Project Excelsior | Adam Young Score Review

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."

This one's not my favorite, I'll be honest. It's comparable to The Ascent of Everest, which had great style and musical quality but didn't tell the story very well. 

While the music is beautiful, and it may very well grow on me the way Everest did, I still don't think it has those highs and lows and the emotion that all of the other scores have had (minus Everest). However, I've been reading online that fans like Project Excelsior and The Ascent of Everest more than Omaha Beach or Miracle In the Andes because it's "boring and repetitive". They say it's his best score yet. 

Which I think is a load of bullcrap. 

I do applaud it for it's splashes of the musical styles of previous Adam Young work, such as Ocean Eyes or Maybe I'm Dreaming. The guitar work on this is stellar - truly the hands of a master. 

Like The Ascent of Everest, I have mixed feelings, but maybe it's just my taste.  I'm sure it will grow on me. 

Here's how it ranks with the past scores. 

1. Omaha Beach, June
2. The RMS Titanic, March
3. Apollo 11, February
4. Miracle In the Andes, July
5. The Spirit of St. Louis, April
6. The Ascent of Everest, May
7. Project Excelsior, August

I also must commend James R. Eads, the artist. When I initially saw this piece, without even having heard the music, I was pulled in. Suddenly, I felt so small and the world felt so grand. Without anything else, I felt the grandeur, the wonder, of Joseph Kittinger as he was suspended, face to face with the earth. 


Listen to the score here. 

artwork by James R. Eads

1. The Pilot

Inciting with a plucking guitar, this song boasts with humble bravery of the man making this great jump.  

2. Preparations

Relaxing and dreamy, this track emulates the monotony of preparing with beautiful acoustic guitar. 

3. Helium Balloon 

Wide-eyed and glimmering with synths and bells, the listener is taken up in a helium balloon to float among the music. 
4. Ground Crew

Riddled with guitar riffs and ground-breaking synths, this song establishes the ground crew with a song that grows to the awe-inspiring liftoff. 

5. The Ascent

Inventive with it's use of melodies, this score sends us shooting into space with wonder.
6. The Highest Step In The World

A magically phenomenal track, and maybe the best on the album, this song is captivatingly beautiful with piano and synths to awe the listener with. 

7. The Jump

Dance-able and epic, this track races with guitar melodies that range in an exciting array. 

8. The Descent

Techno and influenced by science-fiction music, this song lets the listener soar down through the atmosphere with glorious electric guitar and incorporating previous melodies.   
9. On The Ground

Peaceful and like a breath of fresh air, this track closes the album with acoustics, piano, and synths that speak of sweet relief. 

~

I think the biggest problem with this and Everest was that I couldn't picture it in my head. 

And maybe that's just me. 

~The WordShaker

The Ascent Of Everest - The Fourth Score by Adam Young - Review

"The only way you can become worse as a writer is by not writing," - Me. 

Usually, I'm a bit wary of this new territory that Adam is venturing into, but this month, I felt every bit as confident that this month's score would be just as fan-freaking-tastic as the previous month's. 

I'm sad to say that I wasn't entirely right this month. 

However, a little disclaimer. If Adam Young decided to move to Idaho and farm potatoes until he died, I'd support it. If he decided to do anything, I'd most likely back it up. So that means I am sticking with this project, and will still 100% listen to it, but that doesn't mean I don't have some problems with it.

Following my problems and formal review will still be a track-by-track description/review. 

Now something that's different about this score - and I think is one of it's problems - is that it doesn't feel like a cohesive piece. The tracks don't make a story arc the way that the Apollo, RMS, or Spirit do. I mean, heck, they're beautiful and amazing to listen to, but, for me, they do not evoke the same feelings that the others do. They seem to lack something that ties them together. The way that the songs are structured, they seem to have their own story in them, have a rising action, climax and denouement, while they are not building toward anything. The difference here, is that in the three previous scores, each track build the tension or conflict more and more, until you were burning for the climax of the event being portrayed. This, however, didn't feel as cohesive and building toward an ultimate goal here. 

While the songs perfectly display the setting of the score - the Himalayan mountains - with "frozen, wind burned, sun-bleached instrumentals that become more and more tattered and torn as you listen to them", they do not convey the mental and physical strife or the struggles and the life-threatening danger that would have come with the territory, and then coming in hard with a climax of heart-soaring glory. I feel that Adam stayed on the safe side, here, where he could have gone to dark and daring places with this. The story took a backseat in this score, and I'm not very impressed. 

I think this is because I couldn't picture any of it in my head. With all three of the previous ones, the songs pulled you in and crafted you into a lonely astronaut, a doomed aristocrat, a brave pilot. You could see this being a background music to a movie, a story. However, I could never feel the emotions or picture the scenery around me as the brave men climbed to the top of the world, which, I find, is an utter disappointment. 

Enough with that. If you couldn't tell, this month's score is about The Ascent of Everest, when in May 1953 two men were the first to reach the 29,029 foot summit.

You can listen to The Ascent of Everest for yourself here. 

1. Base Camp 

Eerily cold, this track is a beautiful start with humbling and intimidating horns and synths.  

2. Khumbu Icefall

Gritty and stellar, Khumbu Icefall is a track with crunching synths that reflects the sojourn across the ice. 

3. Western Cwm

Captivating strings and pounding guitars build to a stunning conclusion about the lonely, cold valley. 

4. Lhotse Face

This track is layered deeply with electronic sounds and guitar, which build up to be an awe-inspiring, glorious track of impending triumph. 

5. South Col

Persevering with heavy electric guitars, this track makes it real to the listeners that we're almost there.

6. The Hillary Step

Epic and enthralling with intense strings and deep bass lines, this track builds with intensity to marvel the beauty of the snow-capped mountains. 

7. The Summit

Herculean and viciously triumphant, the closing track bursts with epic guitar for a stunning and joyful conclusion.

Do I hate this score? No. Is it my favorite?  No. Do I think it has some problems? Yes. Is it still beautiful music?  Yes. 

And that is all, friends. 

~The WordShaker