© 2021 Lawrence Tuczynski
All info and scans courtesy of Sam Scali
| Title: | Akira Ifukube: Best of Godzilla |
| CD Label: | Universal Music Company |
| CD Number: | UPCY-6829 |
| Music by: | Akira Ifukube |
| Number of tracks: | 35 |
| Running time: | 75:02 |
| Number of discs: | 1 |
| Year of release/manufacture: | May 28th, 2014 |
| REVIEW |
March 15, 2021 (REVIEW by Sam Scali) 60th Anniversary collection of Godzilla themes in SHM CD format. Buyer beware! This budget compilation is riddled with errors and bizarre choices. These issues are not evident at first, but a closer listen will show that someone at Universal Music was asleep at the wheel when putting together this CD. The collection commemorates the 60th Anniversary of Toho's Godzilla franchise, specifically the music composed for the series by Akira Ifukube. So far, so good. Most of the selected themes rank with maestro's very best, but the CD's shortcomings lie in the way it presents this material. "Come on", you say. "Godzilla? Ifukube? What could possibly go wrong?" You'll see. The first track is an obvious but appropriate choice, as Ifukube not only composed the first GODZILLA film's iconic title theme, but also played a major part in developing the sound of the monster's roar and footsteps. Track 2 takes a brief detour from the monster's debut by inserting dialogue from the third entry, KING KONG VS. GODZILLA (1962), but this can be construed as acceptable creative license. More highlights from GODZILLA follow in plausible order before the disc revisits the KONG score, with its majestic "Main Title" and other familiar cues. Things start to get weird, however, with Track 10. Vaguely titled "Overture", the track starts out not with a Godzilla cue, but with the brief fanfare that kicks off the 1957 film, THE MYSTERIANS - a classic Ifukube theme, but completely out of place here. The track quickly reverts back to the KONG timeline, but rather than introducing a different cue it recycles the "Godzilla Revives" music from Track 7 - strangely, with far better audio fidelity (I'll talk more about the CD's sonic anomalies in a moment). After one more famous KONG cue and the immortal "Sacred Springs" from MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA, we encounter another oddity. Lucky Track 13 credits its source as 1964's MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA, but it is actually the "Maser March" theme from 1992's GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA. Granted, casual listeners would probably never pick up on something like this, but seasoned Ifukube fans might think they are hallucinating. The next three tracks return to 1964 as if nothing had happened, although the "Ending" from MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA is positioned before the same film's pre-climactic "Mothra Sets Off" - but let's just let that one go, shall we? Two essential themes from GHIDRAH, THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER are then dutifully presented, and these are followed by a brief sound effects interlude of military firepower and Godzilla roars (from who knows what film, but at least it sounds like the 1960s). Next we have two chronologically-appropriate tracks from MONSTER ZERO and a mix of two cues from 1968's DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, with the opening/title music of that film inexplicably lagging just behind. Suddenly, we find ourselves transported to 1993 with three monumental themes from GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA. Sure, they sound great - but aren't we getting ahead of ourselves just a little bit? Our magic rollercoaster once again backtracks, giving us a retroactive peek at 1975 with two cues from TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA before swinging back to the future with a pair of themes from GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH (1991). This is followed by three entries from the following year's GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA, including a carbon copy of Track 13's misplaced "Maser March" (the second instance of track duplication on this disc). The final music cue is, appropriately enough, the "Requiem" from 1995's GODZILLA VS. DESTOROYAH before the CD makes a hasty exit (don't let the door hit you on the way out) with some final vintage footsteps and Godzilla roars. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with presenting film cues out of sequence on a CD compilation - but at least do it consistently (instead of shuffling a couple of tracks around, hoping no one will notice). And there is no excuse for repeating cues, especially considering the wealth of available Ifukube material to choose from. Oh, wait - I was supposed to talk about the sound quality, right? Do I have to? Ok, fine. This disc happens to be an SHM-CD, which is purported to be made of superior materials that are said to enhance the quality of the playback. Whether the format is a gimmick or not, sonically speaking this disc is all over the place. While the selection of heroic themes cries out to be played loud (no crime there), the volume levels are noticeably imbalanced, compounded by the fact that the cues are mostly presented in stereo …but not all of them. And the stereo cues are mostly presented in artificially-derived (i.e., fake) stereo …but not all of them. And one track (Track 10) actually starts off in mono but ends in true stereo. Seriously. The result of this questionable approach is that some of the tracks have "bite", while others seem incongruously subdued - even some of the more recently-recorded Heisei-era cues - which, arguably, should be the "bite-iest" of all. And while we're talking inconsistency, why did the producers of this CD decide to go through the trouble of transforming most of the mono cues into fake stereo (an audio purist's nightmare), but leave a half-dozen of them untouched? Did they run out of time? ("Hurry up - we're going to miss the 60th Anniversary!") And going back to that pesky Track 10, how did THE MYSTERIANS theme sneak in before morphing into a KONG cue that was already used for Track 7, only to reappear three tracks later in jarringly resonant true stereo (overwrought bass frequencies and all)? Whatever the reasons may be, this ill-conceived release is a missed opportunity - one that I cannot possibly recommend to any serious fan of maestro Ifukube's (or monstro Godzilla's) music. |
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Akira Ifukube: Best of Godzilla (UPCY-6829)
* Mono ✝ True stereo (All other tracks are in simulated stereo) |