Customer Reviews

Thief

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This disc is a re-release of the 1981 Virgin edition of Tangerine Dream's music for the movie "Thief", Michael Mann's film adaptation of Frank Hohimer's book, "The Home Invaders". It doesn't contain the film's entire soundtrack music by any means: nor, indeed, is all of the music on the CD to be found in the film! The reasons are simple: much of the film's most powerful music-that which accompanies the scenes "He's beeping in good", "Into the Shaft" and "Car Lot Showdown"-had already been released on the band's 1979 album "Force Majeure", as parts of the track `Thru Metamorphic Rocks'. Consequently, almost 15 minutes of soundtrack is represented on this disc in a shorter (5 minute) remix, `Igneous', which uses a characteristic cue chord sequence from the film as an intro to the flanged percussion pulse overlaid with a new raw-edged guitar line. The movie's closing music is also absent from the CD: this is the track `Confrontation' by Craig Safan. Although originally present on the Elektra soundtrack release of the movie, Virgin did not bother obtaining the license for its inclusion here, as this was intended as a pure Tangerine Dream disc, not as a soundtrack album. Several dodges have been applied to pad the disc out to a reasonable length (although it is still quite short). Firstly, the "San Diego Reverie" scene's music is included twice (originally starting each side of the vinyl disc, it appears as tracks 1 and 5 here) in only slightly differing guises (`Beach Theme' & `Beach Scene'). Secondly, the remaining soundtrack material is expanded into longer versions than used in the film, and finally a couple of additional tracks have been composed which draw on musical ideas used only briefly elsewhere or which conjure up the moods of some of the film's scenes.

The result is some 40 minutes of material, often close to the actual film soundtrack but at other times merely suggestive of it, presented in an order that makes musical sense, rather than following any sequence relevant to the film. For all its alterations, though, this music comes across as every bit as powerfully stark as the movie. In many ways this album is more of a tribute to the film than a copy of its soundtrack, but probably is all the more potent as a result. It was a major chart success in its day and remains an impressive achievement even now.

(For more details about the music on this disc, see my review of it on amazon.co.uk)

The term "soundtrack" is at times used loosely, and this is the case here. While Tangerine Dream's music of course appears in the movie (which happens to be a little gem itself), the album is reworked quite a bit, and stands very much on it own. In spite of this, or perhaps as an uninteded result, the 1981 "Thief" album is the best soundtrack TD ever made.

Things start off strong with "Beach Theme", a moody piece that sets the tone. (A longer version of this track reappears as "Beach Scene".) "Dr. Destructo" finds Edgar Froese in one of his guitar-whaling moods, but somehow it works. The next track is "Diamond Diary", the best of the album (the movie actually starts with excerpts from this). The 10 min. track starts tentatively, then builds up to a dizzying array of synths, and takes its times to play out the various layers of sounds. Just terrific! The remainder tracks are of a somewhat lesser quality, but still quite good, in particular "Trap Feeling".

"Thief" is an important album for Tangerine Dream. Their second soundtrack (following "Sorcerer") cemented TD's status as one of the premier soundtrack providers for Hollywood. While the quality of the soundtracks would vary greatly, none would ever equal the sound and vision found on "Thief" again.

If you haven't heard the movie...do it. Listen to the closing tune. Excellent!

Beach Scene theme is really good. I miss Confrontation.

This disc is a re-release of the 1981 Virgin edition of Tangerine Dream's music for the movie "Thief", Michael Mann's film adaptation of Frank Hohimer's book, "The Home Invaders". It doesn't contain the film's entire soundtrack music by any means: nor, indeed, is all of the music on the CD to be found in the film! The reasons are simple: much of the film's most powerful music-that which accompanies the scenes "He's beeping in good", "Into the Shaft" and "Car Lot Showdown"-had already been released on the band's 1979 album "Force Majeure", as parts of the track `Thru Metamorphic Rocks'. Consequently, almost 15 minutes of soundtrack is represented on this disc in a shorter (5 minute) remix, `Igneous', which uses a characteristic cue chord sequence from the film as an intro to the flanged percussion pulse overlaid with a new raw-edged guitar line. The movie's closing music is also absent from the CD: this is the track `Confrontation' by Craig Safan. Although originally present on the Elektra soundtrack release of the movie, Virgin did not bother obtaining the license for its inclusion here, as this was intended as a pure Tangerine Dream disc, not as a soundtrack album. Several dodges have been applied to pad the disc out to a reasonable length (although it is still quite short). Firstly, the "San Diego Reverie" scene's music is included twice (originally starting each side of the vinyl disc, it appears as tracks 1 and 5 here) in only slightly differing guises (`Beach Theme' & `Beach Scene'). Secondly, the remaining soundtrack material is expanded into longer versions than used in the film, and finally a couple of additional tracks have been composed which draw on musical ideas used only briefly elsewhere or which conjure up the moods of some of the film's scenes.

The result is some 40 minutes of material, often close to the actual film soundtrack but at other times merely suggestive of it, presented in an order that makes musical sense, rather than following any sequence relevant to the film. For all its alterations, though, this music comes across as every bit as powerfully stark as the movie. In many ways this album is more of a tribute to the film than a copy of its soundtrack, but probably is all the more potent as a result. It was a major chart success in its day and remains an impressive achievement even now.

(For more details about the music on this disc, see my review of it on amazon.co.uk)

How can they put out a soundtrack to this great movie without including "Turning Point" as sung by Mighty Joe Young in what I think is the infamous Wise Fools Pub on North Lincoln Ave. in Chiacgo? I still have and listen to the original vinyl "soundtrack." Skip this expensive CD version because of its incompleteness, even though the tracks by Tangerine Dream are fantastic.

The reason this track was left off of the CD is because the song was not performed by Tangerine Dream. "Confrontation" was written by Craig Safan (I believe the same guy wrote the "Cheers" theme, if you can believe it) and performed by unknown musicians. Certainly Tangerine Dream did not contain a guitarist capable of performing on "Confrontation."

An interesting note: The UK edition of the original LP did not contain "Confrontation," but rather included "Beach Scene" from the soundtrack. The US LP excluded "Beach Scene" in favor of "Confrontation." The current version of the CD restores the release to its originally intended form.

I first saw the movie when it was new at the theater. My brother went and bought the "vinyl" as soon as he could find it. We used to crank it to the max when ever our parents were gone. Now I own the movie and will buy the soundtrack on CD soon. Tyger is another one of my favorites amongst the four CDs of theirs I own. People aren't always aware of the William Blake (mentality studied by J. Morrison) connection. Great music is hard to find and THEIF is on my top ten list !

I don't recall the track from the ending credits that the other reviewers mention, I guess I'll have to rent the movie again. Certainly, if you buy a disc expecting a particular track and it's not there, you'd be soured on the entire disc. However, I bought this disc before I saw the movie, so I didn't have any expectations. Thus, I like most of the tracks on this album. Almost every TD album has a few duds, and this album is no exception, but Burning Bar, Diamond Dairy, Igneous and Scrap Yard are good. Trap Feeling is exceptional (but too short) and is one of those TD gems that gets inside you and won't let go.

"Theft",as in, "They stole a great song." The song in question is "Confrontation". When I bought the vinyl LP back many, many years ago, it was mainly due to that song. I loved it. Recently, when I came across this import CD, I immediately bought it. I didn't remember the name of the song I liked so much, simply because I haven't owned a turntable for what seems like eons, so checking the track list would've been futile. Stupid me, I just took for granted that it was the same record. I've read comments defending the reason for the song's absence, most notably that this is a Tangerine Dream album, and "Confrontation" was not performed by the band. Uh....excuse me...did I miss something? This is a SOUNDTRACK TO A MOVIE, not a TD album. True, they performed most of the material, but it's still a soundtrack. The deletion of one of the most powerful songs from the movie is a complete waste, and so is this version of the soundtrack. Where's a turntable when you need one?

I'll just pipe in and say that I have the vinyl of this. It's a little better than TD albums from similar time like "Exit", and though there's some fluffy parts, there's some solid TD stuff too. I don't know anything about all the controversy below regarding missing tracks. Guess I'll go home and double-check the credits on my copy.