Music Review: Rhythm Song by Evelyn Glennie

Rhythm Song
by Evelyn Glennie (Compact Disc 781.68 Gle)

If you want something different, intriguing, unique — give this a try. I first became aware of Dame Evelyn Glennie earlier this year from an online article. She is an award-winning percussionist and composer who has been functionally deaf since age 12 and has been performing music in public since age 11. In addition to marimba and all types of percussion instruments, Glennie can play bagpipes, piano, and clarinet. She also vocalizes on some of her compositions. Known for performing barefoot, to better feel the beats and tones, Glennie learned to ‘listen’ to music with all of her body once she could no longer hear. Over the years she has performed with orchestras, pop stars, and at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Her oeuvre is one-of-a-kind and deserves a listen. Fascinating and inspiring!

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Listen : How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion by Shannon Stocker, or Her Greatest Hits and Wind in the Bamboo Grove by Evelyn Glennie.)

 

( official Evelyn Glennie web site )

 

Recommended by Becky W.C.
Walt Branch Library

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Music Review: Coco - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Michael Giacchino and others

Coco: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
by Michael Giacchino, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez, Germaine Franco and Adrian Molina (Compact Disc j782.14 Coc)

One of the Fall 2023 events on the stage of the Lied Center for the Performing Arts was a showing of the 2017 Disney/Pixar animated film Coco, with the music performed live by a Mexican orchestra on the stage right below the projection screen. It was absolutely terrific to hear the music done live, and made me want to revisit the recorded soundtrack — and I’m happy to say that the libraries still have this soundtrack available on CD.

 

The Coco: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack breaks its content into two sections. First, there are the vocal songs. 8 songs were written for the film, including the Academy Award-winning song “Remember Me” by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (also Oscar winners for the music from Frozen). Additional songs are by Germaine Franco and Adrian Molina. There are alternate takes on “Remember Me”, including a very emotional one, featuring actors Anthony Gonzales and Ana Ofelia Murguia, sung as the film’s main character, young Miguel returns from the Land of the Dead to sing the song to his aged grandmother, Coco, who awakens from a stupor to sing with him in the film’s emotional climax. There’s also a pop-infused take on “Remember Me” sung by pop artist Miguel (with Natalia Lafourcade) during the film’s closing credits. The rest of the songs are highly entertaining as well, with their strong Mexican flavor and peppy tones. I particularly enjoyed “Un Poco Loco”, “The World Es Mi Familia” and “La Llorona”.

 

Following the vocal tracks are an incredible 27 tracks from the film’s instrumental score by noted film composer Michael Giacchino, arranged in the chronological order of how they appeared in the film. Giacchino is one of my favorite contemporary film and TV composers, and his tracks for Coco certainly don’t disappoint, with lush strings and vibrant brass, and beautiful guitar work.

 

(If you enjoy this soundtrack, you’ll obviously want to see the film Coco itself.)

 

( Wikipedia page about the Coco: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Music Review: Barbie the Album

Barbie the Album

by various (Music Compact Disc 782.14 Bar & Hoopla)

 

On the same day that the international bombshell film Barbie: The Movie opened in July, the soundtrack album was released, both digitally and in physical formats (vinyl LP and CD). Five of the 17 tracks on Barbie the Album were released as singles for radio and streaming-service play, with several making the Billboard hot singles lists. A secondary, expanded, soundtrack was released as the “Best Weekend Ever” edition, with two additional tracks not previously available.

 

Like the film it accompanies, Barbie the Album is a celebration of female empowerment, with the vast majority of the tracks featuring music written by and/or performed by female artists, including Lizzo, Nicki Minaj and Spice Ice, Billie Eilish, Charlie XCX, Pinkpantheress, Gayle, Ava Max and Dua Lipa. Complimenting all these powerful female performers are a handful of male entries, including the film’s “Ken”, Ryan Gosling singing his plaintive character theme song, “I’m Just Ken” (he also sings the Matchbox 20 hit “Push” on the extended soundtrack), Sam Smith, Dominic Fike, The Kid Laroi and Khalid (among others).

 

The music ranges from peppy bubblegum pop to introspective, but leans more toward the electric and high-energy, including a couple of “dance” numbers. All the songs on this album appear in the film, so this isn’t one of those “songs from and inspired by” albums. If you’ve seen the movie — and at the time of this review’s writing, it was the #13 all time money marker in the U.S. market (and #15 internationally), so you’re hardly alone — each of these energetic tunes will remind you of moments within the film. Tracks that stand out for me are “Pink” by Lizzo (the film’s opening scenes in Barbieworld), “Dance the Night” by Dua Lipa, “Barbie World” by Minaj and Spice, “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish, and “Choose Your Fighter” by Ava Max. (I also enjoyed “I’m Just Ken”, but it has a completely different tone than the rest of this upbeat album.)

 

The libraries have the basic album as a CD, and both the basic and extended album versions are available via our Hoopla Digital Music service. I don’t listen to a lot of contemporary music, preferring my old classics from the 1960s through the 1990s, but I’ll have to admit, Barbie the Album ended up being compulsive listening for me!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Music CD Review: MJ: The Musical, based on the life and works of Michael Jackson

MJ: The Musical
based on the music of Michael Jackson (and others) (Compact Disc 782.14 MJ)

 MJ: The Musical is what they call a “jukebox musical” — in which a variety of songs (usually by a single artist or group) are integrated into the plot of an on-stage storyline, often featuring the artist(s) who created or performed the music. But not always, for instance the hit Mamma Mia exclusively featured the music of ABBA but not those performers as characters.

 

MJ: The Musical, however, really does tell the story of Michael Jackson, from his very earliest days performing with The Jackson Five, up through 1992, and the beginning of his Dangerous World tour. The music doesn’t appear in purely chronological order — in fact, the musical opens with Jackson’s hit Beat It, before segueing backwards to the early years.

 

MJ: The Musical has a complicated history. It was originally supposed to open on Broadway in 2020, but was one of many shows impacted by the Broadway closures due to COVID-19. After a recasting of the lead role, which lead to Myles Frost playing the adult Michael Jackson, the show did eventually open in February of 2022 (after two months of previews). Critics have not been kind to the show, but it has been popular with audiences. In the 2022 Tony Awards, the show was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and won four: Best Lead Actor for Frost, Best Choreography, Best Lighting Design and Best Sound Design. Obviously, the show’s soundtrack can’t really show up dance, lighting and sound design effective, but it DOES shine a spotlight on Myles Frost’s incredible singing. He truly “becomes” Michael in this show, and the medleys of Jackson music come across beautifully in this production. There are only a few moments in a few of the songs where it sounds like somebody else singing these highly recognizable songs.

 

I highly recommend listening to this soundtrack, if you’re a Michael Jackson fan, and catch MJ: The Musical when it begins its national tour in 2023 or 2024.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try all the original albums/music by Michael Jackson himself.)

 

( official MJ: The Musical web site ) | ( MJ: The Musical page on the official Michael Jackson web site ) | ( Wikipedia entry on MJ: The Musical )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Check out this, and all the other great music resources, at the Polley Music Library, located on the 2nd floor of the Bennett Martin Public Library at 14th & "N" St. in downtown Lincoln. You'll find biographies of musicians, books about music history, instructional books, sheet music, CDs, music-related magazines, and much more. Also check out Polley Music Library Picks, the Polley Music Library's e-mail newsletter, and follow them on Facebook!

Music CD Review: Back to the Future: The Musical - Original Cast Recording by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard

Back to the Future: The Musical – Original Cast Recording
by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard (Compact Disc 782.14 Bac)

The original time-travel film Back to the Future came out in 1985, telling the tale of teenager Marty McFly using the massively-altered Delorean gull-wing car-turned-time-machine by his friend, eccentric scientist Doc Emmet Brown, to travel back to 1955. When trapped there, Marty enlists the assistance of the younger Doc Brown to figure out how to refuel the time machine to return himself to 1985. But first, Marty must help his parents to fall in love — his arrival in 1955 caused their original meeting to go off-track — or he and his two siblings will cease to exist.

 

The original film engendered two immediate sequels in 1989 and 1990, the first of which threw the characters forward from 1985 to 2015, and the second cast them back in time to the Old West. A later animated TV series (2 seasons totally 26 episodes) continued their story. As early as 2004, producer/writer Bob Gale hinted at a desire to turn Back to the Future into a stage musical. In 2012, it was announced that this project was a reality and was aimed for a 2015 premiere (to tie into the time Marty and Doc traveled to in the 2nd film. Delays pushed this project back repeatedly, and it finally premiered in the UK in 2021 (with plays to premiere on Broadway in 2023).

 

This soundtrack features the cast of the 2021 British production, including Olly Dobson as Marty McFly, Roger Bart as Doc Brown, Hugh Coles as George McFly, Rosanna Hyland as Lorraine Baines, Cedric Neal as Goldie Wilson/Marvin Berry, and Aidan Cutler as Biff Tannen. The producers’ goals for this musical were to create mostly all-new songs to retell this popular story. In fact, out of 25 tracks on this CD, only five feature music associated with the movie — Alan Silvestri’s instrumental theme (now given lyrics in “It’s Only a Matter of Time”), “The Power of Love” and “Back in Time” (both pop hits for Huey Lewis from the film’s soundtrack) and “Earth Angel” and “Johnny B. Goode” (performed at the school dance near the end of the story). All other tracks are new tunes, collaborations between original soundtrack composer Silvestri and Glen Ballard. Some are better than others, but there aren’t any real stinkers. Most major characters get a song focused on them and their goals. Doc Brown gets several, including “It Works”, “Future Boy”, “21st Century”, and the marvelous “For the Dreamers”. Marty’s wishy-washy father George gets “My Myopia” and “Put Your Mind to It”. Marty’s suprisingly man-hungry mother (as a teenager) gets “Pretty Baby” and “Something About That Boy”. And, of course, Marty McFly has many moments to shine.

 

Olly Dobson does a remarkably good job of recapturing the sound of a young Michael J. Fox as Marty. Hugh Coles is eerie in recreating the unique voice of Crispin Glover as George McFly, and both Hyland and Cutler do a good job inhabiting the roles of Lorraine and Biff. The slight disappointment for me was Roger Bart as Doc. I’ve really enjoyed Bart’s vocal performances in other musical soundtracks — he’s terrific as Victor Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein. But he’s very “on again/off again” as Doc.

 

None-the-less, despite some unevenness, I thought that these songs very effectively retold the well-known plot of the film. A few changes were made — swapping plutonium poising instead of Libyan terrorists for Doc’s 1985 death, etc. Just like the film, which mixes genres, this soundtrack bounces between 1950s and 1980s song stylings very effectively. Overall, Back to the Future: The Musical sounds like it would be a terrific show. I hope once it premieres here in the U.S. it is a smash success. Based on descriptions of the technical needs of this show (a flying Delorean car!), it’s unlikely to be a show feasible for community or high school theaters to perform, so catch it on Broadway if you can!

 

(If you enjoy this, obviously, this is tailored to fans of the original film trilogy. I’d also recommend viewing the quirky animated series, also available on DVD from the libraries.)

 

( official Back to the Future: The Musical web site ) | ( official Alan Silvestri web site ) | ( Wikipedia entry for Glen Ballard )

 

Recommended by Scott C.

Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

CD Review: The Secret by Alan Parsons

The Secret

by Alan Parsons (Compact Disc 781.66 Par)

 

Released in 2019, this album reminds of the ‘glory days’ of The Alan Parsons Project while taking on a more contemporary groove as well. Themes of magic, mystery, and melancholy combine in ballads and uptempo pieces. The liner notes include a quote revealing Parsons’ lifelong interest in magic acts.There are 3 or 4 tracks I’m not crazy about but over all it’s well worth a listen if you enjoy progressive rock. In addition to Parsons himself, guest lead vocalists include Lou Gramm of Foreigner and Jason Mraz. Instrumentally, Parsons plays and/or conducts on several tracks. His tight backing band of seven members is supplemented by musical artists such as Steve Hackett of Genesis and original TAPP member Ian Bairnson. The album booklet is visually interesting and includes all lyrics and credits.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Best of The Alan Parsons Project by The Alan Parsons Project, Tales of Mystery and Imagination by The Alan Parsons Project (based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Best of The Moody Blues by The Moody Blues, or The Best of Emerson, Lake & Palmer by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.)

 

( Wikipedia entry for The Secret ) | ( official Alan Parsons web site )

 

Recommended by Becky W.C.
Walt Branch Library

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

DVD and CD Review: West Side Story (2021) movie and soundtrack

West Side Story (2021)
(DVD West)

Despite the original West Side Story from 1961 being one of my all-time favorites, I was curious to see what director Steven Spielberg would do in his remake, his first musical film. I, personally, was not disappointed.

Relative unknown Rachel Zegler stars as Maria, and Ansel Elgort is Tony, this film’s Romeo & Juliet (the Shakespearean play which is the basis for the storyline). Ariana Debose is Anita, for which she just won the Academy Award for Supporting Actress, which had also previously been won in 1961 by Rita Moreno in the same role. David Alvarez is Maria’s brother Bernardo, leader of the Puerto Rican street gang the Sharks, and Mike Faist is Riff, Tony’s replacement as the leader of the caucasian street gang the Jets.

 

This version of this explosively emotional film moves around some of the iconic key songs, such as “Gee, Officer Krupke”, “Cool” and “I Feel Pretty”, placing them in moments that fit better into the story continuity than either the 1961 film or the stage musical. On the other hand, I’ll admit that some of the 1961 performances are more powerful. The performances in the 2021 are all good to great, and I love the fact that Rita Moreno, recast as the widow of the local store owner (Valentina) gets to sing “Somewhere” at the end of the film, while I know other fans were disappointed in this change, feeling that it’s really a Maria/Tony song.

 

The look of the film is tremendous, with much of it set among urban decay in a neighborhood that’s in the process of being torn down for gentrification (historically, it later becomes the location of The Lincoln Center performing arts facility). The dance sequences are marvelous, and the chemistry among the cast is incredible. And I appreciated that most of the Puerto Rican characters are actually played by Latinx performers, unlike the earlier film, which uses white actors in embarrassingly heavy makeup. But the 1961 film is a classic for very good reasons. I just happen to think that the 2021 holds up equally well, and the new film was one of my favorite movies of last year. Your mileage may vary…

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the original West Side Story (1961), directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, and starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, George Chakiris, Russ Taymbln and Rita Moreno. You should also catch a stage production of this show if you ever have the chance, as the staged version of this musical differs dramatically from both films. I also highly recommend the soundtrack album to this new 2021 film, which does a very respectful job of recreating the music and lyrics by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, with the addition of “La Borinqueña”, sung in Spanish by the Sharks gang!)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film ) | ( official West Side Story (2021) web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

CD Review: 30 by Adele

30
by Adele (Compact Disc 781.66 Adele)

30 is music superstar Adele’s fourth original album, and like the earlier 19, 21, and 25, it charts out a certain time and emotional point in her life. In short, 30 is Adele’s “divorce album”, tapping into a myriad of emotions and mental gymnastics that she’s gone through as she deals with the aftermath of the break-up of her marriage and her now becoming a single parent.

 

If you’re looking for a fun, upbeat, lightweight bit of entertainment, 30 is not for you. Adele explores a lot of darkness in songs relating to her current state of life — depression, failed relationships, misjudgments, uncertainty. But she also seems hopeful, and still has a sense of humor, that pops through from time to time. And her voice. Oh…that voice, that just keeps getting better and better as she ages…smoky, sensuous, sentimental, wistful, and seeking!

 

If you’re an Adele fan already, you won’t want to miss this latest album from her. If you haven’t listened to Adele previously, this is definitely not the place to start — go back to her earlier work so you can feel the progression in emotions she has built up over a dozen years of musical storytelling, then come back to 30 to experience the latest chapter.

 

Literally, my only complaint about 30 is that I needed the liner notes to understand a few lines in a few songs, as Adele’s thick accent becomes even thicker the more emotional she gets. But once I’d heard each song a few times, they really sunk in.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try 19, 21, and 25 by Adele.)

 

( official Adele web site )

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Music Review: Summon the Heroes by John Williams and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (on CD)

Summon the Heroes
by John Williams and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Compact Disc 781.68 Bos)

As I write this review, we are about halfway through the Tokyo Summer Olympics of 2021 (postponed from 2020 by the global pandemic). Ever since 1996, one of my every-other-year traditions during both the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics is to listen to this album on auto-replay for two straight weeks as the sporting events take place.

 

Summon the Heroes is both the album title and the title of the first track — which in 1996 was a newly created work by composer/conductor John Williams (yes, he of the many Oscar-winning soundtracks), in honor of the Centennial Celebration of the Modern Olympic Games in Atlanta, GA in July of that year. Overall, the disc contains twelve tracks, three of which are Williams’ music. Track three opens with Leo Arnaud’s “Bugler’s Dream”, which leads immediately into “Olympic Fanfare and Theme”, written by Williams for the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games. And track #1 is “The Olympic Spirit”, a piece composed by Williams for the NBC Sports Division, in celebration of the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. All three of Williams’ pieces feature a wide range of musical stylings, from challenging brasses and pulse-pounding percussion, to pensive woodwinds and striving strings — there’s a little thing in there for all types of athletic experience, from individuals struggling to complete a marathon, and gymnasts flying through the air like birds, to driving beats symbolizing the charge of the speed swimmer or the compulsive excitement of men and women testing the boundaries of human strength and endurance.

 

Admittedly, those are the three tracks I gravitate towards most often, considering that they are still heavily sampled for use in NBC’s ongoing Olympics television and streaming coverage of the games. But the disc does include 9 other tracks of music, some written specifically for the Olympics, and some just thematically appropriate: “O Fortuna” by Carl Orff; “Ode to Zeus” from Canto Olympico (for the 1992 games in Barcelona” by Mikis Theodorakis; “Javelin” by Michael Torke, written for the 1996 Atlanta games; “Olympic Theme” by Leonard Bernstein, written for the 1981 International Olympic Congress; “Festive Overture, Op. 96” by Dmitri Shostakovich, theme of the 1980 Moscow summer games, “Conquest of Paradise” by Vangelis; “Parade of the Charioteers from Ben Hur” by Miklos Rozsa; “Toward a New Life” by Josef Suk, Silver medal-winning composition at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and “Chariots of Fire (Theme)”, also by Vangelis, written for the 1981 film but also performed at the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo. I find most of these non-Williams’ tracks to be more about the fanfare and pageantry of the Games, and less about the experiences of the athletes themselves.

 

None-the-less, each of these pieces, in their own way, is inspirational and celebrational. But the three Williams tracks, clocking in at around 14 1/2 minutes total, get my pulse racing and put me in the mood to see the world’s greatest athletes pushing their limits. Of the hundreds of CDs (and digital albums) I own, I’ve probably listened to Summon the Heroes more often than any other…and it never fails to lift me up, no matter what mood I’m in!

[Note: Williams also composed yet another piece of Olympics music — “Call of the Champions” — for the 2002 Winter Olympics, after this 1996 album was released. I wish it was also on this disc!]

[If you enjoy this, I’d suggest listening to other John Williams works. But his soundtracks, tremendous though they are, are very much tied in to the films they were written for. The works he created for the Olympics seem to stand out as an entirely different field of music.]

[ Wikipedia page for John Williams (he doesn’t have an official website) ]

 

See the new Summer Olympics Reading List on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

CD Review: Hotspot by the Pet Shop Boys

Hotspot
by the Pet Shop Boys (Music Compact Disc 781.66 Pet)

If you are itching to get your disco/synth-pop/techno-groove on, grab this 2020 album from one of the premier 1980s super-duos. Masters of hook-laden songs incorporating lush, plush, slightly nasal vocals which have just an edge of sand with smooth, beat-driven primo electronic accompaniment, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe deliver the goods again, updated without losing that oh-so-distinctive PSB feel. Along with several bouncy numbers, there are a couple that are more quiet and contemplative. Hotspot is an all-around enjoyable offering of tasty techy coolness, if this kind of music is your “cuppa”.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Pet Shop Boys Discography: The Complete Singles Collection by Pet Shop Boys, Actually by Pet Shop Boys — this and many other albums are available on Hoopla through LCL, or Musique Vol. 1, 1993-2005 by Daft Punk. Other artists of interest may be: Depeche Mode, Human League, A-ha, Soft Cell, A Flock of Seagulls, Howard Jones, Thomas Dolby, Spandau Ballet, Peter Schilling, Thompson Twins, Donna Summer, Jean Michele Jarre, Duran Duran, and Tears for Fears.]

[ official Hotspot page on the official Pet Shop Boys UK web site ]

 

Recommended by Becky W.C.
Walt Branch Library

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

CD Review: Disney Goes Classical

Disney Goes Classical
by various artists, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Music has been an integral and unforgettable part of the Walt Disney film experience since the studio’s earliest days, particularly in their animated films. Cinema buffs will certainly recall Mickey Mouse’s second appearance in “Steamboat Willie” — Disney’s first “talkie” — in which Mickey whistles whilst piloting the steamboat. Over the years, dozens of Disney’s films have featured innovative and iconic music, and the soundtracks to films such as Mary Poppins, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid have been huge bestsellers.

Disney Goes Classical features 15 tracks of music from 15 different Disney films, adapted by Dave Arch and Sally Herbert to be performed by a symphony orchestra. You’ll hear well-known songs done in ways you’ve never experienced before. Films whose music are included on this disc are: Mary Poppins, Moana, Aladdin, The Lion King, The Princess and the Frog, Hercules, Pocahontas, Toy Story 2, The Jungle Book, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, Frozen, Mulan, and Pinocchio.

Personally, I very much enjoyed the majority of these tracks, though I thought the arrangements on a few suffered from some awkward musical choices. None-the-less, the overall collection was very impressive and I’m happy to recommend it. This album will be most appreciated by fans of Disney films, though general classical music aficionados may also find much to enjoy as well.

[Listening to the “classical music” versions of these tunes may put you in the mood to track down the original soundtracks to some of these films, many of which are in the libraries’ collection.]

[ Disney Goes Classical entry on the Disney Wiki ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

CD Review: Apollo Atmospheres and Soundtracks by Brian Eno

Apollo Atmospheres & Soundtracks
by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois (Compact Disc 782.14 Eno)

This is a fascinating collection of 12 tracks that experimental music composer Brian Eno created for a television documentary “Apollo”, which used actual footage from the various Apollo moon missions to try to give viewers a sense of what it was like to journey to the moon. Using synthesizers, electronically modified instrumentation, and unusual sound effects, Eno (with his brother Roger Eno and guitarist/producer Daniel Lanois) creates a unique and intriguing aural snapshot. Tracks range from dark and vaguely disturbing (“Matta” and “Signals”) to mind-expanding, comforting, and mood-lifting.

The presence of some “country” musical influences, in Lanois’ steel guitar twangs in a few tracks reflects the fact that the astronauts, given the opportunity to bring music with them on their missions, almost uniformly chose to bring along country music. Several of the tracks on this 1983 album drift into classical music territory as well.

This music is great to listen to in a darkened room, or on your iPod or phone or car’s audio system at night while gazing up at the field of stars overhead. An odd but highly enjoyable album!

[NOTE: This was remastered and re-released after 2000, with an entire second disc of additional tracks added. The library only has the original single-disc 12-track release.]

[ official Apollo page on the official Brian Eno web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

Have you listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!