Search - Leonard Rosenman :: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Contrast necessary to complete a collection

B. Wanner | Cleveland, Ohio USA | 04/28/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Being the proud owner of all ten Star Trek soundtrack CD albums, I have to say that the contrast between all the other albums and this one is rather uplifting. The music on the album is generally cheery and delightfully energetic - very different than the often dark and ominous tones conveyed in many of the other motion picture scores. Leonard Rosenman did a nice job bringing Star Trek IV to life with this score. The majority of the music on the CD is fun to listen to, and some of the tracks even come off sounding comical. However, while the score does make the film all the more memorable, only a select few tracks on this album truly stand out. I also found that the Yellowjackets' co-produced songs clashed with the orchestral pieces on the CD, and I usually skip them whenever I listen to the album. You'll find the best parts of this CD in the title and chase themes (tracks 1, 7, 9 and 11).

The first thing I noticed when I played this CD was how short the music on the CD ended up being. At just over 36 minutes long, it's my shortest album. Seven of the eleven tracks are under three minutes in length, with four of those being under ninety seconds long. After I finished listening to the album, I felt as if I had just left the grocery store after I was shortchanged - I was just left hanging there feeling like I missed something.

As I was listening to the first track, the Main Title, I also noticed the first of several poor mastering artifacts in the audio. Instead of crossfading two audio segments together to make the transition between two cuts of music sound less apparent to the ears, there is simply a pair of cuts butt up next to each other. This happens often in the music. While generally not distracting from the overall enjoyability of the score, I did find that it would take my mind away from the music to the recording itself - thinking about the cuts of music used to patch the songs together. I also noticed that the end of each track fades out prematurely, not allowing the natural reverberation of the recording environment to ring in the air and fade away. The cover art and album insert are also fairly plain and boring, even for an early issue CD. With simply a few movie photos and a credits and track listing contained on the insert, I found that the liner notes lacked a bit of 'user friendly' material, like scoring information or movie notes.

Before you decide to spend the money for this CD, listen to the track samples and see if the CD holds enough material that you'd enjoy listening to. While not as big as the Goldsmith or Horner scores, this album's highlights are worth adding to any collection."

Delicate and beautiful

YLD | anderson in | 10/19/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"fantastic music for a fantastic movie. this monsterously catchy soundtrack provided the perfect backdrop for what is not only the best trek film but the most human and uplifting of all sci-fi. some of the other reviews here say that they dsliked it beacuse it strayed so far from the original trek model of the grand romantic score. i would like to argue that giving such a film as this such a score would be a terrible mistake and would clash terribly with the emotional landscape of the film.this lightly baroque score on the other hand augments it perfectly and makes the film that much more memorable"

Ok

M. E. Geertsema | 08/20/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This was an ok soundtrack to one of my favorite Star Trek movies. It's light, funny, and cheerful giving the movie just the right touch. Track 9, "Hospital Chase" depicts the humor of the situation quite efectively. And the theme is very good. However, it's yet another Rosenman. What's with this guy? All his scores sound the same! If you like his music, buy this cd and you'll basically have all of them. At least he saves us money."