Damon Albarn - Ravenous: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Michael Nyman teaming up with Blur's Damon Albarn? Yes it's true, and--as odd as it sounds--the collaboration works. With its eerie mix of symphonic orchestrations and clunky ragtime, Ravenous delivers Gold Rush-era instrumentation with all the eeriness of Deliverance. Stephen Foster's "Welcome to Fort Spencer" is transformed into an off-kilter (and off-key) romp by Foster's Social Orchestra. "Colquhoun's Story" is a meditative squeezebox ditty that sounds downright otherworldly once a meditative flute kicks in. It's not all banjos and jew's harps, however: The Michael Nyman Orchestra does its best imitation of Copland's Appalachian Spring with "Trek to the Cave." The movie may have gotten mixed reviews, but this score is definitely worth hearing. --Jason Verlinde Amazon.com

Wish You Were Along for the Ride?

What can I say, the album really helped make this fantastic movie for me. I purchased the album maybe eight years after the film was released, and it still sends chills and excitement through my body when I listen to it. Great film and Soundtrack, Highly recommended!
Enjoy! October 30, 2008

5 Stars for Ravenous

Without a doubt, Ravenous is the most deliciously ingenious and bizarre and maybe even original score I've ever heard, and I've heard many many of them. What Nyman and Alburn have done here is essentially do for movie scores what Tarantino did for films - take all the essential rules and fundamental guidelines, throw them out, and then do the exact opposite.
How else could you explain this album? Plucking banjos, furious strings, bizarre whiny horns, and even accordians? And yet....they make it work so well! This is truly both a haunting and terrifying score. It's one that lingers in your mind, love it or hate it. Strange, how it distracts you from the film on purpose, and completely deserves to. And that's probably the best compliment I can give this score - it's one of a kind, and will always be unforgettable.
You'll notice I haven't actually described the album or specific music on the tracks in any substantial way. That's because it's impossible to describe. It has to be experienced to believe. If you like experimental music or are a fan of film scores, run and pick this up right away. Wether you do indeed love it or despise it, you will be looking at it with a shudder on your CD shelf for many years to come.
cheers
KZ January 31, 2006

Atmosphere for Both Eating in and Dining Out!!

Many scores/soundtracks don't seem to cover all the basics that a movie requires. They oftentimes seem to go for the marketing tool that works "after the fact" feel, hoping to sell more albums instead of help out the movie. This hurts quite a few films, too, because it allows certain table settings to slip through the cracks. Too often there is opting that instead takes faces that an audience knows, giving them that flavor of the moment instead of letting the levity and the sounds of situations shine through. Ravenous was an exception to that rule, however, making something that captured the bizarre blends of horror depicted in the moment.

When I first saw the movie, I was actually moved by the score and I thought that it accented many of the moods all too well. The frantic situations, the ones that were almost funny but that shouldn't be, and the horror was something I thought was fantastic. Atmospherically the films was a work of art, and I found later on that it wasn't simply the pictures that were making the film. It was instead the brooding sounds circulated through the scenes, making moments like the one captured in "run" applaudably funny instead of horrific, that made me like it so much. So I went out and bought this work by Nyman and Albarn and I've had it in my listening lineup ever since.

Even if you really aren't a fan of scores, you might want to give this work a go. I'm not normally one to pick up tracks of this nature, normally staying away from soundtracks of any sort altogether, but this is a versatile piece with real potential. It works as interesting background sound, making walking through the park or eating lunch with your discman on an interesting experience. That and the conversation highlights it can spawn make with friends makes it well worth looking into. November 21, 2003

hypnotic

In a webzine interview Michael Nyman explained that while the score is attributed to "Damon Albarn & Michael Nyman", none of the individual pieces were actual collaborations. Albarn wrote about 60% entirely by himself, then Nyman came and wrote the rest.

That said, there are no "dodgy" tracks on this soundtrack. They're all excellent, and very unique. My favourites - Colquhoun's Story, Let's Go Kill That Bastard and the end titles - have complex layered melodies and strong rhythm. Keep in mind though that this was for a movie about cannibalism. Some tracks are particularly tension filled, but even the whimsical band pieces, like the flavoursomely off-key "Welcome to Fort Spencer", have a distinctly sinister tone.

And can I say that it's fun trying to guess who wrote which track. October 18, 2003

Music for Hearty Appetites...

How good is this score? As three or four reviewers have already mentioned, I'm sitting here listening to it even as I type. You couldn't get a more odd combination than avant-garde composer Michael Nyman and former BLUR frontman Damon Albarn if you tried, but considering the schizoid nature of the movie it was composed for, it TOTALLY works.

The photos in the liner notes make me wonder how somebody didn't have the presence of mind to immortalize this collaboration on video...a documentary about the making of this soundtrack would've probably been as oddly engaging as the movie itself.

But let's just stick with the album: music hasn't been this "visual" since John Williams score for JAWS, or Bernard Herrmann's classic work on PSYCHO. Hearing it out of context would probably a VERY strange experience, so if you can stomach the gore, I would recommend viewing the film first. As a stand-alone work it may seem like a very odd duck, but even then I think it will grow on more adventurous listeners. It is without a doubt one of the two most overlooked scores of the decade, (the other being Carter Burwell's THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER.)

"Hail Columbia" is a great way to start the disk as in the movie, with a queasy discordance underscoring the tune in a way that perfectly complements the scene it was written for (Boyd's "promotion"), as does all the superb work here. "Boyd's Journey" describes the entire movie in less than five minutes, with a strangely grand theme that can only be described as "tragically heroic."

Definite highlights: "Colquhon's Story"; from "Trek to the Cave" up to "Ives Return" which I have come to consider a kind of "RAVENOUS Suite," where it's a song cycle that won't make sense unless you hear every song in between in one sitting; "Manifest Destiny," and of course, "Saveoursoulissa," one of the most chilling "death struggle" themes to appear in recent years, mostly because of the subtle way it plays on your spine, understating the final confrontation between Boyd and Ives.

But what are you listening to me for? Buy this for your collection NOW! April 14, 2003

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