Considerations (Tron: Legacy Soundtrack/Score)
Fair warning: I took my MUS 1600: Music Appreciation for the Nonprofessional elective seriously, and I put it to exhaustive (exhausting?) armchair use here.
I also prefer James Horner to John Williams. Just. Sayin'.
I also prefer James Horner to John Williams. Just. Sayin'.
- The CD is black on the back instead of silver, sometimes causing disc reading and playback problems.
- To get the full soundtrack, you need to buy the two-disc import, which has five additional songs. Then you gotta go to I-Tunes for two more exclusive tracks (I know Outlands II is one of them), and THEN, you've got to head to Amazon for that very last exclusive track.
- Repeat: you've got to buy the soundtrack THREE TIMES to get the WHOLE THING. I swear to god, it's like they want people to steal their stuff. Why can't they just make one $40 deluxe and one $20 regular, like they did back in the day. GET OFF MY LAWN GODDAMNIT *shakes glowing Lucite cane.*
- If all you want is De-Rezzed, you are much better off waiting for Daft Punk to release the full single. As the buzz goes up and we get closer to That Winter Holiday, you know the four minute video version will be making an appearance.
I liked End of Line best overall. It reminded me of The Terminator and Escape from New York and Mass Effect, all given a slick, blacklight-fueled makeover. It's a solid mid-tempo riff that I wish they'd expanded into a longer song. Especially when it started in with the glitchy videogame background sounds at about 1:38 youtube time to the end. That really felt like it was something of the Grid, something kinda classic Tron (or real world Space Invaders) intermingled with the present experience.
I wish they'd expanded most of the tracks, or at least faded them better so they flow together. It feels choppy. This is worst with the End of Line -> De Rezzed -> Fall kind-of suite.
(Dude, semi-suite? /Shot.)
They don't flow. It's a strong triad, but. A little mixing and extension would have taken this from "solid" to "FUCK YES" and made it incredible.
Overall, the tracks are solid and serviceable, with slick production throughout. Apparently, some of the leveling is "soft" on the actual album (songs were turned down when they recorded the disc) but at deafening movie theatre volume, it's not noticeable at all.
I'm going back for thirds, om nom nom, maybe in I-MAX.
In short, the tracks do their tasks well and are pretty absorbing.
Except C.L.U., which I felt dragged ass and wasn't martial enough. (Seriously, compare The Game Has Changed from the same album and explain to me where all the menace in THE VILLAIN'S MAIN THEME went.
Or, here. Comparing my other gigantic face-eating obsession movie, Star Trek, where you can INSTANTLY TELL any time the big bad is onscreen. Because they will fucking remind you. Sure, it's standard villain fare, but it gets right in your face and doesn't apologize.
By comparison, C.L.U. has some nice paranoia boiling in at the edges (on the strings), but otherwise it's just kind of...there. With C.L.U., if Daft Punk were really going to go for it, they should have leaned on the strings like John Williams does and rocked that French horn that barely appears toward 2:46-2:49 Youtube time.
Now, about De-Rezzed. It sounds exactly like this mated with this. Minus the sampled porno vocals.
Don't get me wrong: De-Rezzed is fucking awesome, but I felt like I'd heard it before. The good news is, it's the popular standout track, so there will probably be a shitload of cool bootlegs and remixes for it.
All in all, this is going to be awesome music for studying to come exam week next semester, but I'm not in a huge rush to buy it, given the greedy and fragmentary way it's been released.
7.5/10 overall, bonuses overtime for End of Line, Outlands II, and De-Rezzed.
