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Soundtrack Review

LucasArts is celebrating their 20th anniversary, and for that occasion they finally decided to release a soundtrack CD with some of the greatest game music they have produced over the past twenty years… or perhaps I should rather say “over the last seven years”, since The Dig is the oldest title which is featured on this soundtrack.

On one hand, this is a pity, since the older games did contain some brilliant compositions. Does anyone remember the atmospheric, orchestral compositions from Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis? Or what about the great Jazz melodies in Sam and Max Hit the Road? So it would have been nice to also pay some tribute to these older titles as well.

On the other hand, LucasArts’ choice is quite understandable, since the newer titles have all digital music in an excellent quality. For most of these games, LucasArts also invited live musicians into their recording studios, so that they could play some of the instrumental parts and enhance the authenticity of the music.

The CD contains tracks from The Dig, Outlaws, Grim Fandango and Escape from Monkey Island. These games all contain excellent music, and I must say that listening to this CD is an extremely enjoyable experience. All the tracks are in a fantastic quality. Besides, the style of the music varies from track to track: The Dig has ambient and classic music, inspired by the style and orchestral sound from Richard Wagner. Outlaws brings us spaghetti western music at its best (Ennio Morricone would surely enjoy it). Grim Fandango lets us swing to some excellent big band Jazz, but also offers a romantic tango, Indian flute music, oriental music and grooving Rock’n Roll. Finally, the tracks from Escape from Monkey Island let us enjoy some Reggae, a Bossa Nova, ambient music and much more.

Of course I do miss some great cues from LucasArts games that should have been, according to my humble opinion, on a “best of” CD. For example, “Sanchez the Outlaw” from Outlaws or “Ninth heaven” from Grim Fandango were some of my favorite LucasArts tunes. I also think it is a pity that the CD doesn’t contain any cues from The Curse if Monkey Island, except the main theme, which is (almost) the same as in Escape from Monkey Island.

But I’ll have to agree it must have been really hard for LucasArts to select songs for this CD, since their sound department produced so many great soundtracks over the years. They could have easily filled 4 CDs with great hits. However, this CD “only” has a total running time of about 55 minutes, so they should have been able to add a few more tracks!

Since I already own the official soundtrack CDs from Grim Fandango, The Dig and Outlaws, I have to admit that I have already heard many tracks before getting this CD. That’s why I especially appreciated the tracks from Escape from Monkey Island, since it was a great experience to enjoy these tracks in an all new quality. As we all know, the music in this game was strongly compressed and already premixed with the ambient background sound. So it was a real pleasure to hear them in a “pure” version this time. I guess that’s why my favorite songs on this CD are “Marco de Pollo”, which is a Bossa Nova with some great guitar playing and a nice percussion rhythm, and “Underwater lagoon”, a very beautiful and relaxing song with a nice hautboy solo and some ambient Marimba notes. However, if I hadn’t heard songs like “Outlaws theme”, “Monkey Island Theme”, “Smooth Hector” or “Temple Gate” a hundreds of times before, they might as well be my “favorite” songs right now.

Besides the music from these four classic games, I should also mention that the CD contains four special tracks. The CD begins with the “20th Anniversary Fanfare” (1:31), some festive, orchestral celebration-music that we also hear during the “LucasArts Logo Animations” video that can be downloaded from 20th.lucasarts.com. The CD concludes with a “Finale” (0:55), which is pretty similar to the previously mentioned Anniversary Fanfare. We heard this song during the E3 Flash animation on lucasarts.com (“Heroes for the next generation”).

The CD also contains music from two console-only titles that are still in production. The track “Laser Drill” (3:31) contains music from Hal Barwood’s upcoming action game RTX Red Rock. The music is in a techno style with some trance moments where the main beat stops for a short moment. To be honest, this song features a lot of effects and not too much melody. This style of music might however fit well with the gameplay.

“Gladius Sketches” (3:39) is an orchestral cue. It does contain some nice composition parts, and seems to be slightly inspired by Carl Orff’s style (e.g. the use of ostinatos). Unfortunately, the song sounds too synthetic, especially if you compare it to the orchestral sound of The Dig, where you realize that Michael Land spent hours and hours on finding accurate sound clips in existing Richard Wagener recordings for every harmony he wanted to use in his work. Hopefully, this is due to the fact that Gladius is still in early development.

It’s a pity the CD doesn’t contain preview sketches from the new score Clint Bajakian has written for Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb, since this score has been performed by a real symphony orchestra.

The CD comes in a jewel box and has a nice cover, but I wish they had included a booklet with some extra information about the tracks. For example, they could have asked the composers to share a few thoughts about the specific songs. Or at least, they should have been a little bit more precise about which composer wrote which song. The only information we get, is a very general statement: “Lead composers: Michael Land, Peter McConnell, Clint Bajakian, David Levison, and Mark Griskey. Engineering and Additional Sound Production: Jeff Kliment, Larry the O, and Hans Reumschuessel”.

All in all, this CD is a mix of some brilliant music from some excellent LucasArts games, and is an absolute must have for every LucasArts music fan, especially if they don’t own the soundtracks from Grim Fandango, The Dig and Outlaws yet. But even if they do, this CD should be part of every fan’s collection.

So, you got interested in this CD and want to purchase it? If you’re living in the United States or in Canada, that should be pretty easy, since you can order it directly from LucasArts’ company store. However, if you live in Europe, you’ll have to purchase it via Synsoniq Records. Unfortunately, the CD is quite expensive there, but I can assure you: this CD is definitely worth every pence of it! (By the way: the CD is marked “sold out” at Synsoniq right now, but they have assured me that they will get another shipment in mid January. Their first stock was sold out after a few hours online!)

Pros:
+ fantastic music
+ high sound quality
+ good choice of songs

Cons:
- pretty expensive outside North America
- no background information
- “only” 55 minutes

Rating: 4,5 / 5
 
 

Links:
- The Best od LucasArts Original Soundtracks @ LucasArts Company Store
- The Best od LucasArts Original Soundtracks @ Synsoniq Records
- Discuss the Soundtrack in our Forum