While I am writing this review, we finally have summer days here in the Netherlands after many months of cold and rainy weather. Instead of sitting inside to write an in-depth review, I decided that the next review I would write would be a smaller one. If there is one album ideally suited for this situation, it is Michael Giacchino’s latest album, Exotic Themes for the Silver Screen, Vol. 1.
Occasionally, a film music composer releases an album with a selection of his or her best work. Two examples that come to mind are Film Suites, Vol 1 by John Powell and Night After Night that James Newton Howard released last year, which are both excellent orchestral reimaginings of their work. Then Michael Giacchino comes along and does something completely different. Instead of going for the more standard orchestral approach, he went in the opposite direction by making exotica versions of many tracks from his scores. He gave each track a tropical makeover using marimbas, vibraphones and other exotic instruments, including the iconic steel guitar.
The pieces on the album are from a wide range from the first half of his career, including music from the games Medal of Honor and Secret Weapons Over Normandy. These scores introduced me to Giacchino’s fantastic music many years ago. While I am familiar with a lot of music from Giacchino, there are some tracks on the album that I do not know so well. This includes his music for LOST and Alias, which I know he wrote but never really listened to. The album also consists of many tracks a broader audience knows, including The Incredibles, Star Trek, Ratatouille and the Oscar-winning score Up. Exotic Themes for the Silver Screen also contains two pleasant surprises I have not heard in a long time: “ROAR!” from Cloverfield and “A Man, A Plan, A Code, Dubai” from Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.
This album was a huge surprise, but I am in two minds about it. On the one hand, I love the idea. It is a unique and refreshing concept. The album also contains an excellent collection of Giacchino’s work from 1997 until 2011, putting his best work from that period in the spotlight. On the other hand, however, after listening to it a couple of times, I lost interest. Exotica is not my music genre, and while you can recognize the melodies, the genre cannot translate all emotions from the original all that well. It is, nevertheless, still an excellent record to put on in the background. That is what exotica music is all about: Enjoy listening to it while entertaining yourself in the sun with a nice cocktail or a beer in your hand. I would not be surprised that Volume 2 will be released with the latter half of Giacchino’s strong career. I am pretty curious how that one would be, but knowing myself, I will probably listen to it a couple of times and then probably forget about it. However, if you are a fan of this genre, check out this first volume of Exotic Themes for the Silver Screen. You will probably enjoy it.
Listen or buy
- Buy this soundtrack from Amazon or Apple Music
- Listen to this soundtrack on Spotify
Tracklist
The highlights are in bold.
- Primordial Forest – The Lost World: Jurassic Park (2:10)
- Medal of Honor (3:01)
- Bristow and Bristow – Alias (3:09)
- Secret Weapons Over Normandy (3:26)
- The Incredibles Suite (3:07)
- Take a Hike – LOST (3:21)
- Life and Death – LOST (3:52)
- Sky High (2:31)
- Space Mountain (3:12)
- The Family Stone Waltz (2:11)
- Le Festin – Ratatouille (2:20)
- Ratatouille (2:20)
- ROAR! – Cloverfield (2:04)
- Casa Cristo – Speed Racer (2:34)
- Land of the Lost (2:33)
- Enterprising Young Men – Star Trek (2:50)
- Married Life – Up (3:49)
- Let Me In (2:26)
- LAX – LOST (3:37)
- The Turbomater – Cars 2 (2:21)
- A Man, A Plan, A Code, Dubai – Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (3:03)
- Monte Carlo (2:52)
- Super 8 Suite (3:05)
Total length: 1 hour and 6 minutes
Made By Mutant (2024)
