Release Date: July 16th, 2013
Label: La-La Land Records
MSRP: $15.98
Media Quantity: 1 CD, Digitally
Product Language: English
Original Soundtrack Language: English
Run Time: 1 hour 14 minutes
Track Listing:
1. Young Justice Main Title x 0:26
2. Dynamic Duo Ice Freeze* 1:26
3. Star City*** 1:06
4. Central City/Washington, D.C.** 1:14
5. Covert Ops*** 2:07
6. Arrival of the League* 2:15
7. Red Tornado Arrives** 1:01
8. Martian Bio-Ship*** 1:55
9. Aqualad Comes Home** 0:58
10. Mera Attacks*** 2:37
11. M’gann Finds Kid Flash & Artemis* 2:01
12. Psimon Says Forget* 1:14
13. Skateboarding Kid*** 0:38
14. Giant Water Eel Battle** 1:05
15. Team Re-Elects Aqualad*** 1:49
16. Welcome to the Team*** 0:41
17. Morrow Lab Source* 1:38
18. Planetary Destruction*** 1:42
19. Red Tornado Saves the Earth** 1:38
20. Revenge Mode* 1:36
21. Subliminally Sad*** 0:46
22. Artemis/Zatanna Rooftop Chase** 2:35
23. Watchtower Election** 1:05
24. Cheshire Is Back** 2:16
25. Vandal & Klarion Retreat* 3:05
26. Missing Sixteen Hours* 1:28
27. Meet Lobo* 3:44
28. Manta-Flyer*** 0:51
29. Nathaniel Changes*** 1:07
30. Artemis Deep Cover* 1:26
31. Roy’s Desperation*** 2:37
32. Undercover Artemis*** 1:07
33. Mount Justice Destroyed* 2:40
34. The Scarab Connection** 1:41
35. Aqualad Brain Puree* 1:57
36. Mental Maneuvers** 3:22
37. Tick Tock Tick Tock*** 1:09
38. White Limo*** 1:48
39. Arsenal Still Running** 0:44
40. Return to Bialya** 2:40
41. Black Beetle Gets Away*** 1:27
42. Wally’s Sacrifice** 3:13
43. Business as Usual** 1:16
44. Young Justice End Credits x 0:33
Total Album Time: 73:46
x composed by Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion & Lolita Ritmanis
* composed by Kristopher Carter
** composed by Michael McCuistion
*** composed by Lolita Ritmanis
YOUNG JUSTICE LLLCD 1262
Music by Lolita Ritmanis, Michael McCuistion & Kristopher Carter
La-La Land Pictures and Warner Bros. Entertainment Present the original soundtrack to the Warner Bros. Animated Television Series Young Justice, currently airing on Cartoon Network. Composers Lolita Ritmanis, Michael McCuistion & Kristopher Carter (Batman: The Brave and The Bold, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, Teen Titans, Batman Beyond) fashion an exhilarating superhero score that is every bit as bold, fresh and exciting as this hit animated series. This compilation brings together must-have musical highlights of the show’s first season, as well as the second season, Young Justice: Invasion. It’s dramatic, action-packed music that makes for a thrilling standalone listen! CD booklet features reversible cover art!
The work by Dynamic Music Partners on Young Justice, I find, is unlike anything they’ve ever done before. It sounds so different than all of their previous works. It forgoes a lot of the standard trappings we’d find in a score for a DC Animated Series and, instead, presents this techno-y, funky, usually intense piece of work. It’s actually a pretty interesting listen.
Listen to “Star City,” for example … how funky does that sound? That beat they come up with … I can’t explain it. It’s like something from Batman Beyond, just slightly twisted. We do get some heroic beats, yeah, particularly when the Justice Leaguers are involved, but the composers here really play up the secret covert themes here by giving us music that wouldn’t feel out of place in such a high-tech spy movie. And quite honestly, that is where I find the soundtrack really excels. The heroic themes sound great, but the budget limitations do sneak through here from time to time. They don’t really hit the heights they should and it’s a little disappointing.
The techno theme that Dynamic Music Partners comes up with for Young Justice, and for The Team (our young heroes), is actually pretty smart. It’s not really a theme per se, but more of an overall…approach to how the majority of the tracks are done. Since the entire series is about secrecy it makes sense for that to carry over to the show’s scores. And, honestly, that’s the best way I can describe it. It’s like the show’s main themes interpreted through music. There’s a few repeated themes and cues here and there, but, mostly, the show’s techno-y, eery themes seem to really overlay everything, unless it involves some of the big guns heroes, like Superman and the Justice League, when then it takes a more heroic, traditional approach. It’s a smart distinction.
It’s when the soundtrack embraces its more techno roots that it really picks up. A lot of bigger set pieces are set to those really quick, really tense beats and it really sounds like nothing else on television. Much like with their work on Batman: The Brave and The Bold, Dynamic Music Partners are able to single out some great themes and beats and just run with it. A lot of what we hear in this set actually sounds pretty novel, like nothing we’ve heard them do before, and it’s pretty exciting to hear such an established group of composers branch out and try something new, something daring. And this is that. There are tracks here that sound anything but standard and, really, it’s actually pretty exciting and interesting to listen to. That creepy hum sound they come up with for “Missing Sixteen Hours” is such a neat piece of work … it boggles the mind to think about how they came up with it.
The complaints here are minimal, but also the same I’ve mentioned time and time again … and it boils down to me being selfish more than anything. Namely – I wish this was a two disc set. There’s a lot of great music in this series and we only really scratch the surface here. Then again, given how the music was done for this series, I get the more single-track focus as opposed to the whole-episode focus these scores usually tend to do. There would be a lot of repetitive sounding tracks, so trying to find the single tracks which best represent a greater number of tracks is likely the best approach. The track “Revenge Mode” is actually revisited a few times during the series, so it’s likely better to include it just once as opposed to including two or three more times in other episode scores. Still, the selection here, while good, leaves me wanting more.
That second-to-last track, “Business As Usual,” is a personal favorite. It’s so optimistic. Our heroes have won and the music just hits those positive beats, until we find out things aren’t over…
Overall, this releases gives us a nice taste to the music styles of the late, great Young Justice animated series. I guarantee it’s unlike anything you’ve heard before and, honestly, that might turn off some people. I actually rememebr hearing complaints about the score for the series early on since it follow the traditional trappings. This score is something I’d consider to be something of a successful experiment. While we do get to hear some familiar heroic themes popping in, the entire soundtrack is dominated by the tense techno themes which, I find, perfectly capture the spirit and the mission of The Team. It’s a great release that Young Justice fans will definitely get a kick out of, and should be added to one’s collection. It’s different, daring, and due for some airplay. Highly Recommended!
Contact us and share your thoughts on social media via Twitter and Facebook pages!
Check out WF video content at The World’s Finest’s YouTube channel!