Titanic
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Composer: James Horner
Total Time: 72:29 Availability: ***** (What? You have trouble finding it?) Rating: ***** |
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It turned out both the movie and the soundtrack became the most talk about subjects in the field in early 1998. Not only the movie is among the top three all-time grossing blockbusters along with ET and Star Wars, the soundtrack is also one of the best selling album ever. None of the other movie score albums has topped the Billboard since Vangelis' Chariot of Fire. The soundtracks certainly will not draw that much of an recognition without the success of the movie. This is certainly one of the best scores of Horner is recent years. However, I certainly don't think it is his best dramatic or romantic score. As most of the soundtracks fans know, most of the music in this CD is not the music that Horner is originally composed for the movie. Director James Cameron requested him to compose something that sounds like Enya's Book of Days after failing to get Enya to be involved in the project. So, here you the track "Southampton" that sounds like Enya's stuffs. I don't mind that it sounds like Book of Days, but the fact that he uses synth voice instead of real vocal really bothers me. It is certainly a very enjoyable nonetheless. It is possible that Horner's unused materials will come out as another CD later this year (1998). I don't find "My Heart will Go On"/"Rose" (instrumental) an extremely beautiful tune. But it is one those that you will fall in love with after listening to it many times. "Rose" and "Southampton" is basically the core of the first half of the CD. Most of the second half is those intense action cues. Those music may sound a little too familiar to some of the Horner's fans. I still enjoy them nonetheless. The fact that Titanic is a best selling album doesn't reflect that people become more aware of film music industry. In fact, among those who own the soundtracks, I doubt how many of them will put the name James Horner in their mind. On the other hand, I know there will be some people start to get hook on film music because of Titanic, just like how Star Wars and Batman did to some people. | |
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