Carstairs Considers....: Music Review: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Music Review: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything - Soundtrack

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Funny songs from the movie and a beautiful score

Cons: None

The Bottom Line:

Songs for everyone

Silly and instrumental

Just like Veggies do

Don't Pirate This Soundtrack

I don't tend to buy movie soundtracks, but there are exceptions to every rule. The VeggieTales songs are always so fun, getting the soundtrack for The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything was an easy decision. And it's lots of fun.

The disc can be divided almost in half. The first half features music with lyrics; the second half focuses on the movie's score.

Unlike the first VeggieTales movie, the cartoon characters only get a couple songs here. They do kick things off with "Spanish Gold." I'm not used to hearing them with a full orchestra, and it sounds impressive. Of course, it's still cartoon character voices and they are singing about Spanish gold with such lines as "Our shirts are loose/Our pants are tight!" Frankly, I think that adds to the fun.

Speaking of fun, there's "Jolly Joe's." During the movie, this is a pirate's hangout the character's visit, and all the patrons are singing this silly song when they arrive. It almost sounds like a square dance, and the heavy fiddle doesn't help. Of course, the lyrics are just plan silly with talks about smacking people with rusty blades while grabbing your root beer or ginger ale.

Then there's "Rock Monster." The first time I heard it, I thought it was a direct spoof of "Monster Mash," but the credits say it was adapted from "Rock Lobster." Either way, it's got that same sound to it with heavy organ and the minor key with a fast beat. The song is fun, but once you see the movie it becomes even more fun as it describes one of the scenes.

The rest of the songs in this section are done by Christian recording artists. I'm not too big a fan of tobyMac, but his hip hop song "What We Gonna Do?" is actually kinda fun. I also enjoy Mandisa's "The Right Thing." But my favorite song from this grouping is "Yo Ho Hero" sung by Newsboys and Steve Taylor. It's got a nice rock beat and sound that is absolutely catchy. Lyrically, it chronicles the change in one of the characters from lazy to actual hero material, and it's got some fun lines to go with that. "Where d'ya put the toys?/Time to take a nap." "We've got the Funk without the Parliament." No, it's not anything too deep, but I love it.

The Pirates who don't do anything characters originated in a silly song back in the 1990s. Naturally, we get two versions of that classic song here as well. We get the classic silly song version as sung by the Pirates themselves, Larry the Cucumber, Pa Grape, and Mr. Lunt. This version features accordion, keyboard, and guitar and the classic cartoon character voices. Also included is the Relient K version of the song that they recorded back in 2002 for the first VeggieTales movie, Jonah. This version is a much more upbeat punk version. Will I lose my Veggie fan status if I admit I like this version a little better? It's just as silly, but I think I find adults singing it seriously even funnier. Which means the last version where they slow things down and sing it so seriously absolutely kills me.

At this point, we move to the instrumental tracks. Each track features a few lines of dialog, usually at the beginning, but most of the time is devoted to pure instrumentals. And when you consider that these tracks were all written by Kurt Heinecke who has done most of the music for the series all along, you have to marvel at his talent. I mean, we've got tracks that would fit with some of the best scores around. Okay, so it's not at a John Williams level, but it is certainly in keeping with the sweeping nature of the movie. Just listening to it brings up images of ships at sea and battles. The score was performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Granted, they aren't a "go to" orchestra for scores, but they do a great job capturing all the drama of the music that brought the story to life.

The track "I Give You Three Heroes" features more talking then the other score tracks. It features most of the dialog spoken by the king character as he praises the work the heroes did to save the day. As a result, it includes the moral of the film.

"Spanish Gold Reprise/Celebration" does feature a bit of the first song again, but it is mostly instrumental.

The regular portion of the CD closes with a bonus track. "Second Chances" was originally part of the Jonah movie. It features gospel trio (at the time) Anointed singing about God's forgiveness. It's classic gospel music, and the bouncy beat and fun lyrics will get stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

But wait. There's more! This is an enhanced CD, and putting it in your computer will bring up three music videos. There's the classic original version of "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" as well as the quick "Do the Moo Shoo." Both of these are fairly old and I'd bet most Veggie fans have them on one DVD or another. The true bonus here is the video they did for "Rock Monster." This song is so much better with the visuals, so if you like the CD versions, be sure to look for the full thing here.

All told, this is a fun soundtrack that will make fans of the Veggies very happy.

CD Length: 47:19

Tracks:

1. Opening title/Spanish Gold

2. Jolly Joe's

3. Yo Ho Hero (newsboys with Steve Taylor)

4. Rock Monster

5. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything (Relient K)

6. What We Gonna Do? (tobyMac)

7. The Right Thing (Mandisa)

8. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything (Silly Song)

9. The Sea Medley