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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The Lebo M. aspect of the "Spirit of Africa" song is very generic, with pounding drums and African chanting yielding to one great performance of the theme by Goldsmith's orchestra in the middle of the first song appearance. Otherwise, the Lebo M. elements are sorely lost in the central mass of the score, diminishing their effectiveness in Congo as a whole. Goldsmith's underscore does its best to compensate for the film's weaknesses on its own, usually choosing to blast the listener with frantic, brassy action cues rather than accentuate the finer points of the story. The stereotypical, varied drums would be offered several times throughout the score, setting a rolling, easy rhythm for the orchestra to meander along to. Occasionally, the percussion boils up into a full rumble, and the orchestra obliges it with a full performance of thematic material. Such would be the case in the cues "Deep Jungle" (fourth on album) and "Crash Site" (sixth cue on album), which are easily the highlights of the score. No matter how strongly Goldsmith attempts to infuse life into other sections of the score, however, the straight action material is second rate compared to Goldsmith's usual standard. At times, he comes close to capturing the spirit and the energy of the rhythms (and bold performances) of The Ghost and the Darkness, but never with the enthusiasm or excitement of the latter. A touch of the 1996 score favorite would be previewed at the start of the "Crash Site" cue. Additionally, the use of clanging metallic percussion and Goldsmith's array of synthestizers is adequate, but not inspired to the same level of beauty as heard in Medicine Man. Overall, the production of Congo seems rather flat. It's not as intolerable as the film, but it expresses ideas that hint at the strengths of other superior jungle scores by the composer. The album release, however, is just as bad as the film. Designed by someone named Christine Wilson (whose name is listed right next to a phone number on the packaging that you can call and complain to! Way to go!), Congo was the first largely known case in which the track titles were intentionally listed incorrectly on the packaging of the album. As it states, the true track order is only available on the CD itself, with the tracks listed randomly on the packaging. This is insane! Perhaps it perfectly tops off a generally unoriginal Goldsmith score for a terrible film. **
The packaging is extremely difficult to read and understand. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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