The other famous Disney musicals' instrumental scores of the era had higher bright points, joined typically by a few stunningly better songs. But those other scores also suffered from greater disappointments in their lower ends, especially when relating to the need for mindless comedy relief that pulled heavily from Broadway musical structures. Since those charming narrative elements in Pocahontas consist of characters that do not sing (a dog, raccoon, and hummingbird), the musical isn't interrupted by dancing, irritating statements of grand comedy. The closest Menken comes to this material is in the sailing anthem "The Virginia Company" at the outset of the film and "Mine, Mine, Mine" thereafter. In other words, the white male characters are the comedic relief in the role of the villains. At the same time, Pocahontas, while maintaining itself well with above average songs of compelling harmony and clever lyrics, doesn't have its share of show-stopping classics that Menken's more unbalanced soundtracks contained. If you recall, all of the previous three Menken/Disney collaborations had multiple songs nominated for Academy Awards (in the "Best Song" category). With Pocahontas, and until Enchanted forced the Academy to change its rules late in the following decade, Menken only enjoyed a nomination for the end credits song, showing that the songs advancing the narrative within the film didn't have the same popular grip. In its favor, though, Pocahontas holds a steady course, with no irritating single song and no disappointing score track. In fact the songs as a whole are of higher quality than the same average in many other Menken efforts, with some of his best material for vocalized situations not actually making the picture. Two quite impressive songs featuring the leads, for instance, were struck from the finish film to better preserve the narrative's flow. While most fans hold the "Colors of the Wind" and "Just Around the Riverbend" songs, performed by the phenomenal vocal range of easily recognizable stage favorite Judy Kuhn, with the highest regards, the more interesting songs are "Listen With Your Heart," the spiritual centerpiece of the film (performed by Linda Hunt in all the gritty mystery you've come to expect from her voice in spoken roles), and "Savages," the dynamic war call with phenomenal lyrics that brings back fond memories of the cast ensemble layers of "Mob Song" in Beauty and the Beast and the ominous tone of "Hellfire" in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

All of the songs in Pocahontas are engaging and their performances are strong; there is no weak link in the talent here. Detractors of Mel Gibson, while certainly justified in blasting the irony of the man for his extreme bigotry, should be aware, too, that his singing performance of John Smith's character is excellent all around, from his triumphant interlude in "Mine, Mine, Mine" to a more impressive range in the originally rejected love song, "If I Never Knew You." David Ogden Stiers, the ultimate Disney regular who performed both Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast and the Archdeacon in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (among others), is convincing in the role of the evil Ratcliffe as well, his voice perfectly paired with Menken's European sensibilities in his sequences. The composer's score is very reflective of the song melodies, as usual, and is generally light-hearted and orchestrally pleasant despite heeding the darker tone of the film throughout. Because of the lack of gravity in their ensemble performances, his scores rarely capture the same emotional power as the songs, but in animated musicals, the underscore isn't as vital a component. Menken does remain extremely loyal to his song melodies in the score, adding continuity to the whole package. He also ends the film with his normal, large-scale choral finale. In the favor of this recording is a better depth to the ensemble and spread across the soundscape, perhaps a result of superior recording attributes compared to the composer's earlier efforts. The only disappointing aspect of Pocahontas, then and now, is that the film moves at an extremely fast pace, and thus the songs are unable to exist in the form of the long ballads that they could and probably should have been. An example of a fine song that was cut too short due to its brief scene was the vocal performance of "Steady as the Beating Drum" by Jim Cummings (as the chief). Some of this brevity in general may have been due to the presence of two other major songs that were removed, and yet the surviving entries were not lengthened. In 1995, Pocahontas may have disappointed fans who had become accustomed to the wildly dynamic songs of the previous films. And yet, when you examine Pocahontas in its place among all of the musicals, it stands the test of time much better than expected. It has held itself well through the years and is still an enjoyable experience above its more inconsistent peers to follow. In the film, it suffers from the problematic pace of the unfolding story, but on album it remains a worthy effort.

The Academy Award-winning song performance by Vanessa Williams is a decent pop rendition of the film's main song, however it could be argued that the melody of "Listen With Your Heart" would have made a better title song. At the time, the obnoxious and seemingly unrelated pop song "If I Never Knew You" was a useless, commercial addition to the end of the album. Eventually, however, it was revealed that this song was the pop variant of the eliminated love song; the original performance, as well as related melodic instrumental material, was reintegrated into the picture upon the film's expanded DVD release. As was done with all of Menken's Disney scores, a small amount of instrumental material was inserted into the presentation of the songs at the start of the original 1995 album product, but the mass of underscore could be heard in the latter half. When Disney released a complete presentation of Pocahontas as part of their "Legacy Collection" in 2015, the soundtrack finally soared with all its potential. It's a case in which the additional material in the proper film order really makes a tremendous difference in the listening experience. It's easy to argue that the expanded 2-CD version of Pocahontas is leagues ahead of the concurrent, similarly expanded release of Randy Newman's Toy Story for the collector. It's not only a matter of hearing several new impressive score cues and the totality of the songs in their natural arrangements; the expanded product also features a seemingly significant improvement in mastering, both in the score and the vocals. The only exception is the somewhat awkward vocal spread in the Gibson and Kuhn interactions in "If I Never Knew You." While the demo songs on other Menken products are typically throw-away entries for those not interested in hearing the composer sing away over a piano, these demos for Pocahontas are quite well rendered and in some cases feature Kuhn's voice. It's difficult to realize the full vocal attributes of the demos because their performances are oddly not credited anywhere on the product's packaging. Look for an alternate arrangement of "Savages" that features differing contributions from Kuhn. Overall, Pocahontas has aged well, better than many of Menken's other Disney works. Its balance of melodic grace and dramatic substance from the instrumentals is more consistent than arguably similar but more powerful singular moments in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. If you never knew Pocahontas upon its debut, the expanded 2-CD set is highly recommended and will improve your collection of Disney albums.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download