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Watching the movie right now, and ya know... this is a pretty good movie, relatively speaking. Obviously it's not an artistic triumph or a critical darling, but it's a low-budget creeper with some thoughts in its head. Given the genre, that it even attempts those two is commendable, but it makes a pretty effective film. Then again, I was raised on movies like this, so maybe I'm biased. 
And the music's great! I really, REALLY love the bass. Can't wait til I have the money to order this puppy.
When I first saw it, I was impressed/amazed by the emotional depth of the piece. There are some scenes of genuine sadness that were really effective and unexpected.
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Posted: |
Mar 8, 2012 - 11:57 AM
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By: |
Jim Doherty
(Member)
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Right off the bat, let me thank FSM for finally getting this Herrmann score out there. It's always nice to fill another gap in the ol' Herrmann collection. Nice booklet too.
On the other hand, here comes the big "however" section:
Musically, this is not top-drawer Herrmann. It’s a score which works very well within the film to increase suspense and add to the overall oppressive feeling of despair the story exudes, but, except for a handful of cues, it does not really make for compelling listening.
It really pains me to say this, but sonically, I would have to rank this as the worst-sounding FSM CD I own (and I have about half of them). I remember Lukas apologizing in the ON DANGEROUS GROUND booklet for the sound quality of that CD. Most of the problems there were brought about by acetate surface noise, but at least the music, on a giant percentage of the cuts, still had a nice, full range to it. To me, it’s an audio masterpiece next to IT’S ALIVE. I don’t know what shape those mono tapes from Warners were in, but I truly feel a better transfer job could have been done. First of all, some unfortunate time-delay-type of fake stereo processing has been applied which gives most of the cuts a hollow sound as if they were recorded through a cardboard tube. Plus, the EQ seems WAY off, like somebody cranked up the treble until the music sounds like it’s playing over a portable radio. It’s unpleasantly and annoyingly shrill. If this was really the best possible sound extractable from the tapes, that would be one thing, but by applying massive amounts of EQ correction to the CD, I was able to come up with a much more pleasing, smoother-sounding result (although it’s still far from perfect, at least it’s not assaulting your ears). It’s a shame the mastering engineer didn’t do that.
I must say that getting alternate versions of two cues was a happy surprise, but not having that one little missing 0:05 cue “How Lucky They Are”, however insignificant it may be, is just one of those niggly little “Aw!, it was ALMOST complete” details that leaves one a little itchy, especially when it’s been floating around amongst collectors for years.
Once again, when all is said and done, thank you FSM for putting this out, but, buyer beware.
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I'm sad that it isn't OBSESSION, but IT'S ALIVE was in my top-five Herrmann wants, so I will order it shortly. Good, but not great news, for me.
Obsession, the album version, was released on CD in 1994 by Unicorn Records. It also contained Herrrmann's suites "Welles Raises Kane' and "The Devil And Daniel Webster".
I too would like to see an expanded version.
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I tell you Herrmann's music to It's alive was so important and help made the film, but yes the wonderful score of God told me to by Frank Cordell would have been even more more wonderful, film and music is much underrated.
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Ah hell - if Doherty writes something like the above, then....
STILL, glad I have a copy on the way, will surely enjoy it
regardless. I hated It's Alive 2 on first listen, but grew to
like it, love it, then appreciate the subtleties - the band is
so close to what he used on TAXI DRIVER, I always likened
it to 'if Travis Bickle had kids, It's Alive would be there lullaby
nursery music'. Hey, whatever gets ya by.....
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I just opened and played it, and by God, it's way better than I remembered. That old Hypnotic Herrmann magic in many cues.
Grazi, Senor Lukas, grazi!
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