Customer Reviews

Robotech Perfect Soundtrack Album

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Simply put, this is an awesome collection of music. I was a HUGE Robotech fan when I was a kid and coming across this CD collection is a Heaven sent for me. For the uninitiated, Robotech was just one of the many Americanized Japanese import cartoons from the 80's (along with Star Blazers, Voltron, etc). The show was on for three seasons featuring Season One: The Macross Saga, Season Two: The Robotech Masters and Season Three: The New Generation.

The music on this CD is well worth the price (in fact a bargain if you ask me). There is over 2 hours worth of music on here. The CD is actually a 2 CD set with a (near) complete score of all the music composed for the series.

The first disc is the "Complete Background Music Collection" (42 tracks) chock full of GREAT orchestra pieces including "character themes" (-ie Rick Hunter, Roy Fokker, Minmei, etc) "love themes," "battle themes," "bad-guy" themes, "danger themes," "sad themes" etc. Listening to this brings back great memories of the show. The music, as you'll find, is beautifully composed, orchestrated and aptly named as well. Believe it or not, I put this background music theme collection right up there with anything from those big budget movies like Titanic, Star Wars, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, (or any John Williams composition for that matter) or big budget video games like Final Fantasy. This music is just THAT awesome.

The second disc is the "Complete Vocal Song Collection" (24 tracks). A majority of these tracks were the songs sung by the Lynn Minmei character from the Macross Saga and Yellow Dancer from the New Generation. The songs are a nice collection. A lot of the love songs (from the Minmei character) are a bit cheesy (like "To Be In Love," "The Man In My Life" etc) but still very "sweet" and nice. The distinct 80's beat to a lot of the Yellow Dancer songs also obviously dates this series. However, it is great stuff (as all stuff from the 80's were). My personal favorite tracks on this are the wedding anthem "Together" (truly a beautiful song) and the shows fight anthem, the inspirational "We Will Win."

Also, the CD liner notes give you a good insight into the production of the entire Robotech Saga. It's a great read for any fan of the series. If you've never seen the Robotech series, try tracking down some videotapes of it, you won't be disappointed.

I personally LOVE the background music collection. It is DEFINITELY a good collection of great music. It's something you could just chill to for hours at home or at work.

I HIGHLY recommend this soundtrack not only to Robotech fans, but also to any music lover out there. This music collection is just "That Damn Good."

Highest Recommendation Possible

There are some that have said that the `Robotech Perfect Soundtrack Collection' 2-CD set is not totally complete, that there are a few bits of background music missing. I've noticed this myself. But despite this, I believe that Harmony Gold, the production company behind `Robotech', made every effort to release as complete a soundtrack as possible. Because not only does this set contain background music and songs from the original `three generations' show and `The Sentinels', it also has vocals from the rarely-seen `Robotech: The Movie', which has become a bootleg video legend.

I found a lot of the orchestral tunes to be inspiring. My favorite musical track is the synthesizer-laden `Invid Strike'. I believe it's one of the sample tracks- take a listen! Most of the non-Minmei vocals are in an `80's, pop/new-wave style, AKA the songs heard in the `New Generation' segment and the movie. The tunes date the show a bit, but it also reflects the era that `Robotech' was produced in. There's even a track by Three Dog Night in this set (How'd they get in there?).

I've had a tough time trying to track this 2-CD set down, since it's been out of production for quite some time. I eventually got it on special order. If you're the quintessential Robotech enthusiast, I strongly recommend you grab this collection at a good price while you still can!

`Late

¿Eres fanatico de Robotech?, Definitivamente TIENES que tener este CD (bueno en realidad son 2 CD's), contiene TODAS las canciones y temas musicales de la serie y además algunas que no se escucharon como de The Sentinels. El album es un poco caro, pero de verdad vale la pena.

I've said it in my review of the Robotech legacy boxed set 1 and now I can confirm it... If you are into this cartoon series and have bought the boxed set(s) (1 or more generations) then this is the perfect CD to complete your collection. Its a 'double feature' box, making it truly the "Perfect soundtrack collection". The first CD contains *all* of the background music you hear(d) on the cartoons. No matter how short (from 8 to 47 seconds) or long (2:58 or 3:22) the track is; its on this CD.

But as you might know Robotech also had this appealing feature like many of the modern Anime series; songs. And thats where the 2nd CD comes into focus; this one holds *all* of the songs which were featured in the entire Robotech series. In fact; this disc also has the tracks from Robotech II (The sentinels).

So in conclusion; this *is* the perfect & complete addition to any Robotech collection. And while you're at it; take a closer look at Amazone's special offers; I bought this CD together with the "Macross" CD. This one features all the original Japanese songs. Also a very interesting CD.

I personally just bought thisdouble cd it is great . I listen to it every day and night i would recommed this cd to any one. If you are a fan of the show it is a must hve for everyone who loves robotech

A great CD set for any fan of the series.The synthisized music has a strong 80's feel. CD contains information on how to order the series on video. The inside cover features some nice artwork from the show. The running time of the disks offsets the cost.

This CD is great. It reminded me of all the gut-wrenching moments in the show, all those memories. Like Roy Fokker, Rick Hunter, Max Sterling, and the rest of the gang. I recommend this CD to anyone who has seen or read enough robotech to like it.

This is the best soundtrack for an American animated series ever. The budget may have not been movie quality, but the skill of the composers shine through. In CD1 "The Complete Background music collection", Arlon Ober and 5 other talented artists take us into a vivid futuristic world with a score that is as big and varied as the series itself. It's too bad they didn't get the budget for a bigger orchestra. Keep in mind, though, that they were already spending a lot more money on "cartoon" music than any of the other cartoon studios at the time would have bothered to. If Harmony Gold can get Arlon Ober to score the music for the upcoming new Robotech series, they will have a winner for sure. Also, I would highly recommend Arlon's own album "City Of Angels" if you can find it. The description on the back of that CD describes Arlon Ober's music best:

"Evolving from the world of motion picture soundtracks, Arlon Ober is known for his ability to 'sculpt sound' into musical interpretations that take the listener beyond visual images and into the realm of pure musical experience."

The second disc, CD2, features most of the vocal tracks from Robotech, Robotech II, and Robotech The Movie: The Untold Story. Like the first disc, there are tracks missing here, but more because there wasn't enough space than deteriorated masters. The approximately 30 second Minmei song "The Right Move" from episode 28 "Reconstruction Blues" is not here. Also there is a short finale to We Will Win that was recorded separately but is not on this disc. Other songs that are missing include "Macross Anthem" (from Space Fortress Macross Boobytrap), "Lifeline" (never appeared in the series but the instrumental is on CD1, track 26) "Robotech, Robotech" (French Main Title), "The Flower Of Life" (Joanne Harris (?) sings Musica's song), and "The Way To Love" (Minmei version). Many people probably don't recognize the 6 songs from The Movie, but fortunately none of them are missing. The song "In My Heart" by Three Dog Night sets the mood of the entire film perfectly, which is the love story between Mark Landry and Becky Michaels, as they try to live their everyday lives under the impending invasion of The Robotech Masters.

The music from Robotech: The Movie, and the energetic Yellow Dancer songs later on, were composed and performed by Steve Wittmack and Michael Bradley. Wittmack and Bradley's songs have been present in every Robotech project so far. Their rock orientated tracks and electronic music provide a different angle on the future introduced in CD1. Previously, Wittmack and Bradley did songs on the soundtrack to the movie Savage Streets, which never got a CD release of its own. This second disc contains a lot of electronic music, which some people don't like because it can sound simplistic. But I think it accentuates the feeling of the future and high technology that Robotech is known for. This is an exciting and interesting album which is also a peice of anime history, and everyone that loves music should get it.

Robotech Perfect Soundtrack Album(1994). A double-disc collection compiled of nearly every piece of music found in the Robotech anime series, ranging from the 3 original sagas to the never released series Robotech II: The Sentinels, and Robotech movie.

By the time the mid-80s rolled around, the only two popular "robotic warfare" anime series to really surface at the time were Mobile Suit Gundam and Voltron. Being a kid in the late 80s, I thought those two shows were good (Voltron being an old favorite of mine), but another show of that type came about and blew both of them away. Robotech was this new contender. At the time that it came out, it was the most advanced cartoon of its type, featuring an interesting story that spanned out over numerous episodes and some of the best animation of its time. Of course one aspect that helped shape the story of the series is the music score. Each music piece created fit in perfectly at key points in the show, and so the composers unified all three series with the same score.

With 66 total tracks and over 145 minutes of music, Robotech Perfect Collection manages to cram nearly every piece of music that was (and wasn't) on the show. In fact, the collection organized each disc into two sections: The Complete Background Music Collection, and The Complete Vocal Song Collection.

DISC ONE - THE COMPLETE BACKGROUND MUSIC COLLECTION
On this disc, you have most every piece of musical score found in the Macross, Robotech Masters, and New Generation sagas. It has the main title and closing themes as well as some of the more calm pieces and intense battle pieces. There are 42 tracks on this disc, though the tracks all range anywhere from 8 seconds to over 3 minutes. Any fan of the original show will find themselves at home here. I'm not going to talk about all the tracks individually as there are so many of them, so onto disc two...

DISC TWO - THE COMPLETE VOCAL SONG COLLECTION
This disc is where you will find all the full vocal songs in one form or another. Tracks 1-5 are the songs sung by the character Minmei on the show. I was never really a fan of her songs as most of them were very dated and cheezy, and the slower songs were drenched in sappiness (then again, I guess the whole soundtrack sounds dated, but it sort of adds to the appeal if you have a soft spot for it!). The one song of hers that's actually decent here is the epic 'We Will Win', which fits the battle above earth in the show very well. The best tracks begin after the Minmei songs. 'In My Heart' is a song by the classic rock band Three Dog Night written for the Robotech movie that was never released (how did they end up on here?). Pretty good. Tracks 7-11 are also taken from the movie, but they have better sound quality and are basically new-wavish 80s pop rock songs. Most are sung by a woman, with track #7 sung in a duet with the character Yellow Dancer. My favorites are 'Underground', 'Call On Me', and 'The Future Is Now'. Track 12 appeared on Robotech II: The Sentinels. The remaining vocal tracks, #'s 13-17 are all from The New Generation saga sung by Yellow Dancer. These are probably the best vocal songs on the disc, especially 'Look Up! The Sky Is Falling' and 'It Don't Get Any Better'. Yellow Dancer also sings the Minmei song 'We Will Win', though for some odd reason I actually like the original version better.

As a bonus, tagged onto the end of the Vocal Collection disc is the musical score to the never released series Robotech II: The Sentinels, on tracks 18-24. Whereas the original series score was orchestral with synth touches, the Robotech II score is all synthesized. Some are very good, others sound dated, but the best ones are 'Young Warriors', 'The Regent', and my absolute favorite score piece throughout the 2 discs, 'Invid Strike'. These tracks are a nice bonus on an otherwise packed collection crammed with music.

Overall, this is an outstanding collection of music and very well packaged. It even contains some liner notes detailing how the music came to be on the show. 5 stars. If you never grew up with the show, then this collection might not be for you and it won't change your mind, but if you watched the show and loved its score, then Robotech Perfect Collection would definitely be worth your time. It's EXTREMELY PRICEY now, though I managed to secure a copy for 20 bucks a couple years ago. So if you ever see it for a decent price, pick it up as it's extremely rare. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO ALL FANS.

Other similar soundtracks:
-Transformers The Movie Soundtrack
-Project A-Ko Original Soundtrack

I happened to be one of the lucky few who bought this album when it was originally released on cassette and CD, sometime ago. Ofcourse I was young then, and Robotech was an irresistible obssessive fix.

Now looking back, the vocal CD is truly cheesy in every since of the word, but in the same way as most 80's music was. However, all the tracks retain their *charm* and never fail to entertain. Every time I listen to this CD it takes me back to when I was but a wee one, pretending to be a Veritech Fighter Pilot like the great Rick Hunter!

I'm sure it will do the same for you, pretty soon you and all your old...friends will be running around the house in your underwear claiming to be clones....or something like that.

Some Favorite Songs: "Look Up", "We Will Win" (Both Versions), "Saved By Science" and "It's You"