Lights of Liberty

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

Capturing a score not written for a film, Lights of Liberty is like a theme park ride, in which you hear your favorite composer compose music that fits the ride and where it needs to tell the story you live. In that regard, the lightshow of Miziker Entertainment Group is specialized in bringing these shows to the front, and one of them is the declaration of independence and the ultimate singing of this historic fact and paper. Not perhaps the most interesting thing besides a Pirates of the Caribbean parkride but good enough for John Debney to pore a patriotic score from his bones, which you can feel through your own headsets in 3-D surround. The show itself promises a soaring musical score and that's what you get. In fact give me 5 to 10 minutes more of it and its got a better rating. Its a good soundtrack in the regard the era is brought back by Debney and that the glory and patriotism is brought to the forefront with orchestral and sometimes even choral delight. 'Lights of Liberty Overture' has the brief choral delight when a trumpet and drum feel lead to the Glory inspired (or perhaps better said Apollo 13) brief main theme. 'Yankee Doodle', 'Delegates Arrival', 'The World Turned upside Down' and 'Chester' are the brief interposes where dancing flutes, drums or violin scherzo's lead the songs of the past (to salute the soldiers) to their patriotic touch. Luckily Debney spices them up just a little bit and when you hear Yankee Doodle in a more orchestral yet dancing form in 'Awaiting the Decision' its fun as hell. 'Turmoil in the Colonies' has got a brief explosion of drum led fanfares and leads to whirling action moments with surrounding flutes, bringing more and more the Debney sound we know and love.

The track 'Stamp Act Crisis' is one of the soft ones, a darker underscore and occasional light choir is heard but the score needs more attention and 'United we Stand' is covering that spice, patriotic moments, drums, solo trumpet for the noble soldiers, and a lovely led choral main theme which makes all the difference, the trumpet resolution near the end is nice too. While not bombastic, it are the ideas of Debney in its patriotic form which make it so good. 'On the Brink' is the more powerful piece at times, the attacking brass and drums in the begin are excellent and yet it softens in the middle, only to heighten the magic with a brief choral main theme. 'Common Sense' is a more relieved resolution piece, and the strings make magic also on several places, which is really nice. 'Nightmare of War' is covering too some good powerful action movements, and the choir near the end makes the darker sense really strong, these are again the good moments of the score. 'The Great Declaration / God Bless America' is the final piece of the disc, and first light choir and noble intentions are heard, but in the second part Debney inserts the God Bless America song and lets the score end with a nice orchestral ablaze. This is a sign of a story that's come to a conclusive end, but also in musical terms and you feel the thematic strength behind it too. Sadly, I have no idea when Lights of Liberty was written or composed, because the CD doesn't directly show info on that, nor does the site. But I guarantee that the lightshow in Philadelphia will bring that soaring music, and if only 10 minutes longer, it would have been given more rating, because the patriotic Debney style is now something I really like, with already 3 examples to prove it.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Lights Of Liberty Overture (0.57)

2. Looking Back (3.01)

3. Yankee Doodle (1.30)

4. Turmoil In The Colonies (1.41)

5. Stamp Act Crisis (3.06)

6. Delegates Arrival (0.55)

7. United We Stand (4.15) Excellent Track

8. The World Turned Upside Down (0.44)

9. On The Brink (5.24)

10. Common Sense (2.00)

11. Chester (1.16)

12. Nightmare Of War (3.49) Excellent Track

13. Awaiting The Decision (2.55)

14. The Great Declaration / God Bless America * (4.06) Excellent Track

* by Irving Berlin

Total Length: 35.44

The use of artwork or photos is posted for non profitable reasons

=== Link to Composer Site: John Debney ===