ROALD DAHL’S MATILDA THE MUSICAL SOUNDTRACK (Sony Music Masterworks, streaming and in shops now).
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
This gorgeous set of Tim Minchin songs – so familiar after years of having the original cast recording on repeat – have been rerecorded spectacularly for the new film, Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical. Though some instrumentation has changed and cuts abound, they are just as powerful as the first time you heard them in the theatre.
Christopher Nightingale serves as the executive music producer for this film and clearly he has put a lot of effort into making the score suitably cinematic. This soundtrack album includes numerous instrumental passages and underscoring that interpolates Minchin’s melodies with beautiful string arrangements – alongside one track that mostly consists of Bruce Bogtrotter’s belch. I could take or leave the latter, but the strings are a welcome addition. This cinematic polish has been applied to many of the songs too, adding a layer of sweeping grandeur to the numbers that just wasn’t possible with the previous band. As much as we love that original cast recording, there will be times listening to this when you wish a theatre pit could fit a full symphony orchestra.
The new cast are all impeccable singers of course, and the ensemble sounds especially huge on numbers like ‘Miracle’ and ‘Bruce’. Emma Thompson doesn’t have quite the same stage-honed breath control as the original cast’s phenomenal Bertie Carvel, but her numbers are attacked with absolute conviction and it is wonderful to hear a new take on Miss Trunchball’s cruel rantings.
The most significant new addition is the new song ‘Still Holding My Hand’. This track is almost overwhelmingly emotional, coming as it does at the very end of the soundtrack after a lot of tumult and tension. It is harmonically simple, but the instrumentation and arrangements drive the song forward and it makes for a fantastic close to the story.
Other highlights are hard to choose as since seeing the film, I have had the entire soundtrack stuck in my head. The new balloon-based presentation of ‘Quiet’ is especially moving, with the arrangement evoking that centre-of-the-storm feeling perfectly. Meanwhile, it is impossible not to be impressed by the masterful, epic executions of ‘School Song’ and ‘Revolting Children’.
With this album in your headphones, you will find yourself striding determinedly around the streets, ready to cause trouble and fight against the world’s many injustices. Until a number like ‘When I Grow Up’ or ‘My House’ makes you cry like a child.
Ian Bowkett
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