Concord Records
77 minutes
Released: 20 May 2008
custom cardboard case
More than ten years ago, I wrote a few CD reviews for The Cornell Daily Sun during my college days. When the opportunity to review the soundtrack for the first new Indiana Jones movie in nineteen years presented itself, I decided to dip my toes in the music world again after a long hiatus.
For fans of classical music like me, John Williams’s scores are usually treats because he’s one of the few composers who still write for full orchestras rather than for glorified chamber ensembles or a handful of random instruments. This is most apparent in Williams’s “hero” themes, which have lush strings, triumphant brass, and thunderous percussions. Listen carefully, and you’ll hear light touches such as flitting harps, playful flutes, and tingling triangles, some of which are hardly used in movie scores any more.
The CD has nineteen tracks:
1) Raiders March
2) Call of the Crystal
3) The Adventures of Mutt
4) Irina’s Theme
5) The Snake Pit
6) The Spell of the Skull
7) The Journey to Akator
8) A Whirl Through Academe
9) “Return”
10) The Jungle Chase
11) Orellana’s Cradle
12) Grave Robbers
13) Hidden Treasure and the City of Gold
14) Secret Doors and Scorpions
15) Oxley’s Dilemma
16) Ants!
17) Temple Ruins and the Secret Revealed
18) The Departure
19) Finale
Although the full “Raiders March” doesn’t appear until the end credits, it’s a good idea to start this album with that selection because it helps listeners get into the mood of listening to an Indiana Jones soundtrack. Along with the Star Wars theme, the “Raiders March” is one of the two-most recognizable movie music cues in the United States. The “Raiders March” revives all of the good memories that we have of the previous movies, which bring goofy grins to our faces.
The best tracks are the ones associated with Mutt, especially 3 and 8. They’re fun, light, and irreverent, reflecting the character’s rebellious streak.
“Irina’s Theme” sounds appropriately ominous, though I was surprised by the lack of Slavic touches given the character’s Soviet origins.
The “Finale” is a rousing closer that sends you on your way in high spirits.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of composing music for movies being rushed into theatres, Williams frequently cribs from other composers and from himself. For example, the “Going to School” track for Memoirs of a Geisha is basically a rip-off of the title theme from The Last Emperor. I’m not complaining about Williams re-using cues from the previous Indiana Jones movies. Rather, some of the tracks here were clearly written on auto-pilot. Tracks 10, 14, 15, 16, and 17 sound like unused leftovers from the Jurassic Park scores. To be fair, Williams is not the only “repetitive” score composer (Hans Zimmer used the same “hero” theme for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator and Edward Zwick’s The Last Samurai, and Elliot Goldenthal’s finale music for Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins is a piece that was rejected by Michael Mann for Heat), and “sameness” can be partially attributed to a composer’s signature style.
I also don’t like the fact that the cues are not presented in the order in which they appear in the movie. One of the pleasures of listening to orchestral scores while working on a computer or driving in a car is being able to “play” the movie in your mind as the music guides you from Point A to Point Z. When the cues on a soundtrack album are out of order, then the spell is broken.
From a technical standpoint, the CD is an excellent presentation of the score. Highs are sweet, and lows are throaty and forceful without being overpowering. Stereo separation and imaging are transparent and accurate. I was surprised by the clarity of featured instruments. There are times when the fidelity of the recording makes you feel as if you’re the conductor standing right in the midst of the orchestra.
--Miscellaneous--
Instead of the usual CD jewel case, you get a custom cardboard case. A booklet contains track listings, photos from the movie, and a note by Steven Spielberg.
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