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I've just received the following titles : He-Man, The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Inspector Gadget, Ulysses 31 and Goldorak.
About the sound sources, no booklet explains anything about that. I guess they just ripped the original LP to CD as you can sometimes hear the cracks in the softer cues. A few times, I noticed that the very beginning of a given cue is poorly cut. It seems like they didn't pay attention very much to these kind of details...
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
There is 10 score cues on this CD (and the sound quality of these tracks is so so). Not so much score because of a (useless) complete 16 min long story (told in french). Track 1 contains the main title music without and with He-Man's narration (in french), track 13 is the main title without the "heeee-maaan" chants, while track 14 has the main title with the theme sung in spanish, replacing the trumpet.
The Mysterious Cities of Gold
A great soundtrack overall, great sound, great music ! 2 original songs only composed for the original record. The only flaw is the disparition of the track "Thème d'Esteban" from the original LP. Why ? We don't know... Almost perfect.
Inspector Gadget
The tracklisting is much shorter than originally announced here (only 12 tracks). Just like Cities of Gold, 2 original french songs made for the record. You can sometimes clearly hear some LP cracks, but the sound is okay. The music is awesome, great instrumental tracks, very good reprises of the Inspector Gadget theme, and a special nod to Cities of Gold in the track "Gadget chez les incas".
Ulysses 31
The soundtrack is divided in 2 parts :
-12 original songs (still in french except for the english version of the main title) inspired by the main themes of the score. Again you can sometimes slightly hear LP cracks
-12 score cues that really capture the feelings of the show. Electronic, orchestral, pop sounds, a very eclectic and hypnotic score. Strangely enough the score seems to be taken from a different source (original tapes ?).
As bonuses, you get instrumental versions of 3 of the songs.
Nice CD !
Goldorak
It's merely a songs album :
-4 french songs by israeli singer Noam (somewhat different from what the original Japanese composer Kikuchi had done) and including a much more recent dance remix
-2 original Kikuchi songs translated in french.
-From Levy, 3 songs and only 3 instrumental tracks, good tracks but nothing as epic as the original orchestral Kikuchi theme for Goldorak (track 8 ) which remains the best track of the album.
Finally, I would recommend in priority 2 albums out of the 5 I picked :
1) The Mysterious Cities of Gold : a good selection from one of the greatest 80's TV animation score.
2) Ulysses 31 : a good balance between songs and score selection, very representative of this 1981 show.
He-Man is not that bad after a second listen (sound quality of the score must be improved) but the 16 min story is fairly disappointing in preventing more of the score being included on the CD.
Goldorak is just a collection of the french songs. The international Goldorak fan will only like Kikuchi's theme and 3 Levy score tracks.
Inspector Gadget wasn't the one from which I expected the more, but it ended up being a good listen with enjoyable score tracks, even if far less than previously announced. Too bad.
Last edited by Anakin McFly on Wed May 23, 2012 12:53 am, edited 23 times in total.
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