Track Listing

1. Don Davis - The Matrix Revolutions Main Title
2. Juno Reactor and Don Davis - The Trainman Cometh
3. Juno Reactor and Don Davis - Tetsujin
4. Pale 3 - In My Head
5. Don Davis - The Road To Sourceville
6. Don Davis - Men In Metal
7. Don Davis - Niobe's Run
8. Don Davis - Woman Can Drive
9. Don Davis - Moribund Mifune
10. Don Davis - Kidfried
11. Don Davis - Saw Bitch Workhorse
12. Don Davis - Trinity Definitely
13. Don Davis - Neodämmerung
14. Don Davis - Why, Mr. Anderson?
15. Don Davis - Spirit Of The Universe
16. Juno Reactor vs. Don Davis - Navras

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12420 in Music
• Released on: 2003-11-03
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Soundtrack

Customer Reviews

Perfection!
This score is absolutely astounding in every way. To say that it's musically complex is an understatement - it's often difficult and intricate to such a level that hasn't been seen much before or to such an extent - but unlike a lot of other complex and dissonant works, Revolutions is also so enjoyable and exciting thanks to it's ongoing energy and the sheer perfection of the music itself. Davis' tone for this movie and for the whole franchise has been spot on, which in itself is difficult to achieve, however, whereas the previous two scores incorporated a lot of techno riffs and beats, Revolutions thankfully allocates far more time to the orchestral elements, with only a few cues incorporating techno. I think this was wise; whereas in the first two movies, the techno element helped to contribute to that overall `cool' and `stylish' feel, by the time of the third movie, I feel the whole shiny black leather and cool shades image was quickly becoming cheesy and satirised and a back to basics, orchestral approach was far more appropriate.

Not that Davis delivered anything basic, far from it! As already mentioned the level of musical complexity is impressive and as it is, sounds unlike scores you may have heard before, a perfect and distinct sound for a distinct franchise. The tone here is generally dissonant and harsh with two predominant choirs in the music, strings and brass, with warm woodwinds pushed right into the background except for a few choice moments. This, along with the actual nature of the music, helps to create a sense of conflict between the two, which obviously suits the movie.

Despite its atonality, Revolutions is also often surprisingly melodic and unexpectedly produces some of the finest examples in film music of beautiful, uplifting and majestic moments. The love theme hinted at in Matrix Reloaded is given the full treatment here in Trinity Definitely and it is stunning - it's simple but achingly beautiful and effective and it's hard to imagine anything else fitting the scene so perfectly. Revolutions also gives the best rendition of the Main Titles so far with the now famous brass crescendo, wave effect perfectly complimented by the orchestration and leading into an exciting rhythm and chord progression. This alternating brass effect is such a neat and clever little motif and perfectly encapsulates the dreamy, warped sense of reality theme of the movie(s) - we're so used to the idea of a memorable melody or hook defining a franchise or representing the main themes and characters that I find it refreshing that such a simple technique can have exactly the same effect.

However, it is the action cues that impress the most and there are lots of them. It's very rare that you can say music is genuinely thrilling and exhilarating but from the exciting going to war cue Men in Metal right through to the score's epic highlight Neodammerung, the score never lets up in its energy, excitement and invention - the only other score I can think of that contains so many action cues but manages to keep them all fresh and exhilarating is Shearmur's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and it must be so difficult to achieve but Davis manages it here seemingly effortlessly. Niobe's Run is exciting and frightening and gives the sense of being chased; Moribund Mifune is great `race against time' music; Saw Bitch Workhorse is un-relentlessly dissonant building to an almighty crescendo and Neodammerung is operatic and very classical sounding, with the truly immense choir singing over a simple chord progression and layered with timpani, constantly swirling strings and high woodwinds and the rest of the orchestra playing at top volume - it's breathless, absolutely perfect for the movie's big showdown and gives way to some great moments of the brass motif. It all ends with the glorious Spirit of the Universe, a wonderfully pastoral and uplifting contrast to all that's preceded it and gives a wonderful sense of a new dawn in utopia.

It's surprising just how good this score is, every cue perfectly compliments and augments the scenes they are accompanying whilst still being so enjoyable to listen to away from the movie - Davis manages to maintain this superior level of writing at all times with hardly any dull moments (at least in the fully orchestral cues anyway). The Matrix Revolutions is certainly an important achievement in film scoring not to mention Davis' career and is one of the best examples of modern action scoring if not one of the best in the genre, it's thrilling and always impressive, a master class in counterpoint, orchestration and musical development and above all, a highly enjoyable listen. Perfection.

Perfect Soundtrack for a perfect end
This is without a doubt a brilliant soundtrack from the start, i mean thefirst time i heard 'naravas' it bought back fond memories of sitting in myseat in the cinema on the night of the premier of the final chapter in the'Matrix' trilogy which in my view is the best of the 3 but im not here totalk about the films which has so many mixed opinions. The soundtracks forthe 2nd and 3rd film have always paid tribute to the brilliant artistssuch as 'Rob Dougan' 'Don Davis' 'Juno Reactor' and when the last 2 cometogether it really creates something special like the 'Mona LisaOverdrive' track on the Reloaded album which all fans will know was thebackground track to the brilliant carchase. The 'Burly Brawl' track isbrilliant and another amazing colabaration of Juno Reactor and Don Davisand again makes you picture the CGI heavy fight between Neo and a 100Agent Smiths (man was that something special!!) but some of the tracks areones you wont really comeback to listen to and lack so much of the 'punch'that tracks like 'naravas' have and are very much quite dull e.g. 'womencant drive' which ive only listend to all of 2 times. But apart from the 3tracks like that this is a brilliant soundtrack and would recomend it toall lovers of music as it has such a mix of techno, opera and overallsounds very modern and cool and will never fail to make you picture thescenes as you are listening. Basically what im trying to say is buy thisalbum!!!

This Is The Benchmark
This is how a soundtrack should be composed. I had become incredibly tired of having to listen to "Music Inspired By" type soundtracks. Even soundscores never really seemed to timeline the ebb and flow of a film. This Cd avoids the Inspired By cliche, AND actually gives a good musical representation of the events on screen, in the order that they occur. From the dark, industrial beats of the Zion Battle music, to the heartbreaking, peaceful "Trinity Definately", through to the dramatic, desparate vocals on "Neodammerung", this soundtrack is just about perfect. Not everyone tends to go for this kind of music, but you cannot call yourself a Matrix fan without this CD in your collection.
Admit it - On a rainy day, you've found a long, dark, empty street, put on Neodammerung as loud as you can, in your friend's car, then spent ages running towards each other, fists clenched, and ready, to the sound of the music. No? Just me then..........