Thief

You get some, you lose some.

After buying the import cd over a decade ago, I thought I'd never get the final song "Confrontation". Since it's not Tangerine Dream I guess it didn't deserve to be on an album with their name on the cover. I then found out it was on the vinyl release from the olde days. After unearthing a copy and digitizing it to add to my custom CD, I now had the true soundtrack. The quality wasn't the best coming from 20+ year vinyl, but beggars can't be choosers.

I now see that this new release has the infamous track on it, but loses the other great track "Beach Scene". There are three tracks that define this film, "Beach Scene" and "Confrontation" are two of them. Omitting one is creating an incomplete soundtrack.

My suggestion is to buy this release and track down the previous one with the green border. It's the only way to have a complete soundtrack, with a little work in itunes. October 17, 2007

Driving Synthesizers

Tangerine Dream is a German group that specializes in electronic music. This sound track is structurally conventional as an extended tone poem with a very much modernized "orchestration" of synthesizers and percussion. Insofar as the source movie was a "caper", the tone is dark and the rhythms drive forward. April 9, 2007

To Add and to Drop - WHY?

For those who were fortunate enough to aquire one of the first two releases of the THIEF soundtrack (like myself) congratulations - you have the version of the CD that contains the best song on the soundtrack, Beach SCENE. It has been dropped for this US release.

For those who were interested in obtaining the Thief soundtrack being mainly interested in the one song, Beach SCENE (most of the other songs can be found on other Tangerine Dream albums), please realise the following differences between Beach THEME and the now dropped, Beach SCENE.

The song, Beach THEME is a much shorter track (almost by half) and there is a very cheesy, acoustic, "rock n' roll", drum beat that was mixed/dubbed over the original Beach SCENE song which has the much more mellow and less invasive electronic, sequenced drum beat in it. It's Beach SCENE that was both heard in the movie and over the airwaves back in 1981. If that is the song you remember (fell in love with) and are looking for, do NOT buy this latest release. Keep looking for those Out Of Print CDs - they are out there.

On a lighter "note", it's very nice to see they added the ending/end-credits song, CONFRONTATION.

This is a lose/win scenario for THIEF soundtrack fans - it all depends on which song is more important to you. If you already have the earlier releases with Beach SCENE on it then buying this latest version will now complete a defninitve soundtrack for them as that last song in the movie has now finally been added to the official soundtrack. June 25, 2006

Beach Scene+Beach Theme = a lack of Confrontation?

Other reviewers have mentioned the lack of the longer Beach Scene on this release, being replaced by the shorter, more of a "single edit" Beach Theme. I found my copy of this CD has Beach Theme at Track 1 (3:44 run time), Beach Scene at Track 5 (where the insert says Scrap Yard should be)(6:50 run time), but no Confrontation anywhere. The last track on my CD is listed as Confrontation, but knowing the film as well as I do, this music starts in the night scene where Frank (Caan), along with his associate Joseph send Chicago's not-so-finest on a wild goose chase to Des Moines, then the scene immediately cuts to the vault heist in LA, also at night. The aftermath of the vault heist has at least another 10-12 minutes of film to go before the final credits roll.

I don't know what has caused this reissue to have what appears to be multiple versions, or for the music to differ from the track listing. As another reviewer pointed out, there's plenty of space on the CD for both the longer Beach Scene and Confrontation. Maybe somebody didn't listen to the tracks that carefully. I give it three stars for what's actually on the CD, and penalize two stars for what's supposed to be there but isn't. May 6, 2006

dun da da dun dun dun dun da da dun dun dun da DA DAA!

Those relentless sequence patterns, like only TD could handle them, make a full-on appearance here.

This is the newer, US release of the soundtrack to the 1981 Michael Mann film. This time, we actually do get the Craig Safan-composed 'Confrontation', the long, Floyd-esque track that played over the end sequence of the film, you know, where Michael Mann uses excessive slow motion, blood splattering, and bodies flying to bring the story home.

I think the star track here is Diamond Diary, a 10-minute piece that plays in the opening sequence of the film as Frank pulls a diamond heist. It builds and builds with that sequencer working overtime, and the drilling synths and whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiizzz sounds and whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrr sounds all over, with some big, fat guitar chords thrown in. Then it comes down, settles with some keyboard overtures, and then it cranks up relentlessly again, with some thumping thrown in to match the on-screen suspense. It's a masterful track, perfectly edited into the film, as is most of the score.

For some reason, the track Beach Scene is not included here, but it is included on the original UK release. Since it's a Tangerine Dream track, it's not like they had licensing issues like with Confrontation, which wasn't available on the UK release but is here. Beach Scene is the longer version of Beach Theme, a more fully-realized track. Perhaps they thought it was just 'bonus' so they chucked it? Perfect example of 'soundtrack madness' and the endless quest for the music you like from a particular film.

Some of the music here isn't heard in the film, or is heard briefly, but Diamond Diary, Beach Theme, Dr Destructo, and some of Burning Bar are all memorable from certain scenes. No weak tracks really, though note that some of Igeneous appeared on Force Majeure, two years before.

Some of this is reminiscent of Sorcerer, the excellent album to the William Friedkin film. Fans of that will enjoy Thief. The disc is indeed short, and it's not presented as a real soundtrack album, actually. The order of tracks appear random, or in a more album-listening sequence, rather than presenting a score from beginning to ending as most soundtracks do. Note other frustrated Amazon reviews, but music-wise it's a good disc. April 5, 2005

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