The Voltron soundtrack is a 52-track soundtrack CD being sold exclusively through the official Voltron website. The tracks on the CD include several versions of the opening and closing themes, the background music that was composed by John Petersen, bump music, sound effects, dialogue, a “remix,” two “megamixes,” the theme songs for Denver the Last Dinosaur and Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, as well as a hidden track (the opening theme for Vytor the Starfire Champion).
This CD includes a lot of the background music that is familiar to Voltron viewers. However, by the time I was done listening to this CD, I realized just how many musical themes were re-used between the background music tracks. There were two dialogue tracks included on the disc. I understand why one of them was included (the “ready to form Voltron” dialogue), but I don’t quite understand why Coran’s line of “Our prayers are answered” was included.
Three versions of the opening were included. The disc opens with the opening that the fans are familiar with from the show. There are also two tracks labeled as “Original Opener” and “Original Opener with Sing Out.” However, the tracks on the CD are the opposite of how they’re labeled, because track 41, which is labeled as “Original Opener” is actually the “Original Opener with Sing Out,” while track 42 is actually the “Original Opener.” These two tracks are basically the opening sequence without Peter Cullen’s narration.
Personally, I was rather unimpressed with the “Voltron DJ MacMan Dance Remix.” Basically, the remixer took the opening, added a drum loop in the background, extended it out slightly and added some dialogue from the show. It didn’t really sound like a track you could dance to, and it’s a track I’m not likely to listen to very much on this disc.
Track 49 is labeled as “All Music Compilation.” This is a roughly 21-minute megamix of the background music. It’s interesting to note, however, that some of the pieces that appear in this megamix do not appear on their own individual tracks on the disc; this megamix is the only place those particular pieces of background music can be heard. Personally, I felt this track was a waste, and it felt more like a way to extend the length of the CD, rather than adding anything of any real value to the collection. This is followed by “Music of Voltron Montage,” which is a roughly 8-minute megamix of background music put together by Media Blasters, the company that has released the DVD box sets. Of the two megamixes, the Media Blasters one was definitely the stronger one.
As I mentioned earlier, the opening for Vytor the Starfire Champion is a hidden track on the disc. After the last song on the disc (the Saber Rider theme), there is some silence on the track, and then the Vytor opening suddenly starts playing.
If you’re a Voltron fan and enjoy the background music in the series, then this collection is worth getting since it’s the only way the background music is available on CD. However, even though I enjoy a lot of the music included here, I was a little disappointed with the collection. This collection could have been stronger, and been a little more along the lines of the Robotech Perfect Soundtrack CD.
I wrote this review after listening to a copy of this CD that my husband and I purchased.
