and dissolves. So five stars for the soundtrack, two stars for the songs, but I'll put my thumb on the scale and average it at four stars because the soundtrack itself is indispensable.

If only more movie soundtrack CDs were like this...

We see a lot of soundtracks to American films claiming the content is "Music from and inspired by..." In most cases, at least to me, the "inspired by" portion couldn't be more inaccurate. They seem to serve no other purpose than a marketing tool to clutter up the overstock bins in discount chain stores once the movie leaves the theatres.

The content of this particular CD can lay truthfully claim to contain "Music from and inspired by" the film. And what terrific content it is.

Composed by director Tom Tykwer's musical co-horts, Pale 3, about half of the CD contains the material from the score. It works much the same way music did for "Run Lola Run": it complemented the story and moved it along. The difference here is that the music for "The Princess and the Warrior" is much subtler. Like "Lola" it is largely electronic, but softer. The closest it gets to "Lola" is the "Truck Attack" piece, which dr!ives an important plot element in the film.

The other half of this CD contains songs taken from the score's arrangements, with lyrics provided by the various special guests brought in to lend their vocals to the work. The lyrics stay close to the themes and events of the movie. With the exception of the film's theme song, "You Can't Find Peace" (featuring Skin, formerly of Skunk Anansie), none of these pieces appear in the film. Snippets of "Fly with Me", featuring Franka Potente, the film's star, can be heard in the film's trailer.

The best thing about this soundtrack (and, indeed, the "Run Lola Run" soundtrack) is that it lets the listener take home some of the experience of the movie. I think that's a pretty cool thing indeed.

Recommended.

I agree with bluedevilsf....this soundtrack is definitely more inspired than the entire score of the film. I find it missing some other musical gems from the movie, particularly the opening instrumental sequence at the funeral by Arab Strap, "I'm Sorry" by Peggy Lee, and the lilting score during the final scene. I listen to this soundtrack as I am driving through San Francisco and the wine country hills throughout Sonoma, particularly "You Can't Find Peace" by SKIN and "Fly with Me" by Franka Potente (inspired); and Tracks 8 and 12 (actual movie). Tom's group Pale 3 really knew how to put together the most sublime, soul-opening romantic music on this earth. Now, just to find someone who understands the feeling......

This CD is so beautiful, I'm practically speechless! It is an ambient score and quite touching. The soundtrack, is nothing like the Run Lola Run soundtrack, but in my humble opinion, it beats the later. The vocalists are all female and the first half of the cd are songs written by the artists on there take of the subject matter of the film and how they intepret the love story. Relaxing and romantic. Track 5 Bodo by Alison Goldfrapp is so touching and her voice is so delicate and tragic. This is a passionate soundtrack and I recommend all fans of the elegant movie to purchase the soundtrack!

First, only 35 minutes of this album is music that was in the movie. The first of it was supposedly "inspired" by the film, making it additional stuff instead of a taste of the really real. That said, Pale 3, the same people who did the amazingly apt work for "Run, Lola, Run," were brought in for this soundtrack and they knocked it out of the park. When I first heard they would be involved once again I thought it would be a little more of the same as before, with a lot of drum and bass empowering the songs, but listening showed that Pale 3 opted for something more ambient than anything they did before.

The album features seven actual songs and seven titles from the score, giving a good mix to fulfill your audio needs. The artists that appeared on the album were great, too
1) You Can't Find Peace - featuring Skin
2) Escape (afraid of no one) - Feautring Louise Rhodes
3) Fly With Me - Featuring Franka Potente
4) The Tunnel - Featuring Beth Hirsch
5) Bodo - Featuring Alison Goldfrapp
6) Just Another Day - Featuring 12 Rounds
7) Four Days - featuring Anita Lane
And the Open score features Micheal Brook
While quite a few of these songs are really good to listen to, there are a few tracks on the album that really stand-out. Just another Day, featuring 12 Rounds, is a beautiful work and a little unlike 12 Rounds, with the ambient sound a little different than what 12 Rounds normally crafts. It is also one of their last songs so, for fans of the band, it is well worth checking out. Escape, featuring Louise Rhodes of Lamb fame, songs beautiful as well and I could actually envision this as a Lamb track. There is something beautiful aobut the way Rhodes sings, something that seems to mix Jazz with some sort of Blues, and her songs stick with you. There is also the notable Goldfrapp, Lane, Hirsch and Skin, plus the scores themselves.
I bought it for one or two songs and the fact that this was done by the designers of Run Lola Run and found myself with so much more.

I really was impressed, and surprised, by this work.

Beautiful soundtrak, very dream like & nostagic of the movie

Soundtrack from well-anticipated film include seven songs and 7 tracks for the score. The songs all include PALE 3, which are very reminiscent to the acid jazz/trip-hop sounds in the likes of Portishead, Mono, Massive Attack, etc. The third song is spoken(!) by the movie's actress FRANKA POTENTE (Run, Lola, Run).The additional songs (with Pale 3) feature guest vocalists Skin (Skunk Anansie); Louise Rhodes (Lamb); Alison Goldfrapp (Goldfrapp), Beth Hirsch, Anita Lane and 12 rounds. Very ethereal sounding collection.

This soundtrack contains my favorite song from my second favorite movie "The Princess and the Warrior" (so much better in German w/subtitles). Skin singing "You Can't Find Peace" is so beautifully haunting, just like the movie. I started researching Skin a little, and if you like this song, you will most likely enjoy her song "Faithfulness", equally as eerie and driven. Most of her YouTube videos are pretty trippy and/or disturbing, but I still like the sound of her voice.

I just wanted to throw in my own two cents on an issue a couple of other reviewers have brought up regarding this CD, yet in my opinion has not been addressed very carefully. This is concerning the reviews that talk about the sound of the CD having "noise" in it.

I am now on my second CD copy of "Princess and the Warrior," and both CDs have the same noise problems in them. I suppose there could always be the chance that I have received two copies of the CD from a certain batch of bad copies, but I wouldn't have any way of knowing that. These two copies were bought at different times, and different locations - but both being under the "Trauma" label that released it here in the U.S., and is being sold on this page.

First off, I have to say I really like this CD quite a lot - as well as the movie it comes from. I know the type of music it is influenced by, so the noise I'm talking about here is not the flavor that is intentionally in the music (like the vinyl records pops layered into the music of Massive Attack, Portishead, etc.), these are problematic digital glitches that once you recognize are there, make it hard to put out of your mind. Where I noticed it the most was in the instrumental portion of the album. The last track is where I heard it on my first listening. There are long sustained notes in this piece, and especially in the last moments, it actually sounds like a weird digital miss-reads - like the sound a CD makes when it's got a scrape and makes a strange tiny digital blip. The track is very beautiful, so to hear something like that (no matter how small) is incredibly frustrating! Listening to the entire CD the second time, I noticed that there is lots of problems throughout the album. Some obviously more noticeable than others.

I liked the album so much, that as I said before, I bought another copy thinking there was no way that a mistake that bad could actually be part of the digital file used for the CD. This new copy has the same problems in the same places though, so it's either a pressing problem, or a problem that is in the actual file used for this CDs master. I would have a really hard time believing that it was in the original recordings, because if anyone heard these problems there is no way it would have been okay - especially with the amount of effort it seems everyone has put into this project.

I noticed that there is an Import version of this album which is on the Universal Label. I would love to know if this version also has the same problems - but for the price, I don't want to take the chance to see if it's different.

I am keeping this CD even though the digital glitches bug me. I like the album enough, and maybe sometime I will be able to have a good copy - till then I don't have any other option.

I would love to hear from other people that have tuned into these problems with this CD (or not), I'm sort of surprised that with the amount of reviews, there is only a couple that have mentioned the sound problem ... which is also why I'm throwing it out there that there could be some weird possibility I got two bad copies. And by the way, I have played them on three separate players to see if it could just be a playback issue, but unfortunately this wasn't the case.