Haden, Petra / Petra Goes To The Movies
| Album: | Petra Goes To The Movies | Collection: | General | |
| Artist: | Haden, Petra | Added: | Jul 2013 | |
| Label: | Anti- | |||
A-File Activity
| Add Date: | 2013-07-07 | Pull Date: | 2013-09-08 |
|---|
| Week Ending: | Sep 8 | Sep 1 | Aug 25 | Aug 18 | Jul 28 | Jul 21 | Jul 14 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airplays: | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
Recent Airplay
| 1. | Aug 24, 2019: | Buford J. Sharkley Presents: As Told to Hervey Okkles
The Social Network (Hand Covers Bruise) |
4. | Jan 07, 2014: | Meow After Midnight: The Best Of 2013
Psycho (Main Title) |
|
| 2. | Jun 05, 2015: | Mix Tape: Dosed
Psycho (Main Title) |
5. | Sep 25, 2013: | Meow After Midnight: The Best Of Summer 2013
Psycho (Main Title) |
|
| 3. | Jan 08, 2015: | Meow: The Best Of The Decade So Far (2010-2014).
Psycho (Main Title) |
6. | Sep 13, 2013: | Buford J. Sharkley Presents: As Told to Hervey Okkles
Cool Hand Luke (Main Title) |
Album Review
Wallace Brontoon
Reviewed 2013-07-07
Reviewed 2013-07-07
All-voice recreations of classic movie themes. Really neat.
Petra Haden is kinda a weirdo. (Check out the interior art if you need proof...) She was part of That Dog, supplied violins for all sorts of bands (including being part of the Decemberists)
But more importantly, she's into weirdo a capella recreations. She recreated The Who Sell Out entirely by voice, and here she does a couple of the most famous movie themes of all time. (And also some pretty not-famous themes.) Everything is a voice, it's goofy and schlocky but really fun and pretty beautiful. (It's unique, not that awful glee club sound.)
No FCCs. It's pretty great, with the exception of three tracks (9,14,16) that depart from the formula and are actually just song covers. SKIP THOSE SUCKERS. Play the rest. Some (like the Psycho cover) are jaw-droppingly great.
1 (2:50) *** Rebel without a Cause. (Rosenman) Sounds like an orchestra of Mickey Mouse impersonations, floating into glossy romantic swoon.
2 (2:00) ** Taxi Driver (Herrmann) Impersonations of steamy NY streets, clattering passing subways (good impression)... modern, somewhat atonal, sparse. (Not the saxophone melody, just the sound of loneliness, getting into a perhaps too strident closing chord.)
3 (2:07) *** Cool Hand Luke (Schifrin) Guitar arpeggios translated into vox. Sweet, sparse sounding. Slowly builds and swells with more voices. into fading close.
4 (3:00) ** Cinema Paradiso (Morricone) Sweet strings into many voices, all gliding past each other. As syrupy as the film, for better or worse.
5 (1:51) **** Fistful of Dollars (Morricone) OH YES. Mariachi guitar impersonations, over marching percussive vox. Drives and swells in the perfect Morricone way. Perfect suspense.
6 (2:02) ***** Psycho (Herrmann) God, it's weird to hear these piercing, stabbing strings done by voice. "HUH HUH HUH!!!" It's exactly what you expect, in the perfect way. "HUH HUH HUH!!!"
7 (2:10) * Goldfinger (Barry) Big brassy sound... she actually sings the Shirley Bassy song. The backing vocals are great, but she can't compare to Bassy, so it's kinda pointless.
8 (3:00) *** 8 1/2 (Rota) Circus bouncy faux-Sabre Dance. Weird flourishes "waaaaa!" She NAILS it.
9 (5:15) Tootsie (Grusin) God, the score to Tootsie is the worst thing about it. And she doesn't even do the pure-voice thing. (Guitar+vox) DO NOT PLAY THIS TRACK.
10 (1:21) ** Superman (Williams) Fanfare-esque, humming into bugle into bugles... swells.
11 (3:54) ** Superman (Williams) The famous Superman theme, all regal majesty, but now on goofy voice impersonations of the brass. A little overlong, and thinner than other tracks...
12 (2:50) * My Bodyguard (Grusin) My Bodyguard? Who remembers/knows this movie? Generic tasteful pipey strings, etc, but with voice transition.
13 (1:23) ** Big Night (DiMichele) Dripping notes, sombre mid-tempo serious drama-music. Likeable enough. But seriously, I don't think Big Night is anywhere near the classics she started this album with.
14 (4:47) Bagdad Cafe (Telson) Deeper into '80s obscurities. Gloppy schlocky sound, and there's a piano. OH, ANOTHER ACTUAL SONG. SKIP. SKIP THIS. DO NOT PLAY.
15 (4:20) *** The Social Network (Reznor) The buzzing sound in back can't be voice, can it? Ominous timbre with simple note sequence... into heavy low bassy ominous cloud. Nicely faked, a great recreation of a great ominous score.
16 (4:59) The Falcon and the Snowman (Bowie + Metheny) Another pure song cover. This is a lot better than the other two, but there's still no point.
-Hervey Okkles
Petra Haden is kinda a weirdo. (Check out the interior art if you need proof...) She was part of That Dog, supplied violins for all sorts of bands (including being part of the Decemberists)
But more importantly, she's into weirdo a capella recreations. She recreated The Who Sell Out entirely by voice, and here she does a couple of the most famous movie themes of all time. (And also some pretty not-famous themes.) Everything is a voice, it's goofy and schlocky but really fun and pretty beautiful. (It's unique, not that awful glee club sound.)
No FCCs. It's pretty great, with the exception of three tracks (9,14,16) that depart from the formula and are actually just song covers. SKIP THOSE SUCKERS. Play the rest. Some (like the Psycho cover) are jaw-droppingly great.
1 (2:50) *** Rebel without a Cause. (Rosenman) Sounds like an orchestra of Mickey Mouse impersonations, floating into glossy romantic swoon.
2 (2:00) ** Taxi Driver (Herrmann) Impersonations of steamy NY streets, clattering passing subways (good impression)... modern, somewhat atonal, sparse. (Not the saxophone melody, just the sound of loneliness, getting into a perhaps too strident closing chord.)
3 (2:07) *** Cool Hand Luke (Schifrin) Guitar arpeggios translated into vox. Sweet, sparse sounding. Slowly builds and swells with more voices. into fading close.
4 (3:00) ** Cinema Paradiso (Morricone) Sweet strings into many voices, all gliding past each other. As syrupy as the film, for better or worse.
5 (1:51) **** Fistful of Dollars (Morricone) OH YES. Mariachi guitar impersonations, over marching percussive vox. Drives and swells in the perfect Morricone way. Perfect suspense.
6 (2:02) ***** Psycho (Herrmann) God, it's weird to hear these piercing, stabbing strings done by voice. "HUH HUH HUH!!!" It's exactly what you expect, in the perfect way. "HUH HUH HUH!!!"
7 (2:10) * Goldfinger (Barry) Big brassy sound... she actually sings the Shirley Bassy song. The backing vocals are great, but she can't compare to Bassy, so it's kinda pointless.
8 (3:00) *** 8 1/2 (Rota) Circus bouncy faux-Sabre Dance. Weird flourishes "waaaaa!" She NAILS it.
9 (5:15) Tootsie (Grusin) God, the score to Tootsie is the worst thing about it. And she doesn't even do the pure-voice thing. (Guitar+vox) DO NOT PLAY THIS TRACK.
10 (1:21) ** Superman (Williams) Fanfare-esque, humming into bugle into bugles... swells.
11 (3:54) ** Superman (Williams) The famous Superman theme, all regal majesty, but now on goofy voice impersonations of the brass. A little overlong, and thinner than other tracks...
12 (2:50) * My Bodyguard (Grusin) My Bodyguard? Who remembers/knows this movie? Generic tasteful pipey strings, etc, but with voice transition.
13 (1:23) ** Big Night (DiMichele) Dripping notes, sombre mid-tempo serious drama-music. Likeable enough. But seriously, I don't think Big Night is anywhere near the classics she started this album with.
14 (4:47) Bagdad Cafe (Telson) Deeper into '80s obscurities. Gloppy schlocky sound, and there's a piano. OH, ANOTHER ACTUAL SONG. SKIP. SKIP THIS. DO NOT PLAY.
15 (4:20) *** The Social Network (Reznor) The buzzing sound in back can't be voice, can it? Ominous timbre with simple note sequence... into heavy low bassy ominous cloud. Nicely faked, a great recreation of a great ominous score.
16 (4:59) The Falcon and the Snowman (Bowie + Metheny) Another pure song cover. This is a lot better than the other two, but there's still no point.
-Hervey Okkles
Track Listing