Star Trek - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [CD]

Okay, to begin with - from reading other Amazon reviews about this soundtrack, I get the feeling I am very much in the minority here. However, all I can say is that I have heard this score numerous times now (even before I ventured to see the movie) and, I felt it was a superb soundtrack that not only enhanced the fantastic movie but stood alone as a piece of music that I could listen to at home time and time again.

Let's face it, composer Michael Giacchino had a hard act to follow. With Alexander Courages' iconic signature tune (which is recreated beautifully on this soundtrack) to Jerry Goldsmiths' Motion Picture masterpiece right through to James Horners' excellent Wrath of Khan follow up, the odds weren't particularly in his favour. However, like John Williams did with his own 'The Phantom Menace' - he created the iconic Duel of the Fates that for me now stands alongside that famous Star Wars them tune - Giacchino too has created a strong haunting melody that forms the backbone of the new Star Trek sound, yet gives the listener that warm confidence that this is still in essence the Trek that they grew up with.

The opening bars of track 1 ''Star Trek'' (and feature over the opening logos at the beginning of the actual movie) instantly made a connection to me and it felt just from those few moments, that this was the star trek that I knew from my childhood and yet made a great new addition to those many sounds that I recalled as a young boy.

The rest of the soundtrack is solid and combines both epic space opera with melancholy and reflection - which, pretty much what Trek has always done.

Like I said, I am already waiting for the brickbats and ''0 out of 40 do not agree with this review'' but all I can say is for me at least, this soundtrack is exactly what I wanted from this new interpretation of the franchise and with Michael Giacchino, I am confident that it is the in safest of hands. Like the film it enhances, this is highly recommended.

Mr. Giacchino has a great deal to live up to when it comes to the music of Star Trek. He not only has to pay homage to the beautiful scoring of original series theme tune composer Alexander Courage, and by default include 'that' tune in the score, but he's got a whole bunch of rather brilliant musical giants peering over his shoulder; Jerry Goldsmith (the score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture is quite frankly a work of god-like genius), Dennis McCarthy (a very under-rated score for Star Trek: Generations), James Horner (Wrath Of Khan. Say No More) and Cliff Eidelman (the end title score of Star Trek VI with the accompanying sign off from the original cast is enough to make grown men weep).

I know if I'm enjoying an original score. You've seen the film and it's helping you replay lots of great bits of the film in your head before the DVD comes out or you pay for another cinema ticket, or the music doesn't necessarily need the film to inspire you and is so strong and powerful that it totally stands in isolation as great film music. With Star Trek, Giacchino most definitely falls into the latter camp. So what does Giacchino's music say to us in its brief 45 minute outing on this album? This captures a punchy, fast moving action flick, full of jeopardy and darker, vengeful moments, and it's pretty epic in scope. Big, big brass sections, driving strings, rattling percussion and some outstanding choral work too. It's a very colourful score, running the gamut of bold orchestration, both thundering along to action set pieces and full of beautiful subtleties (and if you like his Lost scores you'll really like these) when needed for the quieter character driven moments.

He's also got his own Star Trek theme threading through much of the music. It's terribly heroic, a nicely controlled bombast but quite easily fits in with the stablemates of previous films. There's a James Horner flavour in there with a series of rising motifs, certainly rather well showcased on Back From Black, perhaps indicative of Kirk's journey from cadet (in black uniform) to 'Captain' (in yellow uniform) but that first makes its mark in the opening Star Trek. Slow, full, round brass, quite mournful, dotted with metallic sounding percussion and that drives, with subtle strings, towards one of those typical Giacchino crescendos. Nailin' The Kelvin does what it says on the tin and is big, militaristic stuff scoring the battle between the U.S.S. Kelvin and Nero's ship, the Narada. Pounding beats, flaring brass and swirling strings that again pick out Giacchino's own Trek theme.

Labor Of Love is soft, pirouetting high strings, with harp and warm brassy passages very much in the style of Lost. A very romantic piece of scoring that if I recall plays over the escape from the destroyed Kelvin. It's so melancholic and yet conveys a sense of majestic flight through space. More Lost like, repetitive high strings and woodwind, lush and warm, and again carrying his Trek theme, that's then broken by clapping percussion make up Hella Bar Talk which to me might suggest the conversation between Pike and Kirk. Enterprising Young Men is all guns blazing Elmer Bernstein stuff, very rousing with some booming drums joining skittering percussion, whalloping big brass and strings. It bounces along and, again, is sweeping music, truly fit for heroes. It rises into an escalating brass serenade and ends wth a staccato round of drums. Fabulous. The militaristic feel is well and truly the groove of Nero Sighted, echoing a great deal of Horner's Wrath Of Khan score and then about half way through it goes all Goldsmith on us, with a screech of high strings and some nice atonal passages, slowing to a heartbeat and then building again, brass sections powering up as I suspect the Narada sweeps across the screen.

Nice To Meld You is a bit of giveaway I think and is possibly scoring a particular meeting between old and new Trek that the Nimoy flavoured trailer has been hinting at. Swirling and dancing strings and brass that suggest an inner journey into the Vulcan mind and back into the past. Lovely flourish at the end which sounds quite mournful. More gung-ho drum and brass overlapping and string accentuation that picks up a pace in Run And Shoot Offense, momentarily broken by some very Bear McCreary sounding exotica picking up into a rousing theme that develops into a full throttle chase motif. That mournful passage may suggest Nero's motivation in the film, which is allegedly vengeance for past action, and it's carried through into the next track Does It Still McFly? The longer cue Nero Death Experience is a series of rising military motifs that are then joined by a phenomenal bit of choral work, swirling harps, attacking brass and strings in a very operatic and threatening, nightmarish piece of music. One of the best tracks on the album and I can't wait to see where this fits into the film. The end of the track is just wonderful, with his Trek theme insistent on the brass and accompanied by screeching strings then offering a pounding piece of choral, brass and string crescendos that end with the Courage four note opening to the original theme.

Nero Fiddles, Narada Burns does indicate that the villain's copped it and his ship is in a right state. Again, the brass is wonderful and there some weird tonalities in the middle of the choir, drums and strings. Really triumphal stuff. That New Car Smell is quite lovely. Eastern instrumentation, perhaps the erhu, the "Chinese violin", and again very BSG, has been used here for a fairly mournful, elegiac piece with strings and piano, incorporating more Lost like flavours but with a smashing, romantic and emotional nod to Goldsmith's Motion Picture soundtrack. Finishing on full throttle with a gorgeous bit of brass, chimes, flute and strings it's another superb highlight for me and is a very moving section of the score. The undoubted highlight is To Boldy Go and the way it segues into the End Titles. This is Giacchino grabbing the Courage theme and just turning it into the most sweeping, operatic version you'll ever hear, punctuated by his own Trek themes and many of the motifs from the soundtrack. It's bold, heroic, sassy and will leave you with a ruddy great smile on your face. Nine minutes that are a perfect summation of what has come before with Alexander Courage's theme at the helm.

The album is a great success and really deserves some applause. It certainly stands out as a very accomplished Trek soundtrack even if it doesn't quite scale the heights of Goldsmith's or Horner's work on the franchise.

Don't buy this on the strength of the trailer;in fact don't buy any soundtrack on the strength of the trailer. Soundtracks are normally the last piece of a film to be finished so you never hear the original soundtrack until you see the film.

Michael Giacchino has done quite a few scores including the Medal Of Honour videogames and also the sountrack to The Incredibles (all of which I love). I've only listened to this once, and have enjoyed it,with the classic theme making a welcome appearance.

I may post another review once I've seen the film.