TURBO - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2013)

He has written the score for Puss In Boots and Monsters Vs Aliens; now English composer Henry Jackman is back once again contributing the score for DreamWorks’ animation latest release, Turbo, about an ordinary garden snail turning into the fastest racer.

Six tracks composed by Jackson are heard on this soundtrack. Tracks such as Turbo and Supersnail are plain electronic, synthetic sounds. Loud, unmemorable and sounds right from a generic action movie. If this is the opening theme music for the character Turbo, then I guess good luck. Both Another Day At The Plant and Indianapolis are soothing, sentimental pieces which gets a rousing end; at least there are some nice quiet moments to savour..

Since the movie is meant to be fun and heart-thumping, the rest of the music selections consist of Pitbull’s debut single Krazy, the catchy Here We Come by V12 aka Big Mizz, Latin hip-hop band Ozomatli’s Saturday Night and Run-D.M.C’s It’s Tricky which don’t really sound it was first released back in 1986!

Probably works better in the context of the movie, the strangest inclusion right here is none other than Jackson 5’s Going Back to Indiana and Tom Jones' What’s New Pussycat. They are both great classics on their own but it just doesn’t blend well with the intended audience or the theme of the album. It doesn’t end here as the obligatory Eye of the Tiger gets a Sher Gunn remix. 

The only new and standout song goes to rapstar Snoop Dogg’s Let The Bass Go, a completely original song commissioned by DreamWorks’ CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg for the movie. Parents out there fret not as Let The Bass Go definitely has kids-friendly lyrics and Snoop Dogg even voices one of the characters named Smoove Move. 

There are too little Jackman’s material here to make a full review of what he has scored for the movie but for a slick, hip-hop oriented soundtrack, Turbo is definitely up to it.

ALBUM RATING:

Recommended Track: (1) Let The Bass Go

Review by Linus Tee