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| • | Newest Major Reviews: | . | • | This Week's Most Popular Reviews: | • | Best-Selling Albums: | ||
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you have always relaxed to James Horner's more lushly fluid dramatic themes but have never ventured back to his first official entry in the genre. Avoid it... if the frightfully expensive pair of out of print albums for the score don't merit a mere twenty minutes of redeeming material that doesn't feature comparatively impressive sound quality anyway. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Thematically, Cocoon is often mischaracterized as a monothematic score, and while the film doesn't seem to make use of different melodies for individual lines of plot, Horner's theme can be divided into three distinct parts. Each of these is provided in succession at the outset of "Theme from Cocoon" and are rotated between in "The Ascension." The tingling seven-note prelude theme for mystery opens both the suite and the entire score and represents the fantasy element. Later development seemingly follows the lines of both the older folks' enthusiasm and the aliens themselves. The ensemble performance of the dominant title theme for the fantasy element at 1:45 into "The Ascension" is countered by a sensitive and romantic counterpart at 1:15 into "Theme from Cocoon." The former brass-led theme is offered in conjunction with the harshly metallic sound that Horner often produced in that era, though the latter theme for flowing strings is a striking foreshadowing of the weighty dramatic style that would culminate in Legends of the Fall. The mystery theme is given an elegant horn solo at 2:40 into "Theme from Cocoon." These ideas mingle so frequently they serve as interludes to each other, so it's understandable that most listeners don't separate them when enjoying Cocoon. A few distinct aspects of creativity in the score are worth mentioning; the use of woodwind instruments to imitate the call of an urgent telegraph message is brilliantly played at 1:45 into "Theme from Cocoon." No re-recording of the theme has ever effectively recreated the sixteenth notes merging into one continuous note. Fans of Horner's early action music will enjoy "The Chase," which heightens the fantasy theme with an assortment of percussive aides and brass tones that will raise significant memories of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Krull. Synthetic elements provide interesting accents as well; the use of a synth organ effect for moments of a religious nature are heard in the middle of "Discovered in the Pool House" and in "The Ascension." These synths are used to produce a ghostly moment of suspense late in "The Lovemaking" that resembles usage in Jerry Goldsmith's Poltergeist. Evidence of Horner's more playful side also exists in "Discovered in the Pool House," with some exuberant rhythms that would guide his later animation scores. The swinging jazz of "The Boys Are Out" is also an early venture by Horner into a genre he would explore several times with success. Along with the jazz, the understated acoustic guitar sounds of "Sad Goodbyes" would combine to form a greater portion of Horner's score for Cocoon: The Return, though all of the primary orchestral themes would be regurgitated as well. On album, the Cocoon score has spent 90% of its existence as elusive as the aliens themselves. Forty minutes of the score was made available on an extremely early and primitive Polydor CD that, like many at the time, went very much out of print within just a few years. Its value reached $250 in the mid-1990's before a re-pressing in 1997 was made commercially available (and the bootleg CDr market began taking off). Both albums offered identical contents, which unfortunately broke Horner's score into two halves with the presence of an absolutely wretched and badly dated pop song that sounds like a much better match for Ghostbusters than this. Songs like "Gravity" exist to remind us just how corny the 80's were and, inevitably, how much we'd like to ignore the fact that such music ever existed. The 1997 pressing by P.E.G. (another Polygram branch) itself fell out of print within only a short few years, and copies of that album (along with the original 1985 run) have eventually sold for $75. Despite its identical contents, the 1997 album is preferable for its slight improvement in sound quality due to a remastering. If you're not an audiophile, then the difference in quality may be too small to merit consideration. On the whole, with both Cocoon and Cocoon: The Return not readily available in stores, Horner's music for these films is often overshadowed and forgotten by collectors of the composer's popular scores from 1988 and beyond. The original Cocoon, however, remains one of Horner's important "discovery" scores and offers twenty minutes of engaging dramatic music that any fan of the composer should investigate. ****
Both albums feature blank inserts. The 1997 album's cover has a purple tint to the film's artwork, whereas the 1985 album featured the original blue tones. The track "The Ascension" also appears on the "Ron Howard Passions and Achievements" retrospective compilation from 1997. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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