Various Artists - William Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet Volume 2

Various Artists - William Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet Volume 2
This collection of music from the Baz Luhrmann movie features mainly musical score. Most of the pop songs are featured on Volume 1.

O Verona is bombastic, dramatic, operatic and as the title suggests, takes its cues from 'O Fortuna' by Orff. Gas Station Scene soundtracks a Montague and Capulet face off and starts with a dusty, desert feel before moving to a dramatic action score and ending in Morricone spaghetti western territory.

A few tracks start out in one genre before morphing into something else. Kim Mazelle's Young Hearts, Run Free starts as house music before becoming a camp latin carnival. Quindon Tarver's version of When Doves Cry starts off ghostly and choral before it is overtaken by breakbeats. I approve. Fight Scene begins as a delicate string laden piece before descending into West Side Story musical combat.

The instrumental version of the love theme, Kissing You, is achingly romantic and as beautiful as you'd expect. Slow Movement has it all; tenderness, passion, positivity, urgency, darkness and blind panic. Excellent.

A few of the major themes recur throughout the album. A Challenge repeats the dusty, Mexican stand off theme from the earlier Gas Station Scene. The tribal, heart-pounding Escape From Mantua, which incorporates fragments of O Verona, is exhilarating.

Tybalt Arrives, featuring The Butthole Surfers and The Dust Brothers is an industrialized stomp while the music soundtracking Mercutio's Death is an epic, orchestral piece which must have influenced John Williams' classic 'Duel Of The Fates' (this album pre-dates the Star Wars prequels by a few years).

This is an album which sets the scene and tells the tale well, mixing beauty and romance with action and drama. It is a long album however and, regardless of the quality on show, my attention does wane a little towards the end.