Blade Runner - O.S.T.

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Music reviews of Blade Runner - O.S.T.

Music Review: A bit of a disappointment...
Rating: 3 Stars

I bought the official CD in the hope that I will be able to finally listen to all of the original flawless score used in the film. I was disppointed. But then again I really didn't get my hopes up too much. What really annoys me about soundtracks and whoever is involved with it is that they NEVER include every single bit of music in the film. They only give you some of it. I have never understood this. Here, this CD gives you less than a third of all the music used in the film which is a big disappointment because I believe the CD would have sold just as well (if not better) if all the music were present. I really don't understand why they complain about bootleg CD's being made when if they realease all the music, Blade Runner bootlegs wouldn't exist. However, die-hard fans have to go to the extent of buying an illegal product with bad sound quality just to hear the rest of the unreleased music. (And even still there is some of the music still unreleased whether or not you have the bootleg.) That's why the OWM/Gongo bootleggers have made quite a bit of money.

It was good Vangelis did put some effort into this soundtrack CD but he put it in the wrong area. He didn't really need to re-compile them. All the original music from his master tapes would have been perfect. While "Memories of Green" is practically untouched, all the others have either been altered or truncated in some way or another. Dialogue has also been tagged on the start of a few songs which is an interesting idea but it would have been better if they were kept seperate from the songs.

But the CD does have some good points, of course. The music on the CD is still quite similar to the original, despite what I have said above. The sound quality is perfect. And the CD is extremely easy to get, no matter where in the world you are. The booklet has some really good art - the cover is a close-up of the poster used to promote the director's cut. The booklet contains a photo of Vangelis and an introduction from him. The rest contains brilliant photos from the film including the spinner approaching the police station, Roy Batty behind a chessboard and a shot of a spinner approaching the Tyrell Corp. Vangels also included the new songs "Blush Response", "Wait For Me", "Rachel's Song" and "Damask Rose" which I hear were intended to be used in the film but never made the final cut. These songs are pretty good.

It's extremely unlikely that Vangelis will ever release every scrap of music from Blade Runner to public now that he has made this soundtrack. More likely you'll find a bad quality extremely rare bootleg CD (I guarantee there will be a few more of them) that contains something slightly different from the official release. Needless to say, there will never be a Blade Runner soundtrack that will fully satisfy everyone by containing everything. You'd probably have to be a millionaire to personally get the original tapes, or a copy anyway.

Overall, a reasonable CD that a Blade Runner fan should definately buy. However, it only contains less than a third of the whole score which is regretted by many many people. So, if you want to hear the song at Taffey Lewis' bar (which is one of my all-time favorites), for example, you'll be soarly disappointed.

Description of Blade Runner - O.S.T.