I will make
it no secret that Michiru
Oshima's soundtrack for Godzilla
Against Mechagodzilla (2002) is one of my all
time favorites. Now I have heard that her approach for
the Godzilla series was vastly different compared with
her normal scoring technique, as she tried to create rousing
military marches and more foreboding themes to fit with
the long running franchise. Regardless, and perhaps unfairly,
I still went into listening to this CD with the hope that
it might capture some of the same grande that her kaiju
soundtracks did. Consequently, my initial reaction was
one of extreme disappointment. It's a good thing, though,
that I didn't attempt to review this disc right after
my initial listen, as my reflection would have been overly
harsh. In fact, I spent about a week listening to this
CD before attempting to review it, which was simply due
to a busy schedule. What surprised me about the soundtrack
was that it quickly grew on me, to the point where I even
found myself reminiscing about a few of the themes while
at work.
Now to describe the CD as a whole, it's a fairly unorthodox
score for the most part. In fact, a lot of these cues
could be classified as using a "techno" approach.
The themes that fall into this category tend to work better
in short duration, although a few of the longer ones,
such as the five minute "Media Influence", still
succeed. The odd atmosphere to the disc is very much intentional,
though. This is made clear right off the bat with the
first theme, "Modulation", by Takahashi Taku.
The track starts off with a heavily synthesized beat,
as a girl, in English, begins to state plainly that: "people
who are intellectually super normal are sometimes abst
to become bored and frustrated on the level of the common
normal life, life, li--fe; and sometimes apply their...
Mohouhan". It's a very bizarre track, conveying an
almost insanity type of vibe which is very appropriate
considering the subject matter. A couple of the more traditional
themes here also stand out wonderfully, in particular
the piano dominated "The Chosen One". It's a
really beautiful and soothing theme by Oshima, and I know
it's going to find its way onto my iPod very soon. The
disc's five minute self titled cue, which leads into "The
Chosen One", is also another winner.
To be fair, though, there are a number of themes here
which I would qualify as "misses", and consequently
soured my initial experience with the score. Leading the
way in this respect is actually the second theme on this
disc by Takahashi Taku, which is the highly repetitive
"Dilemma of Peace". The track starts off well
enough, structured like a decent Techno composition, but
slowly starts to get on one's nerves past the 30 second
mark. "Confrontation" suffers this same fate
too. It's just far too repetitive. It does pick up around
the two minute mark, but there is still a couple minutes
prior of unpleasant music to wad through. "Childhood"
is another lackluster cue on this disc. For a harmonic
heavy theme, the track sounds very clichéd. The
theme is later reprised too in the "Gymnasium"
track.
Overall, I was really conflicted in handing out a numerical
score to this soundtrack. My initial reaction was a flat
"2", before that generally changed to a "3".
Again, it's a very unorthodox score. A couple of these
themes flounder, and hard, which is sure to turn off a
number of people. In the end, though, the score does more
right than wrong, and with a running time just over 70
minutes it can get away with a few bad tracks. It is more
than worth a listen for those interested.
Rating:  |
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