Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Looking for Full Moon Collection?

Stream and Listen from Rhapsody!

When Sailor Moon was first produced and released for North America in 1995, the dub did not contain any of the original music cues and songs from the Japanese version. Michael Benghiat , Bob Summers, and Andy Heyward composed most of the tracks that were used in the series. Some of the tracks obviously had influences from the original Japanese Score (such as the Sailor Moon theme song, and some other cues used in the series). And if there is one thing most fans agree on, aside from the theme song, the music cues made the series it’s own! Which fan doesn’t get pumped up hearing the technolized North America Transformation music?

Three Soundtrack CDs were released. The first one was Songs from the Hit TV Series in 1996, and then came Lunarock in 1997. Lunarock was special because it included two songs from Japan, the theme song as well as the battle anthem, Ai no Senshi! Both albums were released by EMI Music Canada.

Full Moon Collection was released by Koch Records in 2002 and featured nearly every instrumental cue that was used in the series. This CD was so popular that it’s initial run had completely sold out, and subsequent copies became really hard to find! However this CD (like everything else in North America), went out of print. This album is still in high demand among the North American fans, and we’ve seen copies go on eBay for over $50!

Fans who wish to listen to the music, have another, odd option. Online music service Rhapsody has this album on stream only. You cannot pay for these tracks (and therefore, cannot download them to your machine). If you pay for one of their membership plans, you are allowed unlimited streaming privileges, and their free account gives you 25 free streams per month. I have tried this service, and though it is a bit of a RAM hog, it’s a nice alternative to iTunes! Once you have downloaded the client, search for Sailor Moon and follow the links to begin play (or click that link and launch the client)! The quality is quite good and we strongly recommend fans looking to hear this album find their way to Rhapsody as this is one of the only places online where all the tracks from the album can be heard. As for the other CDs since they have gone out of print, your best bet is to hunt around eBay or other auction sites for a copy, or hop over to Sailormusic .

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the update. It's good to know that the english soundtracks (while generally inferior to the originals, IMO) are out there and available for fans who grew up on the dub to enjoy.