• Comics
  • Games
  • TV
  • Movies
  • Music
  • Contests
  • More
    • New Media
    • Books
    • Fan Culture
    • Collectibles
    • Theatre
    • Community Guidelines
  • About

Soundtrack Review: Music From and Inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean Saga

June 7, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Liz Salandrea
Off

Soundtrack: Music From and Inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean Saga
Composers: Hans Zimmer, Klaus Badelt, George Bruns, Xavier Atencio, and Dominik Hauser
Label: BuySoundtrax Records
Release Date: May 17, 2011

Apropos to the release of the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, On Stranger Tides, comes this album of Pirates and Pirates-inspired music. The album is arranged and composed overall by Dominik Hauser and, on top of five original tracks by him, it includes themes from the first two Pirates movies by Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt and a song by George Bruns and Xavier Atencio from the Disneyland “Pirates of the Caribbean” attraction.

Dominik Hauser, the major composer on the album, is no rookie despite not having actually scored any of the Pirates movies. Among his score credits are The Chronicles of Riddick, Daredevil, and Pineapple Express, and he has also worked on theater, cinema, and video game projects. He is credited with arranging and performing all the pieces on the album, and composed five out of the eight. Track 1, “He’s a Pirate,” is the main theme from the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, which was scored by Klaus Badelt, while track 2, “Jack Sparrow,” is from the second movie, Dead Man’s Chest, scored by Hans Zimmer.

I LOVE “He’s a Pirate” — it’s definitely among my favorite movie themes! I played an arrangement of this with my string quartet a year ago and it was really fun. It’s such great adventure movie music, fast and exciting, and I love it. “Jack Sparrow” is great too, slightly dark and kind of dopey sounding at the same time, which is probably just what they wanted to convey with the scenes it accompanies. It’s really cool as the original version is played on the Dean Man’s Chest album. I’m not saying the version on this album isn’t good, but for me having a full orchestra play it vs. electronic is just way better. The third track, “Yo Ho, Yo Ho! A Pirate’s Life For Me,” written by George Bruns and Xavier Atencio, is from the Pirates Disneyland attraction and is a song I’m sure most folks recognize. I guess I never knew the Disneyland attraction was around long before the movies were made. I thought I recognized this from something besides the Pirates movies and it’s been around long enough that I’ve probably heard it elsewhere.

Now on to the last five tracks, which are original pieces composed & performed by Hauser. The first two, “A Pirate’s Jig” and “Drinking at the Tavern,” are short, fun, light-hearted pieces and you can picture general rowdiness and dancing to this music at a tavern. To me, they don’t sound too different from each other, however, which isn’t a bad thing, but they could probably be combined into one track without much trouble. The last three tracks — “Pirates on the Ocean,” “Pirates to the Gallows,” and “We are Pirates” — I didn’t enjoy quite as much but are not bad. They are pretty standard movie or video game tracks — solemn sounding brass melodies, marching drums, crashing symbols. “Pirates to the Gallows” is a little more solemn sounding than the triumphant air of “Pirates on the Ocean,” and “We are Pirates” is a marchy sounding piece I picture dopey pirates singing and dancing to in a Disney movie and reminds me of the “Jack Sparrow” theme from Dead Man’s Chest.

One thing I have to say about the five original compositions — I think I would’ve enjoyed them more if an orchestra had performed them, especially “A Pirate’s Jig” and “Drinking at the Tavern.” Those tunes are really fun & would sound great on a fiddle! Since Hauser composed and performed these pieces himself, obviously he isn’t a full orchestra so for what they are, it is fine. I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure all the tracks are electronic and there isn’t anything wrong with that, but I prefer real instruments. Overall, this was a fun album to listen to as I am a big fan of the Pirates music.

Track Listing:

  1. “Pirates of the Caribbean – He’s a Pirate” (1:43)
  2. “Pirates of the Caribbean – Jack Sparrow” (2:19)
  3. “Yo Ho, Yo Ho! A Pirate’s Life for Me” (2:33)
  4. “A Pirate’s Jig” (1:46)
  5. “Drinking at the Tavern” (1:13)
  6. “Pirates on the Ocean” (2:17)
  7. “Pirates to the Gallows” (2:14)
  8. “We are Pirates” (2:13)

Rating: 4 / 5 Stars

Hans Zimmer, pirates of the caribbean, Reviews, soundtracks

You might also like:

  • Soundtrack Review: Film Music of Hans Zimmer Vol. 2Soundtrack Review: Film Music of Hans Zimmer Vol. 2
  • Soundtrack Review: Megamind (Music From The Motion Picture)Soundtrack Review: Megamind (Music From The Motion Picture)
  • Soundtrack Review: Music From The Films of Johnny DeppSoundtrack Review: Music From The Films of Johnny Depp
  •  In Your Eyes (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Review In Your Eyes (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Review
  • Walk of Shame (More Music From The Motion Picture) Soundtrack ReviewWalk of Shame (More Music From The Motion Picture) Soundtrack Review
About the Author
Liz was introduced to geekdom by her dear ol' dad, who read her classic fantasy as a kid such as Tolkien, Le Guin and C.S. Lewis and cultivated her love of Star Wars and Star Trek. She became a ravenous reader at a very young age, and in high school, fell in love with the X-Files and Star Trek: TNG, learned HTML, began writing fanfiction, and started attending conventions. She ran an X-Files website for 2 years with news, photos, fanfiction and episode reviews, and is thinking about getting back into coding so she can get a new website up & running.

Some favorite TV shows/fandoms include The X-Files, Stargate, Star Wars, and Star Trek, among many. She plays the violin and listens to a variety of music from pop to classical to electronica, and will read just about anything but loves SF, some fantasy, Hemingway, and Patricia Cornwell. She really enjoys anything involving aliens, UFOs, space travel, space science, et al. Liz is a member of ScifiHero.net, a costuming & props community where she is the New England regional team leader, and attends most Boston-area conventions and Dragoncon regularly. She is currently trying to improve her sewing skills so she can start making really cool costumes instead of just Stargate uniforms (not that there’s anything wrong with Stargate uniforms!). She's also been known to play Magic: The Gathering and loves playing Super Mario and Pokemon games on her Dingoo A320.

Liz attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she received a bachelor's degree in geology; today she strikes fear into the hearts of restaurant owners and landlords as a health inspector. Other interests include yoga, photography, knitting, playing with makeup, traveling, hiking, camping, and learning to rock climb. She lives on the north shore of Massachusetts with her boyfriend and is planning on applying to graduate school in the near future to study environmental science. If you'd like to stalk her on twitter, please do so (@lizxphile); she can also be found on facebook (www.facebook.com/lizxphile).
  • Contest: Win The Alto Knights on Blu-ray and Digital!
  • Contest: Win Mickey 17 on 4K and Digital!
  • Contest: Win Three Clint Eastwood Classics on 4K and Digital!
  • Contest: Win Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League on 4K and Digital!
  • Contest: Win Companion on 4K and Digital!

Follow Us!

© 2008-2022 Fandomania | Privacy Policy