Customer Reviews

Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas [Original Motion Picture Score]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This score for Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas is astonishing. It sounds so wonderful and just great action music. I recommend this to everyone who enjoys listening to great action music.

Don't dismiss this score because you may not want to see the movie or because it's an animated movie. I haven't seen the movie but the score to Sinbad is a fantastic journey. It's filled with energy and bounce and a few memorable themes. This is one of those rare soundtracks where I can't pick a favorite cue. It's just an overall good listen. Definitely, one of the best scores to be released this year. Harry Gregson-Williams is rapidly becoming one of my new favorite composers. Between Shrek, Spy Game, Chicken Run, and now Sinbad, he is getting better and better with each movie.

Do yourself a favor and order this music. It's just plain fun! Don't try to analyze what you are hearing. Just enjoy. The main theme may wear on you just a bit, but overall I have to say it's still great. The recording is very well balanced, and you can hear all the instruments clearly, even in the full-bore, high level passages (there are plenty of these). Also, there is plenty of bass energy, but it is not overwhelming. Track 3, the Sea monster, is a good example, with some excellently recorded tympani. This track has it all. I always look forward to hearing the bass trombones at the 0:46 mark. Track 5 has the Syracuse theme. I have no idea what this is (I have not seen the movie, and don't need to). Let me say that this theme is more like an Anthem to me. If you only listen to one track as your sample, make it this one. The orchestra sounds like it will just keep going through the roof (eight notes, orchestra all playing together, full-bore). This might qualify for the 'best one minute piece of music' award, if there was such a thing. It returns majestically on track 21 at 3:40, in a different key, even more thrilling because it's played twice and the last note is held longer. I guess I've run out of superlatives. The only sonic problem I noticed on my copy, is that when the strings are playing at their highest level, there is some distortion, but it's not overly objectionable. Favorite tracks - 1,3,5,14,17,21. Almost forgot. The arrangements are right on target.

Amazing adventure score. Highly recommended. Harry does it again! Hear and feel this masterpiece.

Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell have both collaborated on animated films and have also done solo assignments as well. Williams on his solo assignment provides an engaging and beautiful score for the movie Sinbad, and is a required purchase for anyone looking for an orchestral companion to other HGW's works including The Prince of Persia, Kingdom of Heaven, and the Shrek scores. Awesome music, Harry and the orchestra deliver once again!

This is a great film score. Easily in my top 10 of all time. It probably helps that I love the movie too.

Absolutely wonderful! Especially if you know the film well, you can relive the adventure through the music!

I love the themes for this movie. They are Oscar worthy, but didn't get the nomination. Eris' theme is my favorite (it's the song: Let the Games Begin). I looked for this on iTunes but it was unavailable. This would be a good website to buy the soundtrack from.

Surpassing his work on "Chicken run," Harry Gregson-Williams makes the perfect score for such an animated action movie. Though his talents could be appreciated in other areas of Hollywood, he's good at what he does.

Whilst not original, tantalising or explorative to a seasoned listener, "Sinbad" is a nice piece of music for a composer relatively new to the job.

Working as a behind-the-coulisses entity, Gregson-Williams' name has graced many booklets already, but as yet, he has not scored many feature films. Nevertheless, it seems directors are beginning to notice him. And what more opportunity to write a diverse and exciting score than to an animated feature adventure of "Sinbad"?

This soundtrack is full with whimsical classic adventure music, with several ear-catching themes and some great monster music (especially "The Sea Monster" and "The Roc"). For the enthusiasm lingering between the lines, simply listening to the opening cues brings a smile to my face.

However, where the album fails is in fleshing all these themes and motifs out. Eris' theme and Sinbad's theme fly by too many times in undisguised vivacity. In addition, there is little difference in tone and ambience overall. What happens is that after the first two tracks, everything you will hear next seems unsurprising. Singular exceptions to this are the Roc's motif and the Sirens' calling. They do their best to kill the beat around the block, but - to me at least - they are tracks to return to rather than links in a chain. I'm not sure if that is what they are supposed to be, but I can guess.

To me - even though I return to the album many times for its feel-good undertone - "Sinbad" spells `beginning composer' all over it. I don't like to say such things, but as the case stands, less minutes of music would have made a better listening experience.

All the same, it's worthy of your collection but not worthy to the talents of Harry Gregson-Williams, who will bloom and produce much better music if he stays off the beaten tracks.

This one gets three stars.

Bram Janssen,
The Netherlands