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General Category => Forum Games => Topic started by: Igor on March 01, 2012, 03:40:23 pm

Title: Rocky Horror Soundtrack review
Post by: Igor on March 01, 2012, 03:40:23 pm
I don't think this turned out as well as I had hoped, but here it is. I know you've been antici...

I recently got it into my head to do a review of some of the songs from the Rocky Horror Show. Originally I had planned to do a normal review of the songs from the movie, but searching online I found a website hosting several mp3s from various performances of the stage show over the years. I got to listening and decided to review the one that had the clearest audio quality and was in English, which turned out to be the 1997/98 South African cast album. The link to the mp3s is here (http://www.rockymusic.org/mp3scat/rhs-southafrica/) if you want to listen for yourself. I will only review the songs that appear here, not any songs that aren't included, for obvious reasons. Please note as well whenever I judge "acting quality" I can only go on their delivery of their lines.

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Science Fiction/Double Feature
I'm going to be honest, this is one of my favourite songs, I judge every version of Rocky Horror that I've ever heard by this song. So let's see how it holds up.

It has a very strong beginning and the singer's voice is listenable, which is always nice. There isn't much to criticize about it, they do a pretty good job. This is also probably the least silly of the songs in the album. On the whole it left a good impression on me and made me want to hear more.

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Damn It, Janet
This second song introduces our main characters, newlyweds Brad (asshole) and Janet (slut). It's a fairly standard love song with some very bored sounding background vocals.

My impression: I love this song, the sheer amount of emotion the actors playing Brad and Janet put into this song gives the impression that they really do care about each other (d'aww) and the song itself comes off as very sweet. The monotone background vocals do bring it down a tad, but I'm fairly sure it's intentional, so no lost points there. The actors both have decent singing voices, though their spoken line delivery could be better. On the whole, it's still a pretty strong start. Damn this song for making me take Rocky Horror seriously though.

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Over At The Frankenstein Place
Basically Brad and Janet's car breaks down and they see a light on at a weird old house, there's not much to this song.

"There's a light in the darkness of everybody's life." This makes me d'aww for some reason, I guess it's just the delivery of the line. Brad and Janet are adorable at the beginning of this. For such a weird and sexual movie and play the beginning is really cute, and it needs to stop it! I'm supposed to be criticizing it! I don't know though, this is just one of those songs. Also my favourite part of this version doesn't seem to be in all the other versions:

"I can see the flag fly
I can see the rain
Just the same,
there has got to be,
something better here for you and me.
"

I don't know if it was added in for this particular production or if it was in the original and just left out most of the time. Still, stop being adorable, Brad! Dammit!

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The Time Warp
This is the most overrated song in Rocky Horror. Please don't kill me. I was joking, I swear. No... get away with that pitchfork... argh!

Okay, let's start again, I love the time warp, I really do, but it's not the best song here. Also as you'll see and hear if you clicked the link at the beginning, this version really doesn't do the song justice.

Let's start with the singer. Ye gods, SHUT UP! I'm sorry, but I don't like the way this version is sung. This is a decent song, I just wish I could stand the singer's voice, especially the blacksmith part, it makes me want to rip my ear off, which is not good considering this is supposed to be the best song that RH has to offer. And other versions ARE good. This version of the song doesn't deserve to be called the Time Warp. In fact I'm not going to call it the Time Warp, from now on this recording is called the Shitfest. Suffice it to say I was not impressed. Don't kill me.

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Sweet Transvestite
Enter Doctor Frankenfurter. That is all.

Now we're back on track! so once again it starts out with some very hammily delivered lines, which is always fun. I especially like how Janet says the line "This isn't the junior chamber of commerce, Brad :-(", you can almost hear that emoticon in her voice as she says it. Once the actual song starts we meet Frank, and he is AWESOME! This is one of the times where i wish I could see what's happening as opposed to just hearing it, because I'm sure it would have been something to see. If I had to pick something about this performance to complain about I would have to say that the actor playing Frank is trying a little too hard to be Tim Curry. He should be trying to play Frank, not play Tim Curry playing Frank. Only Tim Curry can do that. Also his delivery of the end of the famous "Antici........pation" line is a little bit stupid, in my opinion. Overall his performance is good, and his singing voice is good. This song helps regain some of the points it lost with the Time Warp.

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Sword of Damocles
The awakening of Rocky Horror, Rocky wangsts for a while in the most fun sounding song ever sang by someone having a crisis.

This song starts out with a little bit of dialogue, really playing up the bad sci-fi movie angle of it. Also IT'S ALL RIGHT JANET!

The song itself is pretty good, I just think Rocky sounds a little too happy for the lyrics he's singing. "I'm at the start of a pretty big downer" is one of the most upbeat downers I've ever heard of. Again one of my favourite parts of this song appears to have been added. While other versions have Frank saying things like "Oh really?", this version has the narrator cutting in to reassure Rocky that everything's going to be fine, which is weird, but they pull it off. The song gets extra points for silliness. And for background vocals.

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Hot Patootie
Eddie sings about how awesome rock 'n' roll is. It's very '50s. I like it. Not much else to say about it.

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Touch-a Touch-a Touch-a Touch me
"Tell us about it, Janet"

...Ye gods, those two creep me the hell out. This song is.. interesting. It's.. shall we say controversial? Basically Janet's lost her '50s girl innocence, and she will never be the same again. I actually like this song, but that aspect of it is really disturbing, the way she went from being a virgin to.. well, listen to the song. Yeah, that.

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Once In A While
Gods, where to begin? Okay, I don't remember this song very well, so I can't judge it against any other versions, but at about 2:00 it gets really weird. It just completely shifts to a different style of music that I don't even know how to describe.It turns into like a lounge version. Give it a listen, it's crazy.

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Eddie's Teddy
Chances are you've heard this one before. This version is decent, they really play up Dr. Scott's German...ness before it's supposed to be revealed, and there's an extremely hammy VROOM VROOM after the motorbike line. I don't know if i like it or not. That's about all there is to say about it, except that I have no idea what "rock and roll porn" is. (there was no pause, so no comma).

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I'm Going Home
No you're not.

This is one of the sad songs, I know Frank is kind of a horrible and abusive character but I can't help but feel sorry for him. Maybe it's the way it's sung, but it's like my earlier comment about Dammit Janet, they really put some emotion into it, which I didn't expect from this for some reason. Especially given the hamminess of it all. Add this to the songs I like.

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Superheroes
I don't know what to think about this one. I'll let the lyrics speak for themselves:

I've done a lot, God knows I've tried
To find the truth, I've even lied
But all I know is down inside I'm bleeding.

And Super Heroes come to feast
To taste the flesh not yet deceased
And all I know is still the beast is feeding.

And crawling on the planet's face
Some insects called the human race
Lost in time, lost in space
And meaning.


I'm not sure what exactly that's about, but I had a weird idea for a short story based on it. This one confuses me, I don't know if i like it or not.

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Rocky Horror Euro Mega Mix
What.
What.
What?

Okay, this seems to be a medley of Time Warp and Sweet Transvestite, as such I half hate it and half love it. The beat is nice, but the vocals for at least half of it annoy the hell out of me. Just... listen to this and decide for yourself.

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...pating this.
Title: Re: Rocky Horror Soundtrack review
Post by: Jebediah on March 26, 2012, 07:20:42 pm
I absolutely love Science Fiction/Double Feature. It's my favorite on the album.