Music Reviews

Master and Commander – The Far side of the World

Music from the Motion Picture

Universal

Soundtrack music is always an odd genre. Occasionally, you get the generational Greatest Hits Album, like Breakfast Club or Pretty in Pink. Or, you get the ACTUAL MUSIC from the film, stripped of any visual context and jumping from dramatic to romantic to scary with no clue to the listener. The Master and Commander soundtrack falls into this second class. This is a movie about a sailing ship at sea, and there is plenty of creaky sailing through the fog and cannon battle action sounds, but very little you can actually sit and LISTEN to. A few Irish-sounding folk tunes appear from time to time, but they are the exception not the rule. This album is pretty much for the film school sound guy, and has almost no intrinsic musical value without large sailing ships full of lusty sailor-men filling the screen. Sail on past it…

Master and Commander: http://www.masterandcommanderfarsideoftheworld.com/ • Universal: http://www.universalclassics.com/


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