Film music compilations aren't really aimed at film music fans, but at members of the wider public who have a passing interest in the genre. They can, however, provide quite a lot of enjoyment to the more discerning listener when done well because sometimes there's nothing better than to just sit back and listen to a collection of great themes.

"The Fantasy Album" is a 2CD set from Silva Screen designed no doubt to cash in on the top-selling success of the albums from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and The Fellowship of the Ring - but unlike most companies' "cash-in" albums, Silva have included many themes whose commercial appeal is probably considerably lower, and which rarely crop up on compilations, and that is most welcome.

Particular favourites of mine on the first disc include most of the music in the Ray Harryhausen suite , including Miklós Rózsa's stunning The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (very rarely discussed) and an excellent suite from Basil Poledouris's Conan the Barbarian. On the other hand, the suite from The Fellowship of the Ring is pretty bland (for a score with so much variety one would have thought a slightly less repetitive suite could have been prepared) and The Witches of Eastwick, which loses the most important synth parts from John Williams's brilliant original, leaves something to be desired.

The second disc opens very well, with an excellent new arrangement of Gladiator which proves beyond anything else what I suspected all along: that it would have been far better if Hans Zimmer had ditched his synths and used a bigger orchestra and choir in the first place (for one thing, the score may not have cheapened the film so much). Michael Kamen's theme from Highlander is performed with gusto, though the suite from the first two Mad Max films is frankly embarrassingly poor, especially compared with Maurice Jarre's fantastic music from the third film in the following track. Groans will probably be heard all around the world at the inclusion of "Carmina Burana" and "The Raiders March", but I suppose they're somewhat inevitable. At least there's some more vintage Rózsa in between them.

Overall, a fine package of music in which the good points outweigh the bad. Performances are, as always, highly-variable, but there's nothing shockingly bad and plenty that's more-than-competent. I doubt the demographic the disc is aimed at will be reading this website, but still, if you're after a low-price collection of great themes from fantasy films, here you go.

Buy this CD by clicking here!