Bubba Ho-Tep
Brian Tyler
" Cool but repetitive sound for Elvis works "Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the limited release
Bubba Ho-Tep is a 2002 American comedy horror film starring Bruce Campbell as Elvis Presley — now a resident in a nursing home. It tells us that the King grew tired of the attention of his fans, replacing himself with a lookalike that eventually died, while the real Elvis lived on quietly after that. Of course coming from the makers of Army of Darkness, it had to enlighten the tale with the fact there was an ancient mummy living in the nursing home that Elvis was staying in. Creating in the end a typical Bruce Campbell film for the ages.
For composer Brian Tyler, Bubba Ho-Tep was composed in the year 2002, one year before his big breakthrough. And yet today's Brian Tyler is heard occasionally throughout this score. Mostly when Tyler delivers us his main theme on soft guitar ("Bubba's Lament" and "The Mask of Kemosabe" to name a few), bringing back memories of recent stuff like Battle LA (the quieter stuff of course). And yet Bubba Ho-Tep doesn't change a lot too. In fact, this album suffers from the same problem of not inventing itself after a while. It's all finely written, but this music has about 15 minutes of originality and copies itself after that a bit too frequently. We have the soft main theme version, the cool main theme version with extra choir, a rocking attitude that occasionally returns, an action moment here and there that adds a little bit of oomph and even a nostalgic moment when we actually hear the Batman series theme in "PBBS".
A departure from all this is the ethnic chanting and the horrific chaos during "The Mummy's Eye" and the brief Mexican like coolness during "The Sebastian Haff Show". The main theme with choir sounds a little differently without the beat in "All is Well", especially once we hear the theme on piano for the first time after that.
Meaning Bubba Ho-Tep might play it cool and fresh from time to time, it's also not that innovating anymore after a while. In fact the end credits suite that throws the most reoccurring moments together is actually the only track you'll need to fully appreciate Bubba Ho-Tep. Brian Tyler fans will of course disagree with me here and tell me Brian Tyler should be applauded for playing every single instrument here himself. Okay, that may be true, but that doesn't change the fact it listens a bit the same after a while. So I'm pretty sure 5 to 10 minutes is all you need to convince yourself that Brian Tyler usually creates something cool, but that he continuously forgets to add that icing on the cake. So Bubba Ho-Tep is a damn cool soundtrack for what is definitely a cool as hell motion picture, but on CD it tends to repeat itself too frequently.
Track Listing
1. Prologue (0.55)
2. Bubba (0.51)
3. The King (2.09)
4. Let's Go, Man (1.49)
5. The King's Highway (2.09)
6. A-C-T-I-O-N (2.30)
7. Bubba's Lament (1.42)
8. The Ancient Curse (1.45)
9. Ghost of the Scarab (1.01)
10. Trailer Park (2.01)
11. One Bad Bo-Tep (1.29)
12. The Mask of Kemosabe (2.05)
13. The Shady Rest (0.53)
14. PBBS (2.01)
15. Baby (0.44)
16. The Hero's Hallway (1.36)
17. Elder Hole (2.07)
18. Flashback Baby (1.38)
19. Body Bag of Fun (1.18)
20. Regret (0.53)
21. The Mummy's Eye (1.58)
22. Smokin' Nurse (1.48)
23. The Decision (0.57)
24. Death of a President (1.04)
25. The Sebastian Haff Show (1.11)
26. Haff Rising (1.12)
27. Investigation (1.24)
28. Thank You Very Much (0.41)
29. All is Well (2.15)
30. Bubba Ho-Tep End Title Themes (5.40) Excellent track
Total Length: 49.46
For composer Brian Tyler, Bubba Ho-Tep was composed in the year 2002, one year before his big breakthrough. And yet today's Brian Tyler is heard occasionally throughout this score. Mostly when Tyler delivers us his main theme on soft guitar ("Bubba's Lament" and "The Mask of Kemosabe" to name a few), bringing back memories of recent stuff like Battle LA (the quieter stuff of course). And yet Bubba Ho-Tep doesn't change a lot too. In fact, this album suffers from the same problem of not inventing itself after a while. It's all finely written, but this music has about 15 minutes of originality and copies itself after that a bit too frequently. We have the soft main theme version, the cool main theme version with extra choir, a rocking attitude that occasionally returns, an action moment here and there that adds a little bit of oomph and even a nostalgic moment when we actually hear the Batman series theme in "PBBS".
A departure from all this is the ethnic chanting and the horrific chaos during "The Mummy's Eye" and the brief Mexican like coolness during "The Sebastian Haff Show". The main theme with choir sounds a little differently without the beat in "All is Well", especially once we hear the theme on piano for the first time after that.
Meaning Bubba Ho-Tep might play it cool and fresh from time to time, it's also not that innovating anymore after a while. In fact the end credits suite that throws the most reoccurring moments together is actually the only track you'll need to fully appreciate Bubba Ho-Tep. Brian Tyler fans will of course disagree with me here and tell me Brian Tyler should be applauded for playing every single instrument here himself. Okay, that may be true, but that doesn't change the fact it listens a bit the same after a while. So I'm pretty sure 5 to 10 minutes is all you need to convince yourself that Brian Tyler usually creates something cool, but that he continuously forgets to add that icing on the cake. So Bubba Ho-Tep is a damn cool soundtrack for what is definitely a cool as hell motion picture, but on CD it tends to repeat itself too frequently.
Track Listing
1. Prologue (0.55)
2. Bubba (0.51)
3. The King (2.09)
4. Let's Go, Man (1.49)
5. The King's Highway (2.09)
6. A-C-T-I-O-N (2.30)
7. Bubba's Lament (1.42)
8. The Ancient Curse (1.45)
9. Ghost of the Scarab (1.01)
10. Trailer Park (2.01)
11. One Bad Bo-Tep (1.29)
12. The Mask of Kemosabe (2.05)
13. The Shady Rest (0.53)
14. PBBS (2.01)
15. Baby (0.44)
16. The Hero's Hallway (1.36)
17. Elder Hole (2.07)
18. Flashback Baby (1.38)
19. Body Bag of Fun (1.18)
20. Regret (0.53)
21. The Mummy's Eye (1.58)
22. Smokin' Nurse (1.48)
23. The Decision (0.57)
24. Death of a President (1.04)
25. The Sebastian Haff Show (1.11)
26. Haff Rising (1.12)
27. Investigation (1.24)
28. Thank You Very Much (0.41)
29. All is Well (2.15)
30. Bubba Ho-Tep End Title Themes (5.40) Excellent track
Total Length: 49.46