 |
Title |
| Godzilla vs.
SpaceGodzilla (Perfect
Collection 5) |
| International Title |
| Godzilla
vs. SpaceGodzilla |
| Music By:
Takayuki
Hattori |
| Record Label:
Toho Music |
| |
|
| Running Time: 65:53/73:30 |
Discs: 2 |
| Release: January 2008 |
CD Number: G-021 (Set) |
|
| Comments |
 |
Anthony
Romero |
 |
|
|
First,
thanks goes to Jessica Stan for sending this in for
review!
After Akira
Ifukube passed up scoring this entry in the franchise,
composer Takayuki
Hattori was brought in to create the soundtrack
for Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla. The result
is often one of the more derided scores for a modern
Godzilla film, and certainly it lacks the power, magistracy,
or even memorability that the other scores in the
Heisei series boast. Regardless, this entry does still
have some worthwhile cues. Leading the pack is "Birth
Island I" which, as has been said countless times,
clearly owes a lot to John Barry's work on You
Only Live Twice. The track is still a great and
soothing cue in its own right, in spite of how obvious
its inspiration is. His continual motif for SpaceGodzilla
is also great as it conveys a sense of menace that
fits the character, although its a little overused
through out the soundtrack. "Requiem" is
another winning piece, and a great ending theme for
the film. Sadly, one of the more important themes
from the disc, Hattori's new Godzilla theme, misses
its mark. Its not particularly interesting, and its
slightly playful nature feels at odds with the character
that its meant to represent.
Merits and detractions of the score aside, it's time
to take a look into this particular release in the
"Perfect Collection" as there is a lot to
cover. Starting from the top are the titles, which
Toho Music dropped the ball on... big time. When it
comes to track titles, Toho Music has a bad record,
but this is easily their worst outside of the War
History of Men - Toho War Movies Soundtrack Collection
(P-0001/P-0002).
For some reason, half of these tracks have just titles,
while the others only have cue numbers. Only one track,
"SpaceGodzilla Credits (M1 Second Half)",
has both. Not only that but the track titles are awful,
with things like "Suspense (Normal)", "Human
Suspense" and chicken-scratch-like notation such
as "Last Somewhat Short". The worst of these
is clearly the "No M Number" track, which
is named that way because the theme was actually never
given a cue number but that didn't stop it from being
previously named "Miki and the Cosmos 2"
to make it clear what scene it refers to. Frankly,
the state of the titles is just lazy, and is made
all the more frustrating, because Kitty's two disc
set (KTCR-1301/2)
handled this very well with both track titles and
cue numbers. For those curious, I have created a fan
track listing for a better presentation of this.
Titles aside, track order is also a little off here,
although might be up to personal taste. The first
CD is dedicated only to the original music that was
used in the production. Tracks 22 through 37 on the
second disc contain edits and stock music that was
used to complete the rest of the score... mostly.
Tracks 36 and 37 appear to be different versions of
"Echoes of Love", the latter of which is
clearly not based on the movie version either as it
features different lyrics. Its an awkward presentation
style, but to be fair the soundtrack to SpaceGodzilla
is long and wouldn't have fit on an entire CD had
they kept the themes together. The other tracks on
the second CD are outtakes, although are sadly clumped
together based on their source material. The positive
side of this is that the listener can spot the differences
more easily when hearing the similar tracks back-to-back.
The downside is that the listener also has to hear,
for example, over 15 minutes of the SpaceGodzilla
theme and others repeated again and again, which is
taxing.
If one is comparing this to the previous two disc
set, they will likely notice a huge jump in runtime
for this edition, so its worth citing all the new
content and the many changes between the sets. On
the first disc, "SpaceGodzilla Approaches",
"M16" (was "Mischievous LittleGodzilla"),
"M19" (was "Miki and Godzilla 1"),
"M24" (was "Miki and Shinjo"),
"M25" (was "The Two on the Beach"),
"SpaceGodzilla (Tempo Up)" (was "SpaceGodzilla
Appears in Sapporo"), "G-Force's Theme",
"Suspense (Tempo Down)" (was "Moguera
vs. SpaceGodzilla 3"), "Requiem", "M52"
(was "Epilogue") and "Echoes of Love"
have been expanded as they were previously edited
down to reflect how they appeared in the movie. "Suspense
(Normal)" and "Human Suspense" are
also new, although the latter was edited to create
the short "Yuki in Pursuit" and "Rescuing
Miki" which are missing here in that form. "M28,
49 Sharing" is also new, but was again edited
to create "Miki's Telekinesis 1" and "Miki's
Telekinesis 2" which also again aren't found
here. The shorter version of "SpaceGodzilla's
Theme" that appeared in the film is also not
present on this new release, along with the edits
for "SpaceGodzilla Comes Flying 1" and "SpaceGodzilla
Comes Flying 2". "Godzilla's Theme (Normal)"
is also a new track, but yet again was edited to create
the shorter "Godzilla at Kagoshima Bay"
and "Moguera vs. Godzilla" which are missing.
It's worth noting that some of these expanded versions
are quite nice too, such as the "G-Force's Theme"
that had a very rousing finish that was sadly edited
out of the movie. Also, "Godzilla's Theme (Slower
Tempo)" and "Moguera Minor" are new
tracks as well.
That's a lot of changes, but sadly this is only the
first disc in this set so things are going to get
even more complicated. On the second disc, "M20"
(was "Space Warfare: Moguera vs. SpaceGodzilla")
and "M41A" (was "Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla
1") have been expanded. "SpaceGodzilla's
Theme (10/28 Revision)" is also another example
of an expanded cue, as it was edited to create "SpaceGodzilla's
Battle Area" which is missing. "Suspense
(10/28 Revision)" is yet another, as it was also
edited to create "Moguera vs. SpaceGodzilla 2"
which is missing. The new material is "Godzilla's
Theme (10/28 Revision)", "SpaceGodzilla
(Normal Brass Rising)", "SpaceGodzilla (C-Start
Brass Rising)", "SpaceGodzilla (Horn in
Front of C2)", "M1 Second Half (10/28 Revision)",
"SpaceGodzilla Approaches (10/28 Revision)",
"Moguera Mobilized (42 Seconds)", "Birth
Island I (Only A)", "Birth Island II (Last
Somewhat Long)", "Birth Island III",
"M5 (Crystal)", "M8 (Brass Rising)"
and the previously mentioned "M53 Echoes of Love".
"Real Sound from Radio" is also expanded
from its original presentation, although this source
music is so bad that its smaller edit was much more
becoming, as is "M52 (Piano Raising Version)".
In terms of audio quality, sadly things aren't as
rosy as they could have been for this new release.
First off, this set was recorded at a much lower volume
level, which in itself isn't bad. However, to fairly
compare the tracks, I dumped two similar cues on my
computer and then ran them through a program to fix
the levels so they were equal. The problem is that
the music from this set started to clip when raised
while to a level that wasn't even as high as what
the Kitty stuff was originally presented as, which
is a bad sign. Suffice to say, comparing the two was
a defenitive win for the earlier releases in terms
of sound quality, especially for the vocal track by
Date of Birth, although all the same the new set still
sounds okay.
Through comparison, one can draw a conclusion: the
previous Kitty two disc set (KTCR-1301/2)
was a pitch perfect presentation of how the score
was used in the movie. This includes how the tracks
were edited and even repeats like "Moguera vs.
SpaceGodzilla 1". This new set presents the score
as it was originally created, along with outtakes
and the stock music thrown in as well. The final verdict
is that this set is the superior one of the two, audio
problems included, although diehard soundtrack collectors
might want both because of all the differences between
the two and for the previous set's faithful recreation
of the movie edit.
Rating:  |
|
| Tracks |
Disc 1
- M1 First Half
- SpaceGodzilla Credits (M1 Second Half)
- Birth Island I
- LittleGodzilla
- Birth Island II (Last Somewhat Short)
- M8
- Yuki's Theme
- SpaceGodzilla Approaches
- Moguera Mobilized (54 Seconds)
- M15
- M16
- Suspense (Normal)
- M19
- Human Suspense
- SpaceGodzilla's Theme
- M23
- M24
- M25
- SpaceGodzilla (Leading Woodwind Horns)
- SpaceGodzilla (Tempo Up)
- M28, 49 Sharing
- G-Force Theme
- Godzilla's Theme (Normal)
- Suspense (Tempo Down)
- Godzilla's Theme (Slower Tempo)
- SpaceGodzilla (Madness)
- Moguera Minor
- Requiem
- M52
By: Isao Shigeto
- Echoes of Love
By: Date of Birth
Disc 2
- Godzilla's Theme (10/28 Revision)
- Godzilla's Theme (Without Snare)
- SpaceGodzilla's Theme (10/28 Revision)
- SpaceGodzilla (Normal Brass Rising)
- SpaceGodzilla (C-Start Brass Rising)
- SpaceGodzilla (Horn in Front of C2)
- M1 Second Half (10/28 Revision)
- SpaceGodzilla Approaches (10/28 Revision)
- SpaceGodzilla's Psychokinesis
- Moguera Mobilized (42 Seconds)
- LittleGodzilla (Different Type)
- Birth Island (Without Shaker in Second Half)
- Birth Island I (Only A)
- Birth Island II (Last Somewhat Long)
- Birth Island III
- M5
- M5 (Crystal)
- M8 (Brass Rising)
- Suspense (10/28 Revision)
- Yuki's Theme (Without Percussion)
- M52 (Piano Raising Version)
By: Isao Shigeto
Music for Assemble Edit
- M1 First Half
- M1 Second Half
- M2
By: Sayaka Osawa and Keiko Imamura
- Real Sound from Radio
By: Katsu
- M9
By: Akira Ifukube
- M14
- M17
By: Akira Ifukube
- M18
- M20
- No M Number
By: Akira Ifukube
- M41A
- M42
- M44
- M44A
- M52 "Echoes of Love"
By: Isao Shigeto
- M53 "Echoes of Love"
By: Date of Birth
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