Lonnie E. Holder 2006-12-29
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
When soundtrack music is taken out of its film context it often sounds awful. However, Elton John took music he wrote for the movie "The Road to El Dorado," added two instrumentals by Hans Zimmer and one by John Powell and created this CD. The down sides: some mixes are different from those used in the movie; instrumentals are under-represented. The up sides: several of the songs by Elton John that were not in the movie are very good; I liked some of these mixes better.
The first eleven tracks are songs sung by Elton John, with one a duet with Randy Newman. The first track, "El Dorado," is a nice song that is fortunately toned down from the movie version. I thought the film version was too powerful at its peak, which is great when you are in a theater with big speakers and trying to get people's adrenaline flowing, but with the overall tenor of this album a less powerful version is appropriate. My only complaint is the endless repeats of "El Dorado" at the end of the song.
The second song is one of the standout songs from this movie. "Someday Out of the Blue" is one in a series of love songs that Elton John has sung over the decades that always impress me with their power and quality. The hooks are catchy and Elton's voice is well-matched with Tim Rice's lyrics. The track "Without Question" is another wonderful love song. I particularly enjoy the synthesizer touches and the orchestration. These two songs, both of which were included in the movie, could readily be part of another "Love Songs" collection by Elton John.
I like the song "Friends Never Say Goodbye" a lot. The music is poignant and wistful. Elton puts a lot of emotion into this music that distinguishes this song. The backing vocals and refrain on this song are also very well done.
"The Trail We Blaze" is an average song until the backing vocals kick in, and then the song improves. There are six people listed as backing vocalists. Two of the six are Davey Johnstone and Nigel Olsson; these two gentlemen provided some of the marvelous backing vocals on the album "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and the backing vocals here remind me of that album. I much prefer these backing vocals to the backing vocals in the movie.
The song "16th Century Man" is the first song on this CD that did not appear in the movie. This song is the fastest song on this CD. The music is reasonably good. However, the lyrics are cartoonish and silly. This song seems a little out of place on this CD.
The next song was another song that did not appear in the movie. "The Panic in Me" is beautiful. I consider this mellow song one of the best on this CD. Fans of Elton John will want this CD just for this song. The instrument arrangement on this song is outstanding. This song easily could have been nominated for a Grammy Award of some kind.
The song "It's Tough to Be a God" is a different version from that which appeared in the movie. In the case of this song, I did prefer the movie version. I enjoy Randy Newman's duet, but I enjoyed the movie version more. Both versions are enjoyable and an even better option would have been to have both. There is room on the CD to have included both versions.
The remaining three songs on this CD, "Trust Me," "My Heart Dances," and "Queen of Cities," did not appear in the movie. All three songs are excellent additions to this CD. "Trust Me" is a faster song with excellent string backing and interesting synthesizer effects. This song is very well done and yet another reason to have this CD. "My Heart Dances" is a lovely song that is less inspired than "Trust Me" and "The Panic in Me," but is still enjoyable. The nylon string guitar in this song is standout and puts an interesting twist on this song. "Queen of Cities" suffers from being the last song in a string of very good songs. The lyrics are weak and the music is ordinary. This song is my least favorite on this CD. I think I would have preferred this song as an instrumental.
The album finishes with three instrumental tracks. "Cheldorado" and "The Brig" were composed by Hans Zimmer. "Wonders of the New World" was composed by John Powell. "Cheldorado" is a lovely instrumental featuring an acoustic guitar that follows a Spanish theme. There are places where the orchestra repeats the theme too often. The best part of the instrumental is in the last minute, where the theme changes and provides an enjoyable tempo contrast. This instrumental and the following instrumental have Spanish elements in keeping with the theme of the movie. "The Brig" relies heavily on a well played acoustic guitar. My only objection is that the guitar seems somewhat muffled as though the higher frequencies were chopped. I still like the instrumental but wonder why it was mixed the way it was. As with the previous instrumental, the closing minute of the track has an enjoyable change in tempo and theme that makes the song interesting to hear to the very end.
The final instrumental seems to owe some inspiration to Ravel. The pace of the music is faster than the previous instrumentals. This song relies on amplitude to make its point, and fortunately the power supports the nicely craft music.
This album is much more than a soundtrack. It contains well-craft Elton John music (though some was written in collaboration) supporting Tim Rice lyrics. Several of the songs are excellent songs even by Elton John's historically high standards. This album is a must-have for Elton John fans, and exceeds even "The Big Picture" in terms of quality.
Enjoy!
