3 out of 5

Dreamscape is a pretty great point and click video game soundtrack.  I can just visualize Roger Wilco poking around some creepy alien outpost as the circus-tinged themes float in and out, music stings happening at random points because, for the most part, the MIDI scores of that era didn’t really follow any trigger events.  Moving out of that very nostalgic setting and using the music as a live-action film score – even an oddball flick like Dreamscape – doesn’t sync up as well.  There’s an obvious knock for which to account: the recording is horrendous.  At points, this works in the score’s favor, when Jarre is taking his time to slink between the different elements of his compositions and the poor fidelity adds a note of ominousness to the brew, but a lot of the times it just has you noticing the hard stops that occur too often, and that (I think) we can actually hear the pressing of keyboard keys here and there is almost laughably amateur.  This was Jarre’s first electronic music foray, and it really feels like it shows: not really grasping how to apply the technology and not really sure how he wants it sound.  For a large chunk of the album’s middle, this results in contributions that never go anywhere, never try anything, or try every sound effect because it’s “weird” before falling back on circus music, because that’s default creepy.  Again, when you try to take it out of context and imagine it pumping through your 386x computer speakers, from which you never really expected more from a soundtrack than to not annoy you when you’re pixel hunting, it’s fine.  But that shouldn’t be a required paradigm shift.

Bookending this mid-section, though, Jarre becomes a whole different composer: Twin Peaksy sultriness gives way to sudden electro-drum rushes and moody waltzes; keyboards blend with horns and there are wondrous washes of noise.  These moments are transcendentally awesome, and because the album starts out this way, it sets a pretty high bar.  And when it wraps back around to that as well – for track 8’s Love Dreams – you can’t help but wonder what happened in the middle.  A few more spins help to smooth out the ride, and you can hear some of the bits and pieces Jarre might’ve been attempting to string together through each track.  But first impressions are tough.  If you came to the soundtrack like me: impressed by the flavor it added to Dreamscape the movie, you might be equally dismayed at what you hear, and how the film might’ve distracted from the album’s gaps.  Give it some time, reset your ears, and it’s much better.