The final soundtrack for composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose legacy includes an Academy Award for The Last Emperor and music for over 100 different projects that range from album releases to films like Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (1987). Sakamoto was well known on the global stage in a way that few Japanese composers are, thanks to his solo classical material as well as his electronic work as part of the band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). Because of this, his battles with cancer, which started back in 2014, were well known. I mention this because as his health continued to deteriorate, Sakamoto accepted the job of doing the score for Monster but noted to the director he wouldn’t be able to do a full score. As a result, Sakamoto created two new piano based themes while the rest of the music was taken from non-soundtrack albums dating from 1999-2023.
With this in mind, it’s almost best to segment examining this soundtrack in two ways. First, examining the two new themes that were created. Second, looking at the reused material, which comes from three different albums. Interestingly, the track titles, which are all in English, are done with the exact same styling as their respective releases, which makes it easy to see which theme came from where.
Anyway, for the two new themes, which are appropriately named “Monster 1” and “Monster 2”, Sakimoto turns in a pair of wonderful piano based tunes. They are absolutely majestic, especially “Monster 2”, while still conveying almost a melancholy tone that prevents them from being described as cheerful.
As for the older music, let’s start with “Aqua” which is from the 1999 album BTTB. Also piano-led, this theme is more optimistic than the original music from the film. In fact, it kind of strikes an almost happy styling toward the end. Next are “hwit” and “hibari”, which are both spelled all lower case. These are fairly long tracks that come from his Out of Noise album from 2009. To be honest, I’m shocked that “hwit” wasn’t always a soundtrack piece, as it's more passive and not overly engaging as a stand alone experience. In contrast to the previously mentioned tracks, this one is not piano based but rather features some string and synth work. “hibari” from that same album is another piano theme, though, but has a meandering quality and doesn’t come close to the highs for the original themes or “Aqua”. In addition, it’s a nine minute track, so it’s a lot to experience and I’d argue the weak point of this CD.
Moving on, the final two tracks are “20220207” and “20220302”. These come from the 2023 album “12”, and probably not surprisingly they match the tone of the original music much more closely. Given that they were written for an album, they work good as stand alone themes, although even listening to them one can picture how well they would work as a backdrop to a scene.
Overall, for those who like piano work, this is a short but solid CD. While given how good the original two themes are, it’s sad that Sakamoto could not flesh out a full score, but at the same time not just understandable that he didn’t but admirable that he took the project on at all. My only complaint remains the selection from Out of Noise, as otherwise this is a great collection of Sakamoto’s piano work. |
