Marvel Black Panther Soundtrack Review
Marvel’s latest movie, Black Panther, is hitting cinemas and this soundtrack album features songs from a variety of different artists including SZA, The Weeknd, Future, Jay Rock, James Blake and many more, under the control of Kendrick Lamar and Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith.
With the Black Panther movie set in the fictional African country of “Wakanda” and featuring a primarily African-American cast, this album fits perfectly into the theming of the movie, since its a blend of hip hop, rap and R & B, that makes this a very gritty album that is unlike any Marvel movie soundtrack, but reminded me of the soundtracks to the Netflix Marvel shows, Luke Cage.
There are some big heavy hitting tracks on this album such as “All The Stars” and “Prey For Me” that are easily my favourite songs from the album. These songs stand out above the rest because they are much more mainstream, bringing together some amazing vocals and catchy choruses.
But the bad language in this album is one of my big issues with it, since this is a very rap heavy album, which has made it extremely explicit and is certainly not a “family friendly” album, though there are clean versions of many of the songs available, which I would recommend checking out before listening to, especially if there are younger listeners around. I don’t mind a little bit of swearing in songs, but for me, a few of the songs just felt it was overdone and that it doesn’t fit the mainstream audience that this album could appeal to. After listening to this album half a dozen times, I have come away from it thinking that the majority of the songs on this album just aren’t for me and I wouldn’t listen to again out of choice. But I haven’t been able to stop humming “All The Stars” all weekend, since it’s very catchy.
However, there are still many tracks on this album that I did enjoy, if you enjoy hip hop music, you’ll probably love this album, but the majority of it just isn’t for me. This album has been getting rave reviews from many music critics and by fans on social media, so I do suggest listening to some of the album yourself to make your own opinion.
With the majority of the film taking place in Wakanda, many of the tracks have a African feel to them, since they apparently used recordings from Senegal and South Africa local musicians to form the “base” of this soundtrack, so there are lots of heavy drums and also plenty of shout outs to Wakanda in a couple of different tracks. All of this helps bring the album back inline with the movie and I’m going to be interested to see how these songs integrate with the movie.
While this is a movie tie-in, it stands out on its own right and could easily be taken for Kendrick Lamar’s latest album. This album shows how Marvel have taken creating this soundtrack seriously and how it’s a major part of fitting the movies theme perfectly. This couldn’t be any more different to their previous soundtrack release Thor: Ragnarok.
OVERALL:
Honestly, this album has been a tricky one for me to review since I’m just not a big fan of Hip Hop, especially rap heavy tracks. They just aren’t my “cup of tea”, however I did love the more “radio friendly” tracks from this album such as “Pray For Me” and “All The Stars”, these are fantastic and well worth listening to, with a few other tracks that I also found enjoyable. Now I’m even more excited to see the Black Panther movie!
REVIEW SCORE: 7 out of 10
You can purchase this album now from Amazon.