Wakeman, Rick: Crimes Of Passion OST (reissue)

The accompanying music to director Ken Russell's film Crimes Of Passion was released in 1984, a mostly instrumental soundtrack composed by Rick Wakeman, of Yes fame. Well, I say composed, but it's often pointed out that most of the music presented here is a rock version of Dvorak's New World Symphony; even a review quoted on the keyboard master's website boldly claiming as much. Re-released earlier in the year in a limited edition box-set featuring DVDs and amongst other things, reproduced press releases and prints, RRAW records have now made a straight version of the album available once more, featuring the bonus track "Dangerous Woman", which was first added on a1993 reissue. With interesting, if short, liner notes from Rick himself in a booklet that contains nothing other than stills from the film, if you already have this album, then there's little here to draw you back for more.

That too can also be said for the music on this soundtrack, Rick darting from the rocked up keyboard led fare he specialised in during the 80s, to a much more focused band attack; the latter aspect heavily featuring the saxophone of Bimbo Acock to get its message across. With the aforementioned bonus cut and also the album opener, "It's A Lovely Life", featuring the gritty, forceful tones of Maggie Bell on vocals, neither sound particularly relevant to the rest of the album, Rick's bombastic, broad tones brought into focus on the remaining nine tracks. However, even here there's a disconnect as the prolific composer attempts to keep up with a movie that he himself describes on his website as "a bit of naughtiness". The sax led pieces are often slinky and lithe in a misguided attempt to be sexy, however with the strongly keyboard influenced sections sitting in a much more twee location, even the thematically linked pieces can often feel like they belong on different albums. That said, many of the melodic structures prove surprisingly memorable, working their way to the front of your mind long after the album his stopped spinning, although often in a way that makes you wonder, 'why am I humming that?'. In fact Rick himself, again from this album's page on his website, not only says it best, but also contradicts his rather gushing liner notes, when he offers that Crimes Of Passion is "A very messy soundtrack… Certainly there is some good playing and one or two really classy tracks, but once again, like all soundtracks it suffers from cohesion in order to satisfy all the parties concerned with the film." In short, I couldn't agree more.

Track Listing
1. It's A Lovely Life
2. Eastern Shadows
3. Joanna
4. The Stretch
5. Policeman's Ball
6. Stax
7. Taken In Hand
8. Paradise Lost
9. The Box
10. Web Of Love
Bonus track
11. Dangerous Woman

Added: October 6th 2017
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Crimes Of Passion at Gonzo Multimedia
Hits: 1885
Language: english

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