The Legend of Tangerine Dream

Though I could have sworn I already reviewed this soundtrack, Legend is enjoyable enough that even if I had, I wouldn’t mind reviewing it again.

Brought to you by Tangerine Dream, Legend consists of a few songs with lyrics while the rest are pure 80s electronic created sounds. Oh, there might be a real instrument in there or two, but it’s rather difficult to tell with everything else in the song. Apparently, there exists an original score by my buddy Jerry Goldsmith (The Mummy, The Ghost and the Darkness) which I haven’t heard (yet, muahaha), but right now we’re skipping the instrumental goodies and going straight to the crazy 80s style stuff.

1.) Is Your Love Strong Enough – 5:12 The opening song, complete with lyrics and fitting well with the usual sound you get from the 80s. It’s a good song with a strong refrain and goes nicely with the movie. Slow rock, not quite a ballad, and finished off with some saxophone.

2.) Opening – 2:54 Our first taste of the soft whistling of pipes and numinous waves of sparkling noises and deeper synth sounds that give the overall feeling of magic and ominous darkness that lives in the forest.

3.) Cottage – 3:21 The semi-harpsichord sounding instrument is the main focus here, with the rest of the music revolving around it. It’s sort of like a weird waltz, but overall it’s interesting and enjoyable, slightly mystic and something you might find in an older Final Fantasy video game.

4.) Unicorn Theme – 3:23 Before I found the whole soundtrack, I’d managed to get just this song, so it’s one I’m most familiar with. Picture Lily and the unicorn, and that’s your song. It begins pleasant and hopeful, with the hint of track 7’s melody, before slipping away into beating drums and the nastiness of the goblins.

5.) Goblins – 3:01 These goblins. It begins similar to where track 4 left off, only gets a little more bizarre, with abrupt and striking synthetic clamor that makes me think of metal (not the music, the material) for some reason. It creeps along before finally fading off.

6.) Fairies – 2:57 A much different sound here, with triangle-like jingles and pipes, though still with a handful of weird reverberations. Near the middle it slips into a kind of carnival-like melody with the arrival of Gump.

7.) Loved by the Sun (Jon Anderson) – 5:56 I’m not sure why this song is here as opposed to the end, but the hints you heard in track 4 return stronger, and soon blossom into a full song with lyrics and all. I like listening to this one because it’s a lot of fun with the way it rises up near the end with a powerful climax. The end is quite interesting with the way it falls into near silence with only a few starlit sparkles here and there and repeated words like “To believe in the good in man” and, of course, those pan-pipes.

8.) Blue Room – 3:24 Going back to the middle of the movie now, we’re tucked into a slow and hollow song that sneaks around stone pillars with it’s lack of instrumentation on any level, making for something unease and maybe even menacing…hard to tell.

9.) The Dance – 2:24 Slightly creepy carnival-like music. Or maybe the music you’d hear coming out of a music box with a crank handle and a monkey dancing around nearby. No matter what it makes you think of, it works out extremely well when it comes to dancing around in sparkling black rag-like dress and black lipstick. I’m sad that it’s so short.

10.) Darkness – 3:05 Exotic and definitely low enough to create the image of darkness in your mind, this isn’t something you’d want to hear while in a room without lights. It simply heralds something bad. I like the way it gets up into a slight marching tone at the end with the final deep note of a pipe.

11.) The Kitchen/Unicorn Theme Reprise – 4:53 Another song I had long before the full soundtrack, and a good one. It bubbles along and mixes magic with danger, with a soft flute-like instrument as well as the murkier tones of something akin to a chorus. The kitchen section is fast and beats along, bringing in an electric guitar for a minute or two before the whole song eventually falls back into the unicorn’s theme (hence the song title).

A little smirk appears on my face when I open my music player because Legend and Labyrinth are right next to each other. Likewise, they sound quite similar due to the time frame they were created in; both use a good deal of music created entirely in a sound studio as opposed to with an orchestra. Even real orchestra instruments, if they are there at all, mix in well enough with the fake sounds to create the full song. I’m not sure why people bash on this soundtrack, but I assume that those same people wouldn’t bother with Labyrinth’s soundtrack. If they do, then I don’t understand them.

Due to their nature of creation, I find I can compare these songs to video game songs, such as older Final Fantasy playing music (before the games went 3D so around 5 or 6 I guess) or a Legend of Zelda, or in other cases, Ecco the Dolphin. But you know what? I liked those songs in Ecco and Zelda and FF. So for me it works out. If you’ve never been a fan of video game music, and you weren’t the biggest fan of Legend or the music playing in the background, then in all likelihood, you shouldn’t get this soundtrack. In fact, I’m not even sure why you looked it up if that’s the case.

But if you’re like me, you’ll love it no matter how old school 80s it is, how electronic it gets, or how Tangerine Dreamy it is. Fans of the movie will probably be fans of this soundtrack, and while it may not be one of my favorites, I definitely do not see myself ejecting it from my collection any time in the foreseeable future.

NT