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    Psycho: Music From And Inspired By The Motion Picture
    Psycho: Music From And Inspired By The Motion Picture Cover Image
     Music by: Danny Elfman
     Media: CD  SPAR Code: ---
     Tracks: 14  Origin: USA

    1. Prelude [Film Score] - Danny Elfman
    2. Living Dead Girl - Rob Zombie
    3. Once Is Not Enough - Howie B
    4. Psycho - Teddy Thompson
    5. Screaming - Pet Shop Boys
    6. Psycho Future
    7. Honeymoon Suite - Thievery Corporation

    1. Murder [Film Score] - Danny Elfman
    2. Madhouse
    3. Psycho Killer
    4. All of My Life
    5. Fly
    6. In the End - Lionrock
    7. Finale [Film Score] - Danny Elfman
     
    One of the strangest remakes in a genre already verging on a sideshow of inbred congenital deformities, director Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot re-creation of Alfred Hitchcock's shocker Psycho begs the question: What if Kinko's ran Hollywood? Which probably isn't fair to Kinko's. Given Van Sant's virtual-film sensibility and typical record-label-niche-marketing obsessions (now, there's a psychological thriller), this album ends up being the project's most original facet by default, if only because it's a spawn of that dreaded new genre, "music from and inspired by the motion picture." "From" gets repped by three of master Bernard Herrmann's original Psycho cues, run through--make that over--by Danny Elfman at a tempo that only an antsy crankhead could appreciate. "Inspired by" is a decidedly mixed bag that runs the gamut from typical Rob Zombie hoodoo ("Living Dead Girl") to embarrassing alternative folk (James Hall's painful--and painfully obvious--cover of the Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer"). Even the occasional interesting track ("Madhouse" by Mono; Lamb's "Fly" ) often succumbs to the project's photocopier philosophy and ham-fisted thematics; four of the pop songs contain samples from Herrmann's score, including hapless Steve Earle being punctuated--if not punctured--by the piercing strains of the infamous shower scene. Where's Tom Bodett when you need him? Our advice for the next album that's a soundtrack to a remake of a classic film: check the toner. --Jerry McCulley (amazon.com)
     



    Psycho: The Complete Original Motion Picture Score
    Psycho: The Complete Original Motion Picture Score Cover Image
     Music by: Bernard Herrmann
     Media: CD  SPAR Code: ---
     Tracks: 40  Origin: USA

    1. Prelude
    2. City
    3. Marion
    4. Marion and Sam
    5. Temptation
    6. Flight
    7. Patrol Car
    8. Car Lot
    9. Package
    10. Rainstorm
    11. Hotel Room
    12. Window
    13. Parlor
    14. Madhouse
    15. Peephole
    16. Bathroom
    17. Murder
    18. Body
    19. Office
    20. Curtain

    1. Water
    2. Car
    3. Clean Up
    4. Swamp
    5. Search
    6. Shadow
    7. Phone Booth
    8. Porch
    9. Stairs
    10. Knife
    11. Search (B)
    12. First Floor
    13. Cabin 10
    14. Cabin 1
    15. Hill
    16. Bedroom
    17. Toys
    18. Cellar
    19. Discovery
    20. Finale
     
    Much has been made of composer Bernard Herrmann's choice to use only razor-sharp, slashing strings for his score to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. And heaven knows it works like a dream (or a nightmare), the music feeling as edgy and colorless as the noir-ish black-and-white photography. But as noticeably effective as the knife-screeching violins are in the famous shower scene (followed by those deadly blows from the basses and cellos), they work just as powerfully--though perhaps not as noticeably--all throughout the picture. Herrmann evokes dread and tension with just a few notes, or captures Janet Leigh's flighty panic in pizzicato as she hits the fateful road to the Bates Motel after impulsively stealing a large sum of money from her employer. --Jim Emerson (amazon.com)
     

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