Music Review: Pirates of The Caribbean: At World's End

Do you like soundtracks and instrumental music which portrays strong emotion? Then the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is the CD for you. This CD has 13 songs including ‘Hoist the Colours’, ‘What shall we die for’ and ‘Parlay’. About half of these songs are the generic Pirates of the Caribbean style that you would expect. But the other half have new twists and emotions about them. For example ‘Hoist the Colours’ and ‘What shall we die for’ are the only two songs out of all of the three Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack songs that include singing. They both feature the song ‘Hoist the Colours’ which is sung by the pirates in the movie. This adds a new and unique element to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks. Another unique song is the Asian sounding ‘Singapore’. This song adds a whole new face to At World’s End by characterizing a place through the music. For indeed this song brings vivid images of rickety buildings and bridges built over misty waterways filled with yelling, fighting Asian pirates. Another song helps to add something new to this soundtrack; ‘Parlay’. This song betrays intense emotion as it mixes in a common ‘wild west’ standoff song. This helps this soundtrack song to really do its job, which is to complete and complement the scene it matches with. The composer, Hanz Zimmer (nicknamed “Long John”), did a wonderful job on the mood and tone of this CD. He sets the tone as generally quiet yet strong and determined. The mood of the music is very obvious and strong. It has an overall sad undertone, but not as in a ‘poor me’ sadness, it’s more of a respectful sadness; like when people gather together to remember all the Jews killed in the Holocaust or all our fallen soldiers. The very music itself seems to quietly whisper of the pirates’ fate as if it knew what was going happen. And as you listen more it really is as if the music knew the struggles the pirates were going through also. For indeed it continually strengthens its beat at places as if to signify the collecting of drums and arms in preparation for war. But the music doesn’t just portray the pirates’ resilience it also shows their desperation, sadness and unity in remembrance of days gone by. For there are times when the steady beat slows and the music wails in sadness as if to lament for the pirates. There are also times when it seems to quiet and the beat seems to fade after an intense moment as if the pirates were in despair after a defeat. Then there are other times when the music style changes altogether to a quiet, gentle almost dreamish effect, which allow one to envision the glorious days of old and all the happy moments spent together that may all soon be gone. Overall the CD, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is a masterpiece, worthy of praise and much repeated listening to. Hanz Zimmer really did his best on this one, and it can be heard.