I have always enjoyed the works of Alan Menken. The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Hercules all had great songs and a wonderful score. And the songs he wrote for Newsies greatly added to that live-action project as well. Menken returns to Disney animation with the songs and score for Home on the Range.

The songs are good, if not great. To me, there isn't a stand out song like "Part of Your World" or "Beauty and the Beast." But these songs are still enjoyable. The title song is an up-tempo hummable number. "Little Patch of Heaven" features a great vocal performance by k.d. lang. Other songs feature performances by Bonnie Raitt, Tim McGraw, and the Beu Sisters.

Most of the songs have a western feel to them, in keeping with the style of the movie. The one that sounds the most out of place is "Anytime You Need a Friend" by the Beu Sisters. It sounds like this song is in keeping with the unwritten rule that no matter the style or setting of the film, it has to end with a pop song. And the mixing and synth effects on this song are a bit jarring in the middle of the CD.

Perhaps my favorite song on the disc is "Yodel-Adle-Eedle-Idle-Oo" sung by Randy Quaid as Alameda Slim. Seems like the villains always get the fun songs, and this one is no exception. And as you can probably tell from the title, this one features a good bit of yodeling as well, and I always enjoy a good yodel. Here, the yodeling is performed by Randy Erwin and Kerry Christenson. Where else can you hear "The William Tell Overture" and "Ode to Joy" yodeled?

My favorite part of the CD is the score, represented here by 7 tracks. It is a typical Alan Menken score, which is a good thing. It contains his usual variations on the main song themes in fun and unique arrangements. The score has even more of a western feel than the songs, using such traditional western instruments as a guitar, banjo, mandolin, and harmonica. At times sounding like an homage to great western movie scores, this one also stands well on its own. And there are occasionally some effects heard in the score, such as Slim's yodel.

My only complaint about the CD is the same one that I can make of most of the recent Disney releases: it is short. The CD comes in at just over 38 minutes, meaning that they used just over half of the space on the disc. Surely they could have included more of the score to flesh things out a little bit. I feel like I am not quite getting my money's worth if a CD is under 45 minutes. Perhaps the thinking is that in keeping it short, youngsters will enjoy it more, but that practice leaves music fans wanting more.

Fittingly, the disc ends with a performance of "Anytime You Need a Friend" by Alan Menken. This is a much more simple performance than that of the Beu Sisters, and it gives a completely different flavor to the song. I always enjoy hearing a composer's version of his song, and I am glad that they gave Menken a chance to showcase his own work on the disc.

Home on the Range may be the last traditionally animated film from Disney for quite a while, but hopefully, that doesn't mean that Alan Menken is riding off into the sunset as well. He still has great music to write down the trail.

- Story by Steve Burns; Artwork ©Disney
Posted

Steve is a three-time Disney Store National Trivia finalist and webmaster of BurnsLand, home of Steve's Disney Railroad Adventures.

E-mail Steve at steve@startedbyamouse.com, discuss this article in the StartedByAMouse.com Disney Discussion Forums or use the Talkback feature below.

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