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Stigmata: Music From The MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack

1 rating: 1.0

An album

Original score composed by Billy Corgan. The STIGMATA soundtrack is a collection of seven songs by contemporary pop stars and over 40 minutes of instrumental music written by pianist Mike Garson and Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan. Though Corgan … see full wiki

Tags: Music, Rock And Pop, Albums, Soundtracks, Movie Soundtracks, Billy Corgan

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Reflect (Review)

Sep 29, 2007

by ssjakira1
posted in Music Matters

Rating:

Pros: Not bad - track 1 and chilled tracks 8-18

Cons: Nowhere near what I had anticipated

The Bottom Line: Good? Yes and no. Depends on how much you like electronica.

When I first saw the movie, I thought it was cool. I also thought the music was pretty cool. So I got the soundtrack. Hmmm...not quite what I thought...

1.) Mary Mary (Stigmatic Mix) - Chumbawamba 4:19 Definitely the best song on this CD. With it’s fast, beating pace and considerable rockin’ tone, this is the one song I always turn on and allow the others to go a bit more unnoticed (as they tend to be by themselves).

2.) Gramarye - Remy Zero 5:12 Not a bad song, but semi-easy to forget about. It is kind of catchy, darker than the first track though I do like the inclusion of the piano. If I slapped this in my huge MP3 list, it would probably be placed in an area I tend to call “Gothika.”

3.) All Is Full Of Love - Bjork 4:47 Yes, Bjork. It’s a little feathery, kind of dream-like and in that way it’s not bad. I have no idea where this fell in the movie; a slower part, I’m sure. Try to forget that it’s Bjork in case knowing that makes you giggle. Otherwise it’s not bad at all.

4.) The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell - David Bowie 4:46 Not a fan of this song. In fact, this is my least favorite song on the CD. While the guitar riffs are pretty good, I’m not big on the rest. It just…growls too much. Sometimes it seems like it has elements of metal rock (the heavy stuff), but I that seems to be how they mixed it. Others may like it – I don’t.

5.) Release (Edit) - Afro Celt Sound System 4:14 This song is sung by Sinead O’Connor and it’s pretty good. I like all the drums and few other random instruments that pop up here and there (flutes and exotic string instruments). It’s a steady song with a brief Irish-like interlude which I enjoy.

6.) Inertia Creeps - Massive Attack 5:32 A repetitive song that can easily be glossed over. It has a bit of vibrating electronic sounds that remind me of Australian didgeridoos as well as other sounds that are more Indian in nature. Not bad, but easily skipped.

7.) Identify - Natalie Imbruglia 4:48 Not bad; a little druggy (slow and sort of “whoa dude”). Honestly, when she sings the word “Identify” in that slow way, I keep expecting to hear her say, “I’m getting stoned” or something. No, seriously.

The remaining songs are all extremely similar so they need no individual comments. They’re all electronically done with little sounds put together over basic melodies, maybe with a bit of piano thrown in here and there. They’re nice, but rather quiet, mellow, and easy to forget which track you’re on. Some are a little faster and, might I say, weirder, such as some of track 13 and track 16, but overall they’re basically the same.

8.) Identify (Dust)/1,000,000 Voices 3:16
9.) Pop Pop/Await/Reflect (Pretty) 3:17
10.) Reflect (Clouds)/Truth 3:04
11.) Of Square Waves/Random Thought 4:21
12.) Reflection/Possession 2:51
13.) Reflect (Gray)/Of Sine Waves 2:12
14.) Distrbnce (After Sckhausen)/Reflect (Pause)/Orah 4:31
15.) Sustain/Identify (Affectation) 3:55
16.) All Answers Revealed/Reflect (Devotion) 3:02
17.) Purge/10,000,000 Voices/Reflect (Purity)/Identify (Peace) 5:59
18.) Reflect (Time)/Tree Whispers 3:51

Billy Corgan, creator of 11 tracks out of the 18 on this CD doesn’t have much under his belt. At all. His name is associated with the awesome James Horner for the soundtrack of Ransom, but that’s it. Maybe he’s just not cut out for soundtrack material. I’m not even sure how he ended up doing this soundtrack.

Some soundtracks rock out on their own. Others rock out in the movie and then once they are separated from the rest of the action, sort of fall apart. This is the case with this soundtrack. Sure, you could split off tracks 8-18 and have them as background music – goodness knows they remind me of my Samurai Champloo soundtracks (but those songs have a lot more meat and power to them), but I don’t see any other reasons to use them other than that. Say you want mellow music while soaking in the bath or while you hang out in your room doing nothing important. That’s about it. Still, because of that, it means you may get some actual use out of this soundtrack (hence the tentative recommendation).

This CD was quite a disappointment, actually. It’s not bad, per say, but I haven’t seen the movie for a while, but I remember thinking “This music is cool.” Now hearing it on my own, I can come up with two conclusions: A.) they used different music in the movie and this is some kind of ruse or B.) the music is cool – but only when it’s with the movie. It’s not the first time I’ve encountered a soundtrack that’s movie-only. It’s kind bummy when I do though. There’s not much else to be said about it, really. As for the songs with lyrics and singers, a few of those would be worthy of keeping, but most of them are skip-worthy.

It’s not really important, but I have to say something. What’s with the track titles? The word “identify” shows up four times. Some version of the word “reflect” shows up eight times. Did Corgan run out of words? Did he need a thesaurus? They’re all flanked by words in parentheses so I guess that’s supposed to make them different but *shrug* I just thought it was weird.

So not bad, but not fantastic. Different, naturally, and may appeal to some more than others. If you like electronic style music, here’s a handful of mellowed stuff for you.

NT

Liked the soundtrack? Haven’t seen the movie yet? Then check it out.

Recommended:
Yes

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