Tuomas Holopainen, The brains behind Nightwish read Scrooge by Don Rosa nearly 20 years ago. But in 1999 he thought about making a soundtrack to the book. 14 years later and Tuomas spent most of 2013 writing and recording for the album. They even managed to get Don Rosa to design the CD cover!
Now, this isn’t to be confused with Ebenezer Scrooge, we’re talking our very own Duck Tales granddad.
So. Starting with ‘Glasgow 1877’ of whom I’m thinking is the legend that is Scrooge McDuck himself telling us of the beginning of his journey Beautiful pipes and a female vocalist which I’m guessing is trying to be all-Scottish but you can’t hide the Finnish in the music. That aside, it really is a pretty little piece, the keyboards of Tuomas and the whole feel is exceptionally well composed.
‘Into the West’ starts again with some haunting female vocals and sounding a lot like Tuomas’s main band Nightwish. Then, there’s “Dual and Cloudscapes’ which is an instrumental piece and a little bit more up-tempo. The general feel to this track seems all about struggling and battles, can’t be our Scrooge? With ‘Dreamtown’ It all gets a bit Lion King at the beginning until the delicate keyboards come in. yes, it’s another instrumental but this one definitely sounds like it could be used on a films soundtrack. ‘Cold Heart of Klondike’ impressively has Sonata Arctica’s Tony Kakkow on vocals. Sadly though, the song itself dribbles like a wet fart and has nothing special going for it.
Sir McDuck narrating us again through ‘The last Sled’ (it’s really him you know!!) then in pops some unusual female vocals entwining with the keyboards. This has to be the best one off the album. That aside, it’s not perfect, it drags on a little bit after the middle section, which gets a bit boring. Luckily, it redeems itself toward the end with a serene outro.
‘To Be Rich’ gives a sad feeling with the doomy keyboards and the sound of rain, then the vocals seemingly painful and unfortunately, a little annoying. The track fails to deliver much excitement, think Enya on a depressed day.
Ending on another depressing tune with ‘Go Slowly Now, Hands of Time’ however, the male vocals are pretty spectacular and suit the track. And again, as you’d expect with a Tuomas Holopainen piece, it’s amazingly written.
If you’re a diehard Nightwish fan then of course you’re going to want to listen to this. Personally it just didn’t do it for me. Maybe because I haven’t read Scrooge McDuck or maybe it’s just because I found it rather dull.
(3/10 Charlene Rance)
http://www.tuomas-holopainen.com
06/04/2014 at 1:03 pm
No, this is NOT your “very own DuckTales granddad”! This is a piece based on the ORIGINAL $crooge McDuck of the world’s most popular COMIC BOOKS (created by Carl Barks and continued by others) who has had adventures for 40 years BEFORE the short-lived 1987 kiddie TV cartoon, and continues over 25 years AFTER that simple-minded show (where $crooge is anything but a kindhearted “granddad”!). Naturally you could not understand this music since you have no idea what it’s about.
06/04/2014 at 5:34 pm
Hi Don,
cheers for pointing this out and yes comics certainly are not something that “all” our writers are knowledgeable on (I thought Superman was the most popular comic book of all time myself). That aside having listened to the album I can’t disagree with the reviewers musical criticism and found it really drawn out and dull aside from any narrative themes going on within it.
14/04/2014 at 11:10 am
Ouch! well pointed out…Sadly, I spent my childhood outside having fun.. .not reading comics on a duck alone in my room, so yes I hold my hands up the only Scrooge Mcduck I knew was on Ducktales (Simple minded? I thought it was great!)…. And at the end of the day, thanks for the critisism on the Duck ….. But it doesn’t change my mind on the fact that the album is a bore…