Friday, March 27, 2020

The Best of Godzilla 1984-1995 - Original Film Soundtracks 2xLP

Untitled

Crescendo (2019)

This double album is the companion piece to The Best of Godzilla 1954-1975 album that I wrote about a few weeks ago.  Like that album, this release covering the Heisei era of Godzilla music has been released on vinyl for the first time.  While I didn't get the colored vinyl version of either, it's pretty exciting to have both on vinyl.

The Heisei era of Godzilla films were an odd bunch in the pre-internet days of my high school years, they were the sort of thing I would only be able to keep track of by purchasing the newest issue of the G-Fan fanzine from the comic shop in Rockaway mall.  They were virtually impossible to see and none of the movies aside from The Return of Godzilla (Godzilla 1985) received a stateside home video release until years later.  Though I do remember that the first time Godzilla 1985 was shown on TV, it was something of a big deal, complete with Dr. Pepper commercials that vaguely tied into the movie.

Bootlegs where the main way of keeping up with everything and I cherished the copy I had of the 1993 version of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, which is still my favorite of this era of Godzilla movies.  While the composers varied from movie to movie, it's the soundtracks done by the maestro of Godzilla, Akira Ifukube that are my favorite.  I imagine that's due to a lot of the baked in nostalgia I have as he wove in many of the classic Showa series themes that I had been listening to for my entire life.

If you were only going to buy one compilation of Godzilla music, I would recommend the first volume that covers those Showa soundtracks, but if you are looking for the Heisei era music, this is as good a starting place as any.  I hope that more of the complete Godzilla soundtracks receive releases on vinyl.  Though my wallet hopes they are spaced out from each other.

Godzilla Main Theme (Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjsU-JlpvH0

Main Theme (The Return of Godzilla):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKQvWLK8Dvs

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