Lukewarm Reviews For 'Enterprise' Soundtrack

The Enterprise soundtrack hit shelves only a few days ago, but many reviewers already felt it hit some rather tired notes.

"Enterprise was supposed to chart a new musical direction for the franchise but I don't think anyone ever decided what that was apart from the idea of having a pop-styled song at the beginning of every episode," wrote Jeff Bond at Cinescape. "There has been some freedom to apply synthesized percussion to the mix, as if that innovation (a staple of scoring in the 1980s which really isn’t all that prevalent now) would single-handedly draw in millions of new viewers… but other than that, all the same old elements like melody, heavy dissonance and rhythm are still taboo on the show, which makes all current Star Trek music sound distressingly similar."

Bond also wasn't particularly happy with theme song 'Faith of the Heart,' but he did note that composer Dennis McCarthy did the best he could. "That said, McCarthy has become adept at stealthily sneaking moments of musical interest into the series, and his score for the Enterprise pilot episode 'Broken Bow' is on a level with his better work for the series (including the feature film score for 'Star Trek: Generations' ). There’s a mellow, Americana theme for Archer and the Enterprise which unfortunately hasn't been pursued much in later episodic scores." More from Bond can be found in his full review.

The Enterprise soundtrack was released on Tuesday by Universal Music and Decca Records (and not, as we originally reported), by GNP Crescendo. The CD currently occupies place 85 on Amazon.com's Hot 100 sales chart, where the CD can also be ordered at a discount price.

The CD was also reviewed by Christian Clemmensen at FilmTracks.com, who also felt the music in some ways simply was more of the same. "On the whole, the music for Enterprise takes a few small steps forward, but also some giant leaps backwards for Trek-kind. For all the hype about going in a new direction with the music, the title song fails to set a popular and strong standard, and the orchestral underscores are still all too familiar to be considered new. Although franchise fans would have objected, the producers would have done better to avoid McCarthy and instead 'popify' the underscores while they were already doing the same to the opening titles. If Russell Watson is the new voice of Trek, then at least insert him - and verses of the song - into the underscore at regular intervals. As it stands, the music for Enterprise is one giant contradiction that has failed in what the producers set out to accomplish."

Clemmensen's full review, in which he awards the soundtrack 2 out of 5 stars, can be found by going to this page, where you will also be able to find four 30-second sound clips from the CD. If you would like to order the soundtrack CD online and support TrekToday in the process, please follow this link to Amazon.com.

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