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With shattered legs and
crippled soul, I went east, to lose myself in vengeance; not against Caesar,
but the entire human race..
The reason I hold my XWP
soundtracks in such high regard is because of their wonderful ability to
conjure up memories from the show itself. Play me the music that
accompanies an emotive or amazing scene, like Xena’s beach crucifixion,
or the “Gab Drag” and I’m pretty much guaranteed to lose all powers of
speech, forget what I’m doing at the time and just become totally absorbed
in the sounds and with mentally recreating whatever scene accompanies the
music.
With this in mind, it was
with huge anticipation that I purchased the fourth XWP soundtrack (approximately
£19 from cdnow.com) Would it live up to the previous three? What
would be on it? Is there any instrument Joe LoDuca can’t use???
This CD is arranged differently
to it’s predecessors. Whereas they were basically random songs from a set
of episodes (I’m not including The Bitter Suite in this review,
as it was just one episode - not a compilation album.) CD#4 is sorted
either by episode or country. The first seven are under the heading “Chin:
The Debt” then there’s five entitled “The Destruction of Hope: Family
Affair”, then “India: Devi/Between The Lines/The Way”, (the
entire India arc) - then “Turangi: Adventures in The Sin Trade”
and finally two ‘Bonus Cues’ at the end.
Rather than go through each
song, I’ll just comment on the ones that have stuck in my mind so far,
bearing in mind I’ve only heard it four times, this list may change, but
it’s good enough.
Eschewing the “Opening Titles”
that Volumes 1 and 2 began with, CD#4 begins with “Caesar’s Mark.”
Or as you may know it, “the fabulously epic-sounding horse-back-fight-scene
music from The Debt - that sounds like a mix of music from ‘The
Omen’ and ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ ”
And I defy you not
to growl “Xena!” in an Alti voice at the point in the track that corresponds
to Xena and Alti’s first meeting in Between The Lines (it was also
played in that ep) - it’s irresistible!
There’s also “The Bath”
and “Taking Flight” - both very lyrical, uplifting and peaceful
- which I suppose is suppose to evoke the spirit of Lao Ma, the woman whom
both scenes feature heavily, and which demonstrate her power and her ‘way.’
My favourite from the “Family
Affair” section has got to be “Hello Beautiful” - that wonderfully
eerie music that plays when Hope tends the Destroyer’s wounds. So subtle,
yet distinctively menacing at the same time…
From the India series, the
only one I can recall with any real interest is “Tataka” - from
Devi, the one that plays when Xena discovers the demon’s identity,
and you first get to see Gabrielle dressed in the demon’s outfit, sitting
on her throne. It starts off pretty slowly and low-key, but builds to a
shocking climax that still makes me shiver when I hear it.
Strangely enough, although
The Way is still banned - there’s four music tracks from it. One’s
even called “Krishna” tut tut….
The next section, and
for me, the high point of the CD, the Adventures in the Sin Trade
tracks. I utterly adored these episodes, and revelled in the tribalistic
chanting that formed a majority of the soundtrack.
It starts with “Amazon
Pyre” - the bit where Xena wails over the campfire over the loss of
her soulmate, then there’s “The Beserker” - one of my favourites,
and a track that sounds in places like the soundtrack to seminal Japanese
anime “Akira.”
The last Adventures in
the Sin Trade track is “Released/ Spirit Dance” - an almost
indescribably beautiful track which evokes a feeling of almost religious
epiphany, after the violence of the previous one, and which perfectly matches
the onscreen image of Xena returning to her body to discover her stigmata-like
wounds, and the shafts of light surrounding the recently-revived Amazons.
And then, when you’ve been
ground through the emotional mangler of the Adventures in the Sin Trade
tracks, and feel like you can’t possibly feel any more, what comes next?
What could they possibly add to that?
Yup, the first of the two
bonus cues is “Everybody Dance Now” - the main dance scene music
from A Tale of Two Muses - which just made me laugh out loud in
surprise the first time I heard it, and is the perfect antidote, and a
complete contrast to the heavy stuff of the Sin Trades. This hilarious
piece of pre-Mycean line dancing music is perfectly placed on this CD,
just like the scene was in A Tale of Two Muses, silly on it’s own,
but as a wrap up to other things, perfect. Hell, I really liked A Tale
of Two Muses anyway, Tara or no Tara, which helps a lot.
The second bonus cue, and
last track on the CD is called “I’m In Heaven” - the Thirties musical-style
song taken from the ballroom scene in If The Shoe Fits - very silly,
but funny at the same time, and was written, apparently by Josh Becker
and Joe LoDuca.
My only criticisms of this
CD, are the lack of information (the cover page opens up to reveal….woo!
Five black and white pictures…and that’s it. Surely it wouldn’t have hurt
to put some text as well - say a bit about how the music was made, anything
like that.
All in all, this is an excellent
CD, if my house burnt down, I think I’d rescue this first (forget the family..)
Buy it. If just for the tiny,
adorable picture of Gabby on the front cover.
Oh, and I’m a big, tough,
moody guy, yet a combination of the last four songs on this CD usually
bring tears to my eyes. I honestly can’t give a higher recommendation than
that.
As another footnote, I’d
also to like to mention the bad puns that form the names of some of the
tracks, like the track that accompanies Ming Tien’s entrance is called
“Enter The Dragon” (groan!) Gab and Xena’s reunion in Ming’s dungeon
is called “Visit to the Damned” (maybe a reference to “pod” Gabrielle?
Geddit?)
(This review probably
has some Season 4 spoilers, and was written while actually listening
to the CD, so I may get a bit excited or emotional at times, don’t worry
about it…:)
One of the shortest tracks
on the CD is next, “Making Camp/ Drinking Blood” - complete with
interesting “boinging” noise.
Then, the longest track
on the CD is “Xena vs. Alti” (though they criminally mispelt it
“Alte” on the back of the CD - doh!) - an extremely visceral and aggressive
track, that, yes, also manages to includes the music that accompanies the
crucifixion scene, which although slightly over-shown in Season 4, is still
a gorgeous and highly evocative piece of music.
And it’s so irritatingly
catchy, I was trying to type this in time to the beat. Sigh.
My other complaint is a
personal one - and that’s that they missed my two favourite bits of music
from Adventures in the Sin Trade! I’m talking about the “Deer hunting”
scene, and the “blood drinking” scene (where Xena goes to the Land of the
Dead to try and find Gabrielle.)
I suppose they were less
music and more “noise” - but I loved them, and I’m marking this down slightly
for omitting them. Tsk.
Is it as good as the others?
Definitely. Better? Well... Time will tell. Like I say, I’ve only heard
it four times, and I’ve found opinions change over repeat listenings. But
the overall quality of music is better than the first one (which had too
much boring filler music) and it doesn’t have those 5 annoying tracks I
always skipped like the second one.
And the final fight music
from The Way is titled “Call to Arms”
Ha bleedin’ ha...