Eyes Wide Shut: Music From The Motion Picture [SOUNDTRACK]

Various Artists - Soundtracks - 1999, Jocelyn Pook

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 13, 1999)
• Original Release Date: July 13, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Reprise / Wea
• ASIN: B00000JG3P
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #32,377 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Musica Ricercata No. 2 - Dominic Harlan

2. Jazz Suite 2 Waltz 2 - Concertgeboux Amsterdam (Reprise)

3. Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing - Chris Isaak

4. When I Fall in Love - Victor Silvester

5. I Got It Bad & That Ain't Good - Oscar Peterson Trio

6. Naval Officer - Jocelyn Pook

7. Dream, The - Jocelyn Pook

8. Masked Ball - Jocelyn Pook

9. Migrations - Jocelyn Pook

10. If I Had You - Roy Gerson

11. Strangers In The Night - Peter Hughes Orchestra

12. Blame It On My Youth - Brad Mehldau

13. Grey Clouds - Dominic Harlan

14. Musica Ricercata No. 2 - Dominic Harlan

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The late director Stanley Kubrick's masterful pairing of image, song, and symphony has forever imbued an impossibly eclectic body of music with indelible psychic connotations that range from cosmic grandeur (2001's Also Sprach Zarathustra and "The Blue Danube") to cynical irony (A Clockwork Orange's use of Beethoven, Rossini, and Gene Kelly's "Singin' in the Rain"; Vera Lynn's warbling "We'll Meet Again" over Dr. Strangelove's climactic vision of apocalypse) and outright left-field loopiness (the Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird" from Full Metal Jacket); he may not have written a note of it, but it would somehow always be his. Judged against that history, Kubrick's final soundtrack, Eyes Wide Shut, may well be his most subtle and consistently surprising. Typically disparate, yet utterly evocative of the film's complexity of mood and psychosexual undercurrent, it initially glides effortlessly from old Kubrick favorite Ligeti (an excerpt and reprise of "Musica Ricercata II" rendered as a stark, minimalist dirge by pianist Dominic Harlan), through a Shostakovich waltz and Chris Isaak's edgy "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing" to the schmaltzy ballroom sop of "When I Fall in Love." Crucially, Kubrick also commissioned original music (a rarity in his work since Strangelove) by English composer Jocelyn Pook, and her handful of compelling tracks range from Elgar-autumnal to hauntingly avant-garde, all of it becoming a piece of the director's strange, satisfying stew of classical, rock, jazz, and ostensibly banal pop. A soundtrack that evokes Kubrick's very essence: complex, satisfying, yet wholly enigmatic. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When is a soundtrack not just a soudtrack?, March 14, 2000

By	J. Lucas (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When it's from a Stanley Kubrick film, that's when. Though it's not for everyone, the soundtrack to Kubrick's beautifully twisted final film, "Eyes Wide Shut", is a musical journey unlike any you've ever taken. Like the film itself, the "Eyes Wide Shut" soundtrack is a dreamlike experience, taking us from heaven to hell and back again. It is Dominic Harlan's riveting piano music that haunts much of the film, and, of course, every nightmarish note is here. We are quickly catapulted into that blurred reality that Tom Cruise's celluloid character spends his two evenings roaming the streets of New York in. Harlan's piano work has the same feel as Kubrick's film -- easily alternating between beautiful and frightening, real and surreal. Featured alongside Dominic Harlan's music on "Eyes Wide Shut" is the brilliant original score of Jocelyn Pook. Pook perfectly captures the film's beauty and menace in such themes as "The Dream", "Migrations" and especially (and most importantly), in the chilling theme, "Masked Ball". The masked ball scene appears midway through the movie and serves as the film's visual centerpiece and turning point. It is the moment where dreams and reality converge once and for all, setting the harrowing second act into motion. Jocelyn Pook's music in this scene -- hypnotic, frightening, and gorgeous -- does wonders for the effectiveness and power of this moment in the film, and is especially glorious when listened to through your headphones. All in all, the "Eyes Wide Shut" soundtrack is not merely a collection of recordings from an extraordinary film. It is a companion to that film, in which we trace Tom Cruise's footsteps through his two nights of dreams and reality, curiosity and jealousy, paranoia and revenge, and finally -- hopefully - truth and redemption. If you're up for the experience, it's a trip well worth taking.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mesmerizing!, December 3, 1999

By	I. Meric "_starchild_" (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After listening to the soundtrack of "2001:A Space Odyssey" i never thought i would find another album with such haunting tunes. I'm so glad that i'm wrong. Kubrick, once more, blends "his" vision of the world with "others'" sounds. The incredible diversity this soundtrack provides leaves me speechless. It's jazz, it's classical, it's pure rock, all wrapped up in one, shining just like a gem. They're the tunes, for sure, Kubrick had in mind. To perfect the film, to make it dream-like, to have it palpable. This is one of the rare soundtracks that won't disappoint you, but enrich your musical world just as Kubrick enriches your visual one.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Matches well the set and costume design of Kubrick's film, April 26, 2001

By	Christopher Culver - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Although Stanley Kubrick's final film "Eyes Wide Shut" was controversial and blasted by many critics, there is little doubt that the film exhibited meticulous and lush set and costume design. The film's soundtrack does an excellent job of matching the style of Kubrick's visuals.

The soundtrack opens with Ligeti's minimalist masterpiece "Musica Ricercata, II" performed by the precise Dominic Harlan. Next is the film's opening theme, Shostakovich's "Waltz 2 from Jazz Suite," a sweepingly grand piece given an excellent performance by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Chris Isaak's "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing" is the only rock music track on the entire soundtrack, but it fits in surprisingly well.

It is, however, the compositions of Jocelyn Pook which truly stand out. He first two pieces, "Naval Officer" and "The Dream" are quiet, disturbing mood pieces. "Masked Ball" is the track played during the opening of the infamous orgy sequence, and it features a chorus played backwards, forming a sort of black-mass atmosphere. "Migrations" is played during the continuation of the orgy, as the Doctor walks room to room. With its wild yell and frenetic strings, this is the climax of the album.

The big-band pieces can seem trivial compared to the artistic heights of Pook, but they add good incidental accompaniment to the film.

One of the better film soundtracks out there, EYES WIDE SHUT is worth getting, even if the film itself let you down for plot reasons.