really captures the atmosphere of the film
If you liked the glam gloom of Batman Returns, this album captures it perfectly. There are sweeping orchestral themes, flamboyant circus-style fight music, and the cooly sexy Batman/Catwoman love/hate song by Souxsie and the Banshees. This album makes great music for Halloween if you're not into the goofy Monster Mash variety of spooks. It's a little more "classical" than some Elfman music, with lots of lush minor scoring and pipe organ riffs.
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Better than you might imagine!
I had been given this soundtrack as a gift sometime before 1997, and only marginally listened to it once in a while thereafter. Then, during the period where I first started to really get into horror (starting with both book and movie of 'The Relic,' and the life-changer itself, Mr. Koontz' Phantoms), when I again turned to that soundtrack...I was blown away. If you take it completely out of the context of the film (even going as far as ignoring the track titles so as to avoid having preconceptions of what they'll sound like), it's actually a very dark and moody collection. Parts of "The Lair" and "Selina Transforms" especially illustrate this, with some exceptionally moody and atmospheric movements and build-ups. It's one of the oldest CDs I've constantly listened to, and still one of my favorites. I don't listen to the final track, "Face to Face," all that much, as it seems more like a shoo-in of the one proverbial "song" from the movie, but it's not bad...it's just on such a different wavelength from the rest of the soundtrack that it kind of breaks the spell (pun intended).
I've tried getting into Danny Elfman's other soundtracks in this manner, and except for 'Sleepy Hollow' (sort of), none of them really get to me like this. Maybe it was just good timing during a key point in my life; who knows? Ultimately, however, there's something really unique to the Batman Returns soundtrack that I think deserves more attention.
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Perfect score for this movie.
I thought the first movies scores were great, but the scores for this movie blew me away. Of course they have Batman's perfect theme from the first movie, but the the themes for the new villians (The Penguin Catwomen) are just as great as Batman's. I think the theme for the Penguin is one of my favorite movie scores of all time. This is a great soundtrack that everyone should enjoy.
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