www.darkshadows.co.uk | The Original Music from Dark Shadows


	Review: The Original Music from Dark Shadows 1998 Deluxe Edition · Composed by Robert Cobert · Review by Stuart Manning


	Main Pages Home News About the Show Episode Guide The Movies The Cast Articles & Features Multimedia FAQ Mailing List Magazine Products Message Board Store Links Awards & Webrings Sign Guestbook View Guestbook Tell a Friend Email

One of the most notable aspects of this re-release of The Original Music From Dark Shadows is its apt demonstration of how the Dark Shadows fan community has changed over the past three decades. To have released the music tracks unabridged would have been inconceivable back in 1969, though in choosing not to do so, the producers actually manage to create a far more faithful evocation of the show than any subsequent album.

Arranged into charming suites and backed with appropriately dour narration by Jonathan Frid, doubtless children in the 1960s feasted upon its range of mini episodes, each far more eloquent than the actual series itself. The closing "Our revels now are ended speech", taken from The Tempest succeeds in summing up the quaint little phenomenon of Dark Shadows perfectly, beautifully spoken by Frid.

Perhaps this release has gained something quite unique during the intervening years. Jonathan Frid's flawless reading of Christina Rossetti's classic verse probably evokes a Dark Shadows warmly preserved in a thick layer of nostalgia rather than the one that greets today's viewers.

The editing of the tracks, the artificial stereo and the narration will probably offend a number of purists, but for those willing to enjoy the album on its own merits, it provides an enticing journey into a world of tempestuous forces and overbearing darkness that the unforgiving weight of flawed videotape evidence has long since eroded.

Featuring an eclectic overview of Robert Cobert's haunting music, campy excesses intact, and enhanced by the bonus radio material in the form of rare 1968/9 interviews with the principle cast, The Original Music from Dark Shadows Deluxe Edition deserves a place on every fan's shelf.

Order this CD from Amazon.com

Back