A guest Listening Post by SamuraiFrog, revolving around Meco Monardo, the guy who disco-ized movie scores.
Meco – Star Wars Party – 2005 (Buy It)
I guess Meco’s just going to limp to a conclusion here. The proceedings are just so dulled down, so barely alive. Meco was 66 when he made this album, and he seems… tired.
Let’s go in order here: “I Am Your Father” is dull club trance which sounds completely outdated; if this were 1995, maybe. “Star Wars Party” just sucks awfully, to be honest; it’s inspired by the characters and has no real Star Wars theme except for a dumb chorus that name checks the characters.
“Star Wars Love Themes” isn’t as alive as it could have been, but it’s nice that it gets in some of the Anakin/Padme love theme from Attack of the Clones. I wish Meco had done something in his old medley style, but this is just so slow and uses this repetitive beat that sounds a hell of a lot like his snare drums from the old filler. It’s obviously inspired by Bolero. It just limps off. I notice some of the voice clips he’s using now are actually from the movie, but not all of them.
“New Star Wars” is just pointless masturbation to an endless repetition of the main title music.
“The Empire Strikes Back” is the same medley as twice before now; and it’s another remix. “You Are Reckless” is actually the second half of one track, which starts off kind of pretty, but it’s just a lot of repeat and that Yoda voiceover, only much, much more of it, and it still sounds terrible (although there is a little Frank Oz here and there). Then Meco brings back the end of the medley and we’ve got a new track that just kind of sucks.
“Jedi Knight” makes another appearance, though it’s been remixed and edited (it’s 90 seconds shorter) and I think the vocals are new. They sound clearer; they’re not so buried in the mix, but it reveals that Yamira is not much of a singer. It almost sounds like the kind of music Bowie was doing ten years earlier, but that’s a lot of praise it doesn’t really deserve. Either way, though, the music does sound better, but the addition of a male chorus is pretty stupid.
And then we have to sit through “Lapti Nek” again! Just let me die!
“Live Your Life” sounds like an unfinished demo, and is just inspired by Star Wars, I guess. Can just anyone get access to music software these days? Meco, did you just give up on ever doing anything good again?
The last track, “Boogie Wookie,” does not boogie. It sounds like another unfinished demo, though it does pick up occasionally.
This is just the most pointless album to own. There’s no purpose to it whatsoever, except for Meco to cash in on a hit he made 30 years ago. And I can respect that, but I can also wish he just hadn’t bothered.
Grade F
A Side: None
BlindSide: the new version of “Jedi Knight,” maybe, if fake club techno is your groove
DownSides: “I Am Your Father,” “Star Wars Party,” “New Star Wars,” “You Are Reckless,” “Lapti Nek,” “Live Your Life”
