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A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Orchestral scores for video games about World War II seems a strange little niche in which to specialise, but that's what Michael Giacchino does.  Having written several impressive scores for the Medal of Honour series, he decided to leave that behind and move instead to LucasArts' Secret Weapons Over Normandy.  I must admit that I find the very idea of a video game based on the second world war to be entirely distasteful, but still, if they're going to be there then they may just as well have music as good as Giacchino's.

He is able to capture the spirit of John Williams's war movie scores and conjure up the excitement needed for such an endeavour as this one.  It's an interesting challenge for a composer, because he needs to score the same "scene" in various ways depending on how the player actually gets on during it.  It's quite relentless music, with brass pounding out all over the place, but fortunately the orchestration is very interesting, florid and intricate, much like Williams's own.  This relentless nature is, though, arguably the album's main weakness - big action music is constantly being thrown at the listener and it can become a little overbearing.  There are exceptions - parts of "Zauara" or "The Rescue of Pauline", for instance - but these rarely last for very long, and every track contains at least some powerful action music.  "Stalingrad" and "East Prussian Factory Run" are particularly good tracks, with great use of choir.

This is a fine album which showcases music that is certainly better than much of the music that was heard in feature films over 2003.  Giacchino surely has a bright future ahead of him, though I would use the slight caveat that - wonderfully well-composed and well-orchestrated though this music is - I don't think I've spotted any particular style of Giacchino's own, so far.  This album even comes with a bonus disc which has a few brief tracks and some multimedia content, including an interview with Giacchino himself.  Highly recommended.

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Tracks

1. Main Theme (4:56)
2. Dunkirk Harbour (3:20)
3. Battle of Britain (4:18)
4. Operation Sea Lion (3:53)
5. Zauara (4:12)
6. The Siamese Coast (4:25)
7. The Rescue of Pauline (4:16)
8. Midway (6:05)
9. Copenhagen (3:33)
10. Stalingrad (4:07)
11. East Prussian Factory Run (3:34)
12. Fjords of Norway (4:34)
13. Stealing the Me262 (5:05)
14. Peenemunde (4:43)
15. Harz Mountains (3:07)
16. The Normandy Coast (4:39)