The Life and Times of Scrooge (more fully - Music Inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge [ English Music inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge ]) is the first solo studio album of Tuomas Holopainen, the symphonic metal band of Nightwish . It was released on April 11, 2014 [2] . The album is made in the genre of symphonic instrumental music with an admixture of folk music.
| The Life and Times of Scrooge | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||
| Studio album by Tuomas Holopainen | |||||||
| Date of issue | April 11, 2014 | ||||||
| Recorded by | August - October 2013 | ||||||
| Genres | soundtrack neoclassical folk | ||||||
| Duration | 54:05 | ||||||
| Producer | Tuomas Holopainen | ||||||
| A country |  Finland | ||||||
| Language of songs | English | ||||||
| Labels | Nuclear Blast [1] | ||||||
| |||||||
Vocalist Johanna Kurkela , Fluteist of Nightwish Troy Donokly , an old friend of Tuomas Tony Kakko (singer of Sonata Arctica ) and others also took part in the recording of the album.
History
The album is based on the comic book “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck ” by Don Rosa , whose fan is Holopainen. He read these comic books as a child, and they gave him "a strange feeling, a feeling of being at home." Holopainen said that he understood Scrooge as a character with an inflexible, honest and complex character [3] . For the first time the idea to write a comic strip soundtrack came to Holopainen in 1999 [4] .
In 2013, to record Tuomas Holopainen and the album's sound engineer, Tero Kinnunen, they rented a wooden house in a forest in southern Finland and in 10 days made a demo of all the songs of the album. Holopainen didn’t set a goal to completely follow the plot of the comic, he called the main point the meaning of the songs, which should have been understood by itself [5] . In the end, as Holopainen admits, the “range of moods” on the album went quite far from the works of Don Rosa [6] .
The first single and video “A Lifetime of Adventure” was released on February 5, 2014. The vocal part belongs to Johanna Kurkela .
7 weeks after the release, the album received gold status in Finland [7] [8] [9] .
Song List
| CD 1 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Title | Duration | |||||||
| one. | "Glasgow 1877" | 6:27 | |||||||
| 2 | "Into the West" | 5:01 | |||||||
| 3 | "Duel & Cloudscapes" | 4:49 | |||||||
| four. | "Dreamtime" | 4:47 | |||||||
| five. | "Cold Heart of the Klondike" | 6:52 | |||||||
| 6 | "The Last Sled" | 5:40 | |||||||
| 7 | Goodbye Papa | 6:26 | |||||||
| eight. | "To Be Rich" | 3:22 | |||||||
| 9. | "A Lifetime of Adventure" | 6:15 | |||||||
| ten. | "Go Slowly Now, Sands of Time" | 4:35 | |||||||
| Bonus track | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Title | Duration | |||||||
| eleven. | "A Lifetime of Adventure (Alternative Version)" | Six o'clock | |||||||
| 60:14 [1] | |||||||||
| CD2 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Title | Duration | |||||||
| one. | "Glasgow 1877 (Instrumental)" | 6:27 | |||||||
| 2 | "Into the West (Instrumental)" | 5:01 | |||||||
| 3 | "Duel & Cloudscapes" | 4:49 | |||||||
| four. | "Dreamtime" | 4:47 | |||||||
| five. | "Cold Heart of the Klondike (Instrumental)" | 6:52 | |||||||
| 6 | "The Last Sled (Instrumental)" | 5:27 | |||||||
| 7 | Goodbye Papa | 6:26 | |||||||
| eight. | "To Be Rich (Instrumental)" | 3:22 | |||||||
| 9. | "A Lifetime of Adventure (Instrumental)" | 6:17 | |||||||
| ten. | "Go Slowly Now, Sands of Time (Instrumental)" | 4:35 | |||||||
| 54:01 | |||||||||
Charts
Although the album was not so successful worldwide - 29th place in the US Billboard Top Heatseekers rating, 92nd place in the UK Official Charts Company charts , the album achieved great success in Finland, taking the first place in the Finland chart and getting gold status.
| Chart (2014) | Higher position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Albums ( Ö3 Austria ) [10] | 52 |
| Belgian Albums ( Ultratop Flanders) [11] | 74 |
| Belgian Albums ( Ultratop Wallonia) [12] | 106 |
| Dutch Albums ( MegaCharts ) [13] | 92 |
| Finnish Albums ( Suomen virallinen lista ) [14] | one |
| French Albums ( SNEP ) [15] | 80 |
| German Albums ( Media Control ) [16] | 23 |
| Swiss Albums ( Schweizer Hitparade ) [17] | nineteen |
| UK Albums ( OCC ) [18] | 92 |
| Top Heatseekers Albums ( Billboard ) [19] | 29 |
Criticism
| Reviews | |
|---|---|
| Critical ratings | |
| A source | Evaluation |
| Laut.de | [20] |
| Metal Rules | [21] |
| World of fiction | [22] |
Olaf Schmidt, a reviewer for the German Laut.de website, rated the album fairly neutral. Immediately, he warns Nightwish fans that this album is not at all like their work, but is going in a completely different direction. He noted that Holopainen's great advantage is his extensive experience with the symphony orchestra, and the album itself sounds like a pompous soundtrack for a fantastic film. Schmidt considered the best songs on the album to be those that did not have vocals (for example, “Goodbye, Papa”). Finally, he advised us to use the orchestra more: “maybe it will work out well”. His final rating is 3 stars out of 5.
Unlike Schmidt, Metal Rules ' website reviewer Ellias Papadopoulos was delighted with the album. He gave him the highest score - 5 out of 5, and wrote that "Holopainen is one of the most outstanding composers of our days." He also called the album brilliantly told in the old style of entertaining history.
Record Members
- Tuomas Holopainen - keyboards
- Pip Williams - orchestral arrangement
- Tero Kinnunen - sound engineering
Guest Artists
- Troy Donokly - bagpipes , flutes
- Mikko Ivanainen - guitar , banjo
- Dermot Crane - Violin
- Theo Miamaki - didgeridoo
- John Byur - harmonica
Invited vocalists
- Johanna Kurkela - vocals, voice Goldie "Zolotko" (girlfriend Scrooge)
- Johanna Ivanainen - vocals, voice of Downey O'Drake (Scrooge's mother)
- Alan Reid - voice of Scrooge
- Tony Kakko - vocals, voice narrator
Orchestra and Choir
- London Philharmonic Orchestra - Orchestra under the direction of Pip Williams
- Metro Voice - London choir
Notes
- 2 1 2 The Life and Times of Scrooge - Tuomas Holopainen (Eng.) . AllMusic . The appeal date was July 6, 2014. Archived July 6, 2014.
- ↑ First details about Tuomas's solo album "The Life And The Times Of Scrooge" (English) . Nightwish.com (28 November 2013). The appeal date was July 6, 2014. Archived July 6, 2014.
- ↑ Member of Finnish metal band Nightwish working on Scrooge McDuck-inspired album (Eng.) . New Musical Express (18 February 2013). - Keyboard player Tuomas Holopainen reveals unlikely influence on new project. The appeal date was July 6, 2014. Archived July 6, 2014.
- ↑ Tuomas Holopainen. How did the project about Scrooge . Tuomas-Holopainen.com (December 7, 2012). The appeal date was July 6, 2014. Archived July 6, 2014.
- ↑ Tuomas Holopainen. McDuck - demo is ready . Tuomas-Holopainen.com (June 5, 2013). The appeal date was July 6, 2014. Archived July 6, 2014.
- ↑ Timo Isoaho. Tuomas Holopainen: "Viimeisen miksausviikon aikana ei ehtinyt nukkumaan" - lue myös viimeisimmät Nightwish-uutiset (fin.) . Soundi.fi (7. marraskuuta 2013). The appeal date was July 6, 2014. Archived July 6, 2014.
- ↑ Tuomas Holopainen - solo album went gold in Finland! (eng.) . nightwish.com (5 June 2014). The appeal date was July 6, 2014. Archived July 6, 2014.
- ↑ TUOMAS HOLOPAINEN - The Life Of Scrooge Certified Gold In Finland (Eng.) . bravewords.com (4 June 2014). The appeal date was July 6, 2014. Archived July 6, 2014.
- ↑ TUOMAS HOLOPAINEN - solo album went gold in Finland! (eng.) . Nuclear Blast (4 June 2014). The appeal date was July 6, 2014. Archived July 6, 2014.
- ↑ Tuomas Holopainen - The Life And Times Of Scrooge (him) . Austriancharts.at. Hung Medien.
- " Tuomas Holopainen - The Life And Times Of Scrooge" (nid.) . Ultratop.be. Hung Medien.
- ↑ " Tuomas Holopainen - The Life And Times of Scrooge" (Fr.) . Ultratop.be. Hung Medien.
- ↑ Tuomas Holopainen - The Life And Times Of Scrooge . Dutchcharts.nl. Hung Medien.
- ↑ Tuomas Holopainen: The Life And Times of Scrooge (Fin.) . Musiikkituottajat - IFPI Finland.
- ↑ Tuomas Holopainen - The Life And Times Of Scrooge . Lescharts.com. Hung Medien.
- Long Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline . Musicline.de. Media Control .
- ↑ Tuomas Holopainen - The Life And Times Of Scrooge . Swisscharts.com. Hung Medien.
- ↑ “Tuomas Holopainen | Artist | Official Charts . UK Albums Chart . The Official Charts Company.
- ↑ Tuomas Holopainen - Chart History Billboard Top Heatseekers Albums for Tuomas Holopainen.
- ↑ Olaf Schmidt. "The Life And Times Of Scrooge" von Tuomas Holopainen (German) . laut.de (11. April 2014). - Der Nightwish-Chef huldigt Dagobert Duck .. Circulation date July 6, 2014. Archived July 6, 2014.
- ↑ Hellias Papadopoulos. Tuomas Holopainen - Music Inspired by the Life and Time of Scrooge (Eng.) . Metal-Rules.com (27 April 2014). The appeal date was July 6, 2014. Archived July 6, 2014.
- ↑ Alexey Ionov. The Life And Times Of Scrooge // The World Of Fiction : Journal. - 2014. - V. 131 , № 7 . - p . 96 .
Links
- Darklyrics Lyrics
- The Life and Times of Scrooge on Discogs
- The Life and Times of Scrooge (English) on the MusicBrainz website