About the Soundtrack:  La-La Land Records, one of my personal favorite labels, has released "Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo."  Offering outstanding package design, interesting liner notes and a terrific running time, this soundtrack release gets it right.  The composers of this score (of which there are 3) and the producer all share their thoughts in the liner notes, so it was nice to take in some of the details behind their work.  One of the tidbits I read was that since this animated feature had a larger budget than previous installments, additional live musicians were summoned.  Needless to say, that gave the material an immediate boost of quality.  

 

Checking in at a running time of nearly 60 minutes, the score offers 26 tracks and a well mixed sound design.  The score was composed by Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion and Lolita Ritmanis, a team that has a history of working together and creating cool music!

What You Need to Know: If ever you need something to help put you in a better mood from a day's woes, look no further than this charming score.  In an upbeat and successful collaboration, the Teen Titans composing team has created a soundtrack with a bounce in its step that is too campy and fun to resist.  I had a great ride listening to this album.

 

For those of you who might already be familiar with the music from DC animated series', such as Batman, Superman, Teen Titans, etc., you would have noticed that the music is often respectable.  Along with this respectability comes a consistency that the composers have been able to stick to in creating the scores for these animated sagas.  While I enjoyed much of this music style for what it was, the one thing that was holding it back a bit was the inclusion of additional live musicians and instruments.  Well, given a few more to work with here, the composers made the most of it and have shown just how impressive their work can be with such resources.

 

The album begins with some fun guitar riffs in the opening track, "Meet Saico Tek", which leads up to track 3 and the Teen Titans theme, which as one would predict makes appearances during the remainder of the score on different occassions. It's always been a light and catchy theme and it's one I've always gotten a kick out of, so I was glad to see it back in play.  What takes the score to another level, however, are the more dramatic instances of the soundtrack, including a few epic moments.  Placing the cute title theme aside, the composers have given this score more of a dramatic touch that adds more depth to the music.  Add to the fact that live instruments help pave the course for these dramatic cues, and that there are some excellent Japanese motifs woven in, than you have even more reasons to take a listen to this album.

 

Perhaps what I appreciated the most about "Trouble in Tokyo" is the originality in many of the cues.  Using a an expansive array of tools and implementing a wide range of consistent sounding melodies and beats, the composing team was able to deliver a musical journey that was unpredictable yet in balance.  In this score there are friendly tunes, upbeat melodies, perilous danger and a little bit of everything else mixed in.  It's a complete package.  There was just one aspect that seemed to slow the train down a bit...

 

With all that is good about this music for 'Trouble in Tokyo', there is also a little bit of disappointment to note.  The latter third of the album started to wade into the territory of the familiar, thus, derailing some of the positive energy that enlightened the first two-thirds of the running time.  Some of the music in this portion sounded a little flat compared to the energetic tones preceding these segments.  I suppose the bar was set a bit too high for me as I engaged the first 20 tracks.  However,  the tailing off in the final act wasn't enough to damper the overall glow I felt about the merry melodies that comprised the majority of the score.

 

Final Score: "Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo" is a fantastic escape.  I can recommend this to most any fan of film music, especially those who enjoy the tones of animated adventure.  While some of the moments may be a little too lighthearted for some, I bought into it and had a great time doing so.  If additional musicians are added to the orchestral team in a future outing, the sky is the limit with this trio of talented composers.  A warm recommendation.