ssjakira1's Full Review: The Mummy Returns by Original Soundtrack
If you’ve read some of my other soundtrack reviews, you might be familiar with the name Alan Silvestri. Well, before there was Van Helsing and Lilo & Stitch, there was The Mummy Returns. You know, the great thing about Alan Silvestri is that you can’t really tell his work on one thing from another. I mean, I didn’t even know he had done the music for Lilo & Stitch until I watched it yesterday and saw his name in the beginning credits. Cool. Of course, not that it’s bad that you can do that with other composers – it’s actually fun to be able to recognize the work of James Horner and such.
This is actually first time I’ve listened to this CD in a while – it’s my little sister’s. Haha, how many of you didn’t see that coming? =P So let’s see what’s in store on this soundtrack, eh? I’ll try not to go on too much, seeing as there are 19 tracks.
1.) The Legend of the Scorpion King An anticipating start, an Egyptian sounding chorus soon rising up as we are introduced to the Scorpion King and his legions (hence the march). Things soon turn into battle-like chaos, trumpets blaring and flutes trilling their notes. We end with a gong and slide into empty desert feelings – a little bit of harp and clarinet, among others. The chorus gives a foreboding tone and things rise up into a sharp and devious crescendo before turning into a darker march, strings doing that creepy insect like twitch before it all fades off into the past.
2.) Scorpion Shoes We’ve all heard, at some point or another, strings plucking to give that goose-bump feeling, flutes squealing quickly to help out, and in general, the aim is to give you the willies or just make you think of bugs and other creepy crawly things. We have a bit of a search on here, with a harp and chorus revelation, and the arrival of, well, something bad, occasionally going back to the strings and flutes for that scary feel. Gotta love the chorus though. There’s a lot going on in this track, I’ll tell you that much.
3.) Imhotep Unearthed Ah, scary! And dangerous. And more creepy instruments. What else would you expect to hear when the lead bad guy makes his debut? A little soloist singing here and then suddenly we have a sort of “ta-da!” on a good note before things go right back into the dark area.
4.) Just An Oasis Ooh – Egyptian instruments. A little bit of lovey-dovey flute between Rick and Evy here. It’s pretty cute. And almost to the point of a movie theme – there is a taste of it, though it’s actually more like Rick’s heroic theme than anything I suppose.
5.) Bracelet Awakens You can tell it’s bad news right off with the soft and deep few instruments that appear. A little bit of strong chorus makes the most of this song, but most of the time it’s pretty quitet.
6.) Evy Kidnapped All of a sudden we launch right into the movie theme (aka Rick’s heroic theme), full orchestra and all. I’ve decided that Alan likes his heroic sounding themes. Hey, works for me. It’s headed by the trumpets and other horns, the strings giving it some great backup notes, the drums giving it a good beat as well. It continues along it’s own way, changing various directions and drifting away from the theme here and there so it’s not the same thing over and over – and that way it matches what’s going on in the movie. Alan has a good ear for how to use his themes, I tell ya.
7.) Rick’s Tattoo And yes, if you make a point to look for it in the first movie, you can see it. It’s kinda cool. Another slow start, eventually leading into a dark sounding chorus. It gives one the hint of magic…
8.) Imhotep Reborn Creepy instrument alert! But things get quiet pretty quickly and stay that way for the rest of the song.
9.) My First Bus Ride More drums and a bit of that “bad guy is back” vibe. Soon it turns into a chase and battle song all in one – fast paced, clashing, and a bit of the movie theme all rolled into one. It roller coasters around from bad to good to “oh crap..” to the theme throughout the entire song. And this is a long one too – first place at 7:45.
10.) The Mushy Part See the title? Can you guess what kind of music you’re going to get? Come on, think now… However, it’s cut short, goes quiet, fades out, and fades back in again in Egypt and ends on a rather interesting note…
11.) A Gift and a Curse That note leads us into this track, a quiet and ghostly mesh of instruments before gaining power, though it retains it’s ghost-like quality. It only becomes most powerful near the end, but it keeps those strings (the insect-crawly kind). We get just a taste of the next track at the very end of this one however.
12.) Medjai Commanders A full symphony of power and majesty awaits you here. Though it fades off in the middle, handing the song over to a flute, it comes right back soon after.
13.) Evy Remembers Ah, rewind my friends. Back to ancient Egypt. So what do we have? Egyptian workings – actually more like Imhotep workings – low chorus, bad guy themed, and some not-so-good goings on with fast brass and up and down harps. As things fade off into near silence, the flute and a few strings take it home.
14.) Sandcastles Don’t let the slow start fool you – this turns into quite an interesting song. Traveling over the desert music with some fun percussion, a hint of the theme, and some Egyptian strings (or at least something I’m not familiar with), and some chorus to sing along with the rest of the strings. Almost an entirely fun track, but it ends on a dangerous note and leads into…
15.) We’re In Trouble …here. A zooming song of escape from something really bad. However, that soon dies away and we find ourselves somewhere as ancient as where we have already visited. But things aren’t over yet! Ah, more of the movie theme – only this is slightly different than Rick’s heroic theme, though they’re hard to tell apart most of the time.
16.) Pygmy Attack A dangerous place here, a variety of instruments telling us so, along with the chorus, which is doing a bit of that bad guy theme. Eventually though, we go into Rick’s heroic theme, but that ends up a little crazy and things become more and more rushed and hectic with heavy tones of “move it!!” in them before we launch right back into the movie theme and out again.
17.) Come Back Evy A little far away trumpet sounds the main theme, and other instruments join it before Imhotep and his dangerous sounds of whirring strings and clanging percussion show up and kill all the music entirely. It tries to raise itself back up again, but it’s weak and though it does gain strength, it dies in a flourish of love and anger. Things don’t end here though…
18.) The Mummy Returns Here we have the second longest song on the CD at 7:44 (ooh, a second less than the other one…whoopy =P ). We’ve entered that past Egyptian pyramid and look at all the cool stuff inside – that has it’s own theme, though it’s almost based upon the others. That percussion comes back and we have everything put together into one ending credits song. Heavily laden with Egypt and it’s gold and sand, no matter where you heard this, you’d think pharaohs and pyramids. A bit of track 14, a bit of track 17, some of the bad, scary stuff, and plenty of the other themes all mixed into one final finale.
19.) Live, “Forever May Not Be Long Enough” Ah, the occasional random song at the end of the CD. Reminds me of Troy and The Mask of Zorro. Maybe he’s taking a stab at James Horner style. Who knows? Anyway, it’s a pretty interesting song. Like most (except maybe Titanic) it doesn’t really fit too well with the rest of the movie and such – quite possibly due to it’s modern-ness, which contrasts with the time and style of the movie. Either way, it’s sort of funky. A little bit of rock, a little bit of piano/Egyptian style singing, some techno sound, and a little bit of heavy rock – the kind where the singer sort of growls out his lyrics. Is it good? Well, in it’s own special area, yeah, it’s a pretty good song. Catchy – the kind that can easily grow on you and make you tap your foot to the beat.
This also isn’t one of my favorite soundtracks – in fact, I don’t listen to it that much – never mind the fact that it’s my sister’s. That doesn’t stop me. Hehe. It’s just that for some reason it doesn’t seem to need a whole lot of music to back it up. Now other movies need the music to give it that extra edge, and some are known for their music. But the first movie never really seemed to need it. Action movie or no, it wasn’t really dependent upon the music to help push it along. Rather, the music seemed to set the mood. Now, this soundtrack it seemed like Alan was trying to give the movie that bit of extra edge with the music, and though it is good, the music actually seemed to make up more of the action than, well, the action. Personally I think he could have been a little more subtle, but he’s still better than me so he gets a free “pass GO and collect $200” card.
So what do I think when it comes to you? You can buy it if you want. It is different and the composing is very good. It just doesn’t move me the way some other works do. Music doesn’t have to be sad or anything either to move me – there can be fast battle-like songs that will just get me going. You know, speed up the heart rate, make you run a little faster if you’re working out, that kind of thing. This soundtrack….well, it doesn’t do anything except remind me of the movie (which all soundtracks should do initially) and make me think random things like, “Hah…Brendan Fraser is cute…” I’ll recommend it because it has talent. However, if you’re not into the movie, heroic themes, or stuff with an Egyptian twist, pass it up. If you’re clear with all those things, then who knows? You might like it more than me.
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