Disco de Prince: “Batman”

On the soundtrack to Tim Burton's blockbuster hit Batman, Prince perfectly captures the mood and theme of this dark film. The movie looks at Michael Keaton's Batman as the Dark Knight, deep, intense & brooding. The songs on the album about him reflect that mood. "The Future" opens the album on a dark, ominous note and then slides into the frantic "Electric Chair" while "The Arms Of Orion" and "Trust" follow Batman's relationship with Vicki Vale. Prince also captures the manic, crazed persona of Jack Nicholson's Joker in the funky "Partyman". The album's closer "Batdance" is menagerie of film dialogue, funky beats and sound effects that gives the listener as kaleidoscope image of the film. Even though Batman is about a film, it comes across as one of Prince's most personal albums.

Not to be confused with Danny Elfman's instrumental release for the same movie, this soundtrack for the first Batman, is one of the best movie soundtracks ever released. Prince created a soundtrack that moves with the movie. It is not just a compilation of songs that you hear in the background of a movie, like many soundtracks that are hastily put together. This CD is full of dialogue from the movie and from Prince's imagination. Prince put a lot of heart, soul and funk into this recording.

Songs:

This soundtrack has a soul of its own.

In 1989, Warner Brothers was preparing to release Tim Burton's BATMAN. Depending on who you hear it from, either the president of Warner or the Joker himself (and huge Prince fan) Jack Nicholson reccomended that the Purple One contribute songs to the soundtrack. In the end, Prince's BATMAN soundtrack topped the album charts for six weeks and spawned 4 hit singles, a marked improvement over the critical and commercial bomb that was LOVESEXY.

The songs that The Joker/Jack Napier "sings" are probably the best. "Electric Chair" is a great hard rocker with some excellent lyrics. "Partyman" is an awesome funk workout that made the Pop Top 20 and was used to great effect in the film during the scene where the Joker and his thugs trash the Gotham Museum of Art. The pop/funk of "Trust" also appears in the film during the parade scene.

Batman/Bruce Wayne gets some good songs as well. "The Future" opens the album on a dark, spare note and uses Michael Keaton's iconic "I'm Batman" line. "Vicki Waiting" is an enjoyable straight pop song. "Scandalous" is an awesome soul ballad that features over the film's end credits. It also made the Top 5 on the R&B charts.

The Sheena Easton duet "The Arms of Orion" unfortunately falls flat. It's one of the most sappy songs Prince has written and lacks the energy of the Prince/Easton hit "U Got the Look." Surprisingly it made the Pop Top 40.

"Lemon Crush" is Prince singing from the viewpoint of Vicki Vale and features some great falsetto vocals.

The album ends with "Batdance," a pastiche of the album, film, and the '60s Batman theme. Nicholson, Keaton, and Kim Basinger all have vocal cameos as the character of Gemini (Batman-meets-The Joker) makes his only appearance. It topped the pop charts and the memorable video was a fixture on MTV.

This is not Prince's best album; that honor would fall either to PURPLE RAIN or SIGN O'THE TIMES. BATMAN, however, is a worthwhile album. Written and performed entirely by him and written to the deadline of a blockbuster feature film, it finds Prince at his best as a one man band and as a pop craftsman.

OK, Commissioner Gordon--here's my report on Prince's 11th album, a.k.a. the Batman Soundtrack.

Thers is something well, quirky about this CD. Don't get me wrong, this ranks among one of Prince's best efforts. It's just that it sounds like he cranked this one out in three/four weeks compared to the material he spends more time on. The Batman soundtrack is still worthy.

In each song, he lists the lead vocal as one of the main characters from the movie: Batman, the Joker, Vicki Vale, and Bruce Wayne. There's also a character called Gemini, half of him representing good, the other half representing evil, who makes his only appearance in (...) "Batdance", but it's a significant appearance.

Holy Frozen Smile! The best lead vocalist here is the Joker. "Electric Chair", "Partyman", and "Trust". The thumping bass and rough guitar on "Electric Chair" is comparable to the Joker's dark side. The latter two are just fun, reflecting the villain's playful side. I mean face it, who was the more interesting character in the movie? When the villain steals the show from the hero, there's gotta be something wrong, right? Or is it just Jack Nicholson's superiority as an actor compared to Michael Keaton?

"The Arms Of Orion" is his second vocal collaboration with Sheena Easton and both parties got the best with this wonderful ballad.

"Lemon Crush" has a little bit of the funk reminiscent of The Time. "Scandalous" is another lovely ballad done in his falsetto voice. It has the dishonor of being played over the closing credits of the movie, at which time the stop button is pressed on the VCR or DVD.

The raucous guitar and techno beat of "Batdance" is a summary of the movie, both in movie soundbites and to some extent of some of the earlier songs, such as "The Future" and "Electric Chair". The song explodes with chaos and violence at the end until Prince himself says "Stop", ending the song abruptly. Genius of the man!

Well, back to the Bat... er Review Cave. End of Report.

Prince's 1989 soundtrack to the Tim Burton blockbuster remains an engaging romp with some killer cuts. "The Future," "Electric Chair" and "Vicki Waiting" are definite highlights while "Scandalous" emerges as one of the artist's truly stellar ballads. "Partyman" and "Trust" deliver the funk, but the energetic "Lemon Crush" is a definite throwaway. Though "Batdance" reached the top of the charts, it exists primarily as a novelty single. The only misfire is "Arms of Orion" - a pretentious duet with Sheena Easton that doesn't belong on any Prince album. When considering the rushed nature of production (most songs were recorded in six weeks), "Batman" holds up surprisingly well.