City Of Angels: Music From The Motion Picture | Gabriel Yared

City Of Angels: Music From The Motion Picture | Gabriel Yared | The best ever

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City Of Angels: Mu...

	City Of Angels: Music From The Motion Picture Gabriel Yared Reprise / Wea, 1998 average customer review:based on 266 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Eclectic and heavenly

You've got everything here from Hendrix blues on "Redhouse" to Sarah McLachlan's "Angel." This is an inspiring soundtrack that keeps you listening and interesting. I'd actually rate this higher than the movie.

The best ever

Man this sound track is kicking. Its like one of the best I have ever heard. Like I dig that song "uninvited"by alanis morrisette.Man she has a different voice which make it cool like with like rock band. Really its a good sound track and the movie is good. I was crying in the end. Thats my favourite movie.

Review of music and movie

The music fits the movie perfectly. Meg Ryan and Nick Cage are both very convincing in their roles. The movie renews your belief in angels. It makes you sure that they are everywhere. For anyone who has loved someone completely or would like to be loved that way it is is the movie to own. I never get tired of watching it. Andre Braugher is excellent as is Dennis Franz. It makes you laugh, cry and gives you hope. If you don't like this film, you need a hug. If you do like this, try Phonomenon with John Travolta too. You'll love them both. My husband (who is not into "chick flicks") loves them too. They are not over-done or sappy or corny, just wonderful!!! Don't miss them!!!

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Mixed Styles - Blues, Pop, Progressive and Instrumental

Soundtracks traditionally mix styles of music and the end result may be unusual. This soundtrack has such a mixture from blues to the mellow style of Gabriel Yared and there is much of this music that is excellent, but the incongruity of styles can also yield some rather bizarre transitions from one song to the next.

U2 opens the CD with the mellow ballad "If God Will Send His Angels." This quality song has a pop beat with Bono's typically excellent vocals requiring this song to be played loudly to hear the words well. U2 is eclipsed by one of Alanis Morissette's best songs, "Uninvited." The stark contrast of her voice with the piano and percussion at the beginning of the song contrasts again with the power of her voice and the instruments as they rocket from the quiet take off into a high-power ascent. Few singers could have vocalized this song as does Alanis Morissette.

Jimi Hendrix is up next with the bluesy "Red House." For those who like Hendrix you will find this song to be representative of his style. For those who do not like Hendrix, you may want to pass this song by. The Paula Cole song "Feelin' Love" follows with another change of pace. The song has a blues flavor, though very different from the style of Hendrix or the following John Lee Hooker song, "Mama, You Got a Daughter." While all three songs have a basis in blues, the style and pace of all three are very different, as well as the music that supports them.

Sarah McLachlan's aerie and haunting vocals on "Angel" keep in tune with the theme of the movie. Sarah has a vocal style that is as unique in its own way as Alanis Morissette. The pace then picks up with "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls. This oft-played radio song was a huge hit for the Goo Goo Dolls and secured their commercial success. This song also has soaring vocals and powerful instrumental moments that provide the emotional power of this ear-pleasing song.

Peter Gabriel once provided the progressive drive for Genesis. His song "I Grieve" has unique moments of new age-flavored progressive rock. I can believe that this melancholy song will be played at wakes and memorial services for years to come. However, watch out for the change in tempo at five minutes into the song as the style changes as well. Peter Gabriel fans will appreciate this class and style of this song.

I was unfamiliar with Jude prior to listening to "I Know," but I am very impressed with this song. The style is mellow and poignant. The vocals echo within my soul and appeal to my ears and emotions, signs of a well-crafted song.

The last vocal on the CD is Eric Clapton's "Further on Up the Road," another blues-flavored selection. This seven minute selection retains a strong club-played blues style. It is the length of this selection that allows you to imagine you are in a jazz club listening to Clapton play. All you need to do is turn the lights down, turn the music up, and pour yourself a cold one.

The last four selections on the CD are instrumentals by Gabriel Yared that provide the background music in various places in the movie. Yared's music can be as melancholy as the theme of the movie and some of the other music on this CD, as in "An Angel Falls." Yared also provides music that is more introspective and upbeat in "The Unfeeling Kiss." Yared's music takes on a more ethereal and haunting in "Spreading Wings." The final selection, "City of Angels," has elements of the previous songs and can give you a feeling of ambiguity that matches well with the powerful end to the movie.

I usually avoid soundtracks because they sound too much like, oh, a soundtrack. However, while there are a couple of selections that I tend to pass over because I am not a fan of hard-core blues, there is a lot on this album that I find enjoyable and excellent. I was fortunate not to have seen and thus be influenced by the movie that inspired this movie, so I found this movie and the soundtrack to be artistic and awe-inspiring in places. The theme and the execution of the movie appeared to me to be the visual equivalent of progressive rock. Given the nature of the subject, the often soaring and bombastic vocals in instruments were a perfect fit; airy, ethereal and powerful music for a similar subject. I suspect that fans of pop music will skip over the more challenging music on this CD, and fans of blues will skip over the pop and instrumentals, if either purchase the album at all. However, this soundtrack is an excellent opportunity to sample and appreciate a very broad selection of quality music. I recommend this CD for those who enjoy good music regardless of the style.

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A Classic

Every once in a while, a truly amazing soundtrack comes along and shakes up the long-held notion that most soundtracks feature one good track followed by some tunes no one has ever heard of. In 1998, the film "City of Angels" was released and made great strides on the charts with two hit singles and an album full of tremendous songs.

There's a definite pattern to the tunes on this record. They are full of angst, passion, and longing. This is not a happy-go-lucky film, and the music reflects that. U2's pleading `If God Will Send His Angels' reflects the agony of human weakness, while Peter Gabriel's `I Grieve' is tragically heart-wrenching. Jude's `I Know' tries to persuade us to open up to others, and Gabriel Yared's score is both soaring and passionate.

Then there are, of course, the two songs that had us all glued to our radio stations. Alanis Morissette, following up on the success of her debut "Jagged Little Pill", proves on the melodic `Uninvited' that she can do more than scream insults backed by hard rock. The song is beautifully tragic, delicate yet powerful. Like all of her pieces, its lyrics are brutally honest, and its orchestral background makes this one seem more truthful than most of her material.

The other song that made its mark on radio stations everywhere was `Iris', performed by the previously unknown Goo Goo Dolls. An acoustic masterpiece in vein of something U2 would produce, the enigmatic tune is both heart-felt and depressing. There's a sense of longing here that lacks in most mainstream music, but comes across beautifully with its poetical lyrics and simple yet effective melody.

Six years after its initial release, "City of Angels" remains one of the greatest soundtracks of all time, in a league with "Top Gun" and "The Bodyguard". Why? It combines tremendous music with soulful voices. Both `Uninvited' and `Iris' are mainstays on most radio stations, and the other songs featured have stood up to the test of time as well.

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