Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: The Motion Picture Soundtrack

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: The Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by Various Artists
Released December 18, 2007
Recorded 2007
Genre Soundtrack
Length 71:26
Label Nonesuch
Producer Mike Higham
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: The Motion Picture Soundtrack is a soundtrack to the film of the same name, released on December 18, 2007. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is the second film in Burton's directing career not to include music composed by Danny Elfman (the first being Ed Wood). Burton wanted to avoid the traditional approach of patches of dialogue interrupted by song.

He cut the show's famous opening number, "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd", explaining, "Why have a chorus singing about 'attending the tale of Sweeney Todd' when you could just go ahead and attend it?" Sondheim acknowledged that, in adapting a musical to film, the plot has to be kept moving, and was sent MP3 files of his shortened songs by Mike Higham, the film's music producer, for approval. Several other songs were also cut, and Sondheim noted that there were "many changes, additions and deletions... [though]... if you just go along with it, I think you'll have a spectacular time."[2] To create a larger, more cinematic feel, the score was reorchestrated by the stage musical's original orchestrator, Jonathan Tunick, who increased the orchestra from twenty-seven musicians to seventy-eight.

The Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Deluxe Complete Edition soundtrack was released on December 18, 2007. Johnny Depp's singing was described by a New York Times reviewer as "harsh and thin, but amazingly forceful".[3] Another critic adds that, though Depp's voice "does not have much heft or power", "his ear is obviously excellent, because his pitch is dead-on accurate... Beyond his good pitch and phrasing, the expressive colorings of his singing are crucial to the portrayal. Beneath this Sweeney’s vacant, sullen exterior is a man consumed with a murderous rage that threatens to burst forth every time he slowly takes a breath and is poised to speak. Yet when he sings, his voice crackles and breaks with sadness."[4]

Contents

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Stephen Sondheim. 

No. Title Performer(s) Length
1. "Opening Title"     3:30
2. "No Place Like London" (**) Johnny Depp, Jamie Campbell Bower 5:31
3. "The Worst Pies in London"   Helena Bonham Carter 2:23
4. "Poor Thing" (**) Bonham Carter 3:09
5. "My Friends"   Depp, Bonham Carter 3:48
6. "Green Finch and Linnet Bird"   Jayne Wisener 2:16
7. "Alms! Alms!" (* ***) Laura Michelle Kelly 1:16
8. "Johanna"   Bower 1:57
9. "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir"   Edward Sanders, Depp, Bonham Carter 2:00
10. "The Contest" (**) Sacha Baron Cohen 3:39
11. "Wait"   Bonham Carter 2:38
12. "Ladies in Their Sensitivities" (*) Timothy Spall 1:23
13. "Pretty Women" (**) Depp, Alan Rickman 4:27
14. "Epiphany"   Depp 3:16
15. "A Little Priest" (**) Bonham Carter, Depp 5:15
16. "Johanna" (Reprise) Bower, Depp, Kelly 5:42
17. "God, That's Good!"   Sanders, Bonham Carter 2:46
18. "By the Sea"   Bonham Carter, Depp 2:19
19. "Not While I'm Around" (**) Sanders, Bonham Carter 4:11
20. "Final Scene" (* ***) Bonham Carter, Depp, Kelly, Rickman 10:21

* Missing from the Highlights version of the soundtrack.
** Tracks that are significantly longer than their Highlights counterparts.
*** Song is either written specially or adapted for the film.

Additional album personnel

Chart performance

Chart (2008) Peak
position
US Billboard 200[5] 16
US Billboard Top Soundtracks[5] 3

References

  1. ^ Allmusic review
  2. ^ Buckley, Michael (2007-12-16). "Stage to Screens: Logan, Zanuck and Parkes of "Sweeney Todd," Plus "Atonement" Writer Hampton". Playbill. http://www.playbill.com/news/article/113573.html. Retrieved 2007-12-16. 
  3. ^ Scott, A. O. (2007-12-21). "Murder Most Musical". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/12/21/movies/21swee.html. Retrieved 2008-08-13. 
  4. ^ Thomasini, Anthony (2008-01-12). "An Actor Whose Approach to Singing Lets the Words Take Center Stage". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/arts/music/12depp.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1213480870-PLdds9R9fuQFBW8+TkFtkw. Retrieved 2008-08-13. 
  5. ^ a b "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. http://www.billboard.com/#/album/original-sountrack/sweeney-todd-the-demon-barber-of-fleet-street/1090402. Retrieved March 12, 2011. 

External links

Characters
Adaptations