My Completely Biased Reviews of the soundtracks to the 1st 2 Crow movies

[Mississippienne]

I love buying movie soundtracks because, aside from 3 or 4 songs I know I’ll like, I get to sample music from bands I’ve never heard of. If their music appeals to me, I’ll probably go out and get their albums. Broaden my horizons and all that.

So yesterday my copies of the soundtracks for The Crow and The Crow: City of Angels arrived. Amazon is my friend. I’ve listened to both a few times now and am overall impressed. Now for my completely biased reviews. Agree? Disagree? Let me know.

Album Art: The first movie’s Rorsarchesque grey crow is far superior to the second movie’s skeletal crow.

The Crow:

1. The Cure’s “Burn” is probably the best song on this CD. But they’re gods anyway.
2. Machines of Loving Grace’s “Golgotha Tenement Blues” is new to me, and me likey. A perfect song from start to finish.
3. Stone Temple Pilot’s “Big Empty” is solid, aside from Weiland’s overblown vocals. Too slow to really be a favorite of mine.
4. Nine Inch Nails, “Dead Souls” is a great track, but then I’m a Reznor fan so I give him a pass on everything.
5. Rage Against the Machine’s “Darkness” starts off slow, but quickly kicks up. Masterful song with a beating, angry political message.
6. Violent Femmes’ “Color Me Once” is bleh. Boring and I don’t like the singer’s whiny voice.
7. Rollins Band’s “Ghostrider” is a bit more pared-down than most of the other songs. Good rollicking rock 'n roll.
8. Helmet’s “Milktoast”: eh. Whatever.
9. Pantera’s “The Badge”: NEXT, please.
10. For Love Not Lisa’s “Slip Side Melting” is another meh. Doesn’t help that the vocals are almost drowned out by the wall of sound.
11. My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult’s “After the Flesh” is an uptempo number, but forgettable.
12. The Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Snakedriver” has this strange, throwback 60s vibe to it.
13. Medicine’s “Time Baby III” is purely a skip so you can get to…
14. Jane Siberry’s “It Can’t Rain All the Time” starts off weak but I ended it loving it by the end of the song. Could use a little less sacchrine, but a sweet sad song to end the album on, a welcome respite from all the violence and wrath of most of the other tracks.

The Crow: City of Angels:

1. Hole’s “Gold Dust Woman”: I don’t like Courtney Love. I don’t like Hole. I don’t like this song.
2. White Zombie’s “I’m Your Boogieman” is excellent just in comparison to the first track.
3. Filter’s “Jurassitol” doesn’t do it for me, but something tells me this song needs to grow on me.
4. P.J. Harvey’s “Naked Cousin” is a great, taut track.
5. Bush’s “In a Lonely Place” convinces me a coma is more entertaining.
6. Tricky vs. tha Gravediggaz’s “Tonite is a special Nite” is another bore.
7. Seven Mary Three’s “Shelf Life” has an Adam Duritz sound-alike as the lead singer.
8. Linda Perry f/Grace Slick’s “Knock Me Out” is one I had to listen to a few times before I started enjoying it. Now I love it. Keeper.
9. Toadies’ “Paper Dress”: I’ve never heard of them before or since. Now I know why.
10. NY Loose’s “Spit” sounds exactly like about 15 other rock bands with female singers I’ve heard.
11. KoRn’s “Sean Olson” is my second favorite, after #12, but then I adore anything KoRn’s ever done.
12. Deftones’ “Teething” is probably my overall favorite from this album. I’m definitely checking them out now, so this song did it’s job.
13. Iggy Pop’s “I Wanna Be Your Dog”: I just don’t like it.
14. Pet’s “Lil Boots”: whoo! Who is this lady and why have I never heard of her? She’s got an impressive raspy voice and this song is killer.
15. Above the Law f/Frost’s “City of Angels” is a surprising good song, I love the crystal-clear rapping.

The first album starts off great and gets progressively worse. The second starts off weak, then ends strong. It’s hard to choose a favorite, since the Crow’s first 5 tracks are fabulous but City of Angel has a few rockers too. From all the songs on both albums, the Cure’s “Burn” is still the standout song.

[interface2x]

Wow, between this thread and the “I Love the 90’s part Deux: 1994” playing on tv behind me, I feel like I’m in high school again! Ironically enough, I just listened to Machines of Loving Grace’s “Golgotha Tenement Blues” for the first time in several years the other day and it’s still a very cool song. If you like that, search out the song “Butterfly Wings” and then stop searching, because the rest of their material wasn’t very good.

[Darwin_s_Finch]

@Mississippienne

The Crow:

1. The Cure’s “Burn” is probably the best song on this CD. But they’re gods anyway.

Agreed

4. Nine Inch Nails, “Dead Souls” is a great track, but then I’m a Reznor fan so I give him a pass on everything.

Perhaps sacrilege, but I prefer Trent’s version to Joy Division’s.

11. My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult’s “After the Flesh” is an uptempo number, but forgettable.

I disagree, for the simple reason that tracks 1, 4, 11 and 14 are the only tracks wherein I can actually recall how they sound. Everything else is forgettable (in the sense that they just never made a lasting impression on me).

14. Jane Siberry’s “It Can’t Rain All the Time” starts off weak but I ended it loving it by the end of the song. Could use a little less sacchrine, but a sweet sad song to end the album on, a welcome respite from all the violence and wrath of most of the other tracks.

Also agreed.

[Podkayne]

God, I hate “It Can’t Rain All the Time.” Maudlin and pretentious. It can be skipped, every time. The rest of the Crow soundtrack rocks, and really invokes the feel of the movie. I agree that “Golgotha Tenement” is a work of inspired genius. I downloaded some more Machines of Loving Grace from the iTunes store, but, sadly they seem to have hit their apex with “Golgotha.”

I haven’t ever listened to the City of Angels soundtrack, because I was too traumatized by how awful them movie was, but I listen to The Crow all the time.