OK, little devils and demons,
Here is the second music and sound effect review. The feedback was very good on the last one and I expect more are going to catch on. I love the suggestions so please keep them coming. Don't be mad if I don't get to your suggestions right away. I do have nine gigs of Halloween music. 3225 files altogether 145 albums, but my collection is nowhere near complete. So sometimes I have to actually order what you suggest, which is what I'm going to do. Pete has already talked about one album I do not have. I am excited to see these albums out there; I can still purchase and review. I am realizing I might have a fun niche here, so please keep your sound effects questions and music questions coming. I'm getting excited about this. Okay, without further ado. I'm going to do two reviews on this one. The first is going to sound effects CD and the second is going to be a music CD, seeing how these two areas seem to be somewhat separate. This is how I am going to do the reviews from now on, one music in one sound effect CD or album, And for the first review.
Elvira Presents Haunted Hits
Original Release Date: 1988
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Rhino / Wea
ASIN: B00000334K
Also Available in: Audio Cassette | LP Record
1. Monster Mash - Bobby 'Boris' Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers
2. Haunted House - Jumpin' Gene Simmons
3. Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr.
4. Out Of Limits - The Marketts
5. The Blob - The Five Blobs
6. The Creature From The Black Lagoon - Dave Edmunds
7. The Purple People Eater - Sheb Wooley
8. The Addams Family (Main Title) - Vic Mizzy
9. Welcome To My Nightmare - Alice Cooper
10. Twilight Zone - Neil Norman & His Comic Orchestra
11. Dead Man's Party - Oingo Boingo
12. Halloween Spooks - Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
13. Horror Movie - The Skybooks
14. I Put A Spell On You - Screamin' Jay Hawkins
15. I Was A Teenage Werewolf - The Cramps
16. Voodoo Voodoo - LaVern Baker
17. Full Moon - ELVIRA
At first sight this album seems like it's a typical music CD you get at Halloween. But look closely and you'll see that you actually get some old but good hits that are actually not too common. Currently on music CDs such as, I put a spell on you; I was a teenage werewolf, and my personal favorite the creature from the Black Lagoon by Dave Edmunds. There are others but you can read a list of yourself and see. It's actually a quite diverse CD. Some of the songs actually don't really feel like party songs. I would probably rip the CD and make my own party CD from it and others. There are so many different types of people in the world and different types of parties that it's hard to say whether or not this would be good for your party. The more hard-core haunting people would probably dig every track. Maybe if you have younger teenagers attending your party, or children or other diverse groups, this might not be the music for them, At least not all of it, which is cool because this is a diverse CD and a nice addition to any collection. With all that being said, you can probably gather that I don't feel like there's one perfect party CD that you can just pop into the player and BAM! You’re good for the evening. So when I rate, music CDs. I rate them based on originality of track listings. There is a lot of CDs that come out that seem to have the same old stuff on them. even this one has the monster mash. I like being surprised I also like hearing original tracks. Also, if I rate older music that is on a CD I will talk about the quality.
So here we go this has one original track, and the rest is various artists. Not too much of the same stuff, but considering the year that this came out and that stuff wasn't overdone yet. Okay, this does have one original track by Elvira, called full moon. I might be a little slanted here in my opinion, because I am a pretty big Elvira fan. But I like the track and it is original. The qualities of the recordings that are used are pretty darn good, even older ones. In one or two tracks I can hear slight popping. Not bad considering how old some of these tracks are. It's not that they're really old but the time period which they came out did not have the best preservation methods.
Overall I give this CD, an 8 out of 10 skulls.
The next thing I'm going to review is and LP from 1975, entitled Ghostly Sounds.
LP Record
Original Release Date: 1975
Currently unavailable. Which means it is legal to download off the internet due to unavailability, but I am still going to let you find it.
Label: Peter Pan Records
ASIN: B000R6PJ8U
1. Intro - Night Falls
2. Goblin Dance
3. The Moon Is A Circle Of Ghosts
4. The Sound Of Bones
5. Pirates
6. Spirits, Monsters, Witches
7. Outro - The Jack o' Lantern Laughs
8. The Ghosts From Outer Space
Ok, so here we have tracks that are all original but this album has what I hate the most, a narrator. The narrator is in the track not just at the beginning, but the narrator is during the sound effects, so it can not be edited out with a program such as audacity. You could do some editing to an extent and still use the tracks to some degree. Problem is some tracks even have narration in the middle and end. So as far as using these tracks in your haunt this might not be your first choice, but with that being said this is the kind of album that I like to put on while I'm working on Halloween stuff. So a medium score here is not necessarily a bad thing it just means I like it enough to listen to but would not use in my haunt in any way shape or form.
Overall I give this LP, a 5 out of 10 skulls.
Erick “Zombie Lord” Main
