Candyman.... Candyman.... Candyman...

OK, sorry to post two CD reviews in a row, but this is blowing me away.



I just got Philip Glass' The Music Of "Candyman" today, and it is absolutely gorgeous. I loved this soundtrack back when I saw this flick in a theater in 1992 (it is one of my favorite horror movies to this day- it was only recently released on DVD), and I remember looking for the soundtrack back in the day, only to find it had not been released. According to the liner notes of this CD, Glass hesitated to release it because A) it was only about half an hour of music, not enough to fill an album in his opinion, and B) the film was gorier than he expected. According to the liner notes, he seems to think someone other than Bernard Rose finished the film, but I've watched the DVD with the director commentary on and got no indication of that.

The original Candyman film is based on a Clive Barker novella, but there was also a Hollywood sequel... Glass didn't want to make any new music for the sequel, but he allowed his original score to be taken and re-worked, re-mixed, and re-used. The last six tracks of The Music Of "Candyman" are taken from the sequel, and they are really, really artfully done. They also served to convince Glass that he had enough music to fill a proper album.

Glass has apparently started his own label, Orange Mountain Music, and The Music Of "Candyman" was their first release. Since his fans had been clamoring for this music for over a decade, that was a pretty safe bet on his part, I think. :)