Finnish composer and musician Tuomas HOLOPAINEN is first and foremost known as a key member of Finnish rock band Nightwish, a band that have established itself as a household name in music circles and whose albums are widely popular worldwide. “Music Inspired by The Life and Times of Scrooge” is Holopainen’s first solo album, and was released through German label Nuclear Blast in 2014.
A few notes to begin with, in what will be a fairly lengthy exposition. This album draws it’s inspiration by a Disney Character, Scrooge McDuck. One of the characters from the Donald Duck part of that franchise, and a franchise that by and large have not been a focus for the Disney concern as they prefer to market Mickey Mouse. The Donald Duck part of their history is one severely neglected, and mainly used for comic relief by them. The character of Scrooge McDuck in particular is one they have never managed to understand, and while they did attempt to popularize it somehow in the 80’s with the rather horrible Duck Tales series, that series presented a shallow, one-dimensional aspect of this character, changing him from the closed-in, egoistic and still partially bitter person he actually is to a benevolent but volatile rich man with a conscience.
This album is inspired by a series of stories penned and drawn by US comics artist Don Rosa, whose majestic and inspiring story was one the Disney company didn’t want to touch even with a fire-rake. It was eventually released through an indie company, Gladstone if I recall correctly, and was never subject to the Disney marketing machine that would have made it the success it deserved to be. In my view, as a now famous politician tends to say, Don Rosa’s “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck” is possibly the best ever literary work to be made in the US. That it has ducks in the starring roles is really a side issue. This is a story that easily could have been rewritten with people instead of ducks, and it would have been a riveting story if told or televised in that manner. It is a magnificent tale that has everything: Humor, sadness, despair, failure, success, love, good and evil in it. Even Teddy Roosevelt. It is also a story that couldn’t have been written anywhere else in the world but the US.
To describe this album, there’s a need to recap this story. Because the story ios the context here, and this is a story that most people in the US will not even have heard about and only a token few have read. As the massive graphic novel containing the story is long out of print, and will stay that way if the Disney concern will get to have a say about it, this is a story most people in the US probably won’t ever get the chance to read even if they want to.
This story opens when Scrooge McDuck, a young boy from a once wealthy Scottish family that have fallen on hard times, decides that what is best for him is to travel to the United States to seek his fortune there. He boards a ship, works his way over, and has a series of adventures and misadventures in the US. Trying to broaden his scope and seek success elsewhere, he travels to Africa and Australia next, and then return to the US and partakes in the gold rush in Klondike. Where he finds both love, which he denies himself, and his first success.
He then returns to his native Scotland, get to have a final goodbye with his old father, and when Scrooge leaves Scotland he takes with him his two sisters. Scrooge’s father dies just as Scrooge has left. Scrooge also secures the family property, an old castle, as part of this history. Scrooge then settles in the US (Calisota), and use this as a base of operations as he travels the world, getting ever richer and more wealthy.
His many years of adventure and hardship have changed him as a person however, and he starts using increasingly more devious manners in which to earn money, more and more frequently crossing ethical and moral boundaries, even resorting to downright cheating and employing thugs to force his way to even more wealth. His family gets increasingly more disgusted with his methods, and eventually leaves him and all his money. A few years later Scrooge retires, and becomes a recluse. The wealthiest man in the world but also the loneliest. An angry, bitter and cold man, just about devoid of regular human emotions.
It is at this end point that he was introduced into the Donald Duck franchise some 70 years ago, where his volatile nephew Donald and his three nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie slowly enable Scrooge McDuck to rediscover his true self and what his real values are. Don Rosa’s achievement here is to map out the events that lead to Scrooge McDuck transforming from an idealistic young man seeking fame and fortune into becoming a cold, cynical and at times evil capitalist, chronicling what his life was until he was introduced into the Donald Duck part of the Disney franchise.
This is a rather brief summary of the background story for Holpainen’s album. And while he doesn’t actually follow all aspects and trajectories of Don Rosa’s work, as far as I can hear the latter phase in particular isn’t given much space here and is possibly replaced by sentiments of a gentler nature. The rags to riches story and all the grand adventures have been covered really well however. The childhood in Scotland, initial adventures in the US, journeys to Africa, Australia and then the success in Klondike, and also the build-up of immense wealth afterwards.
Holopainen have opted to create a movie score type of album rather than a regular rock album for this, which in my view is a perfect choice. While the stories have numerous details, the driving force of the story are all emotional, and movie scores manage to convey those in an efficient and compelling manner, especially when you are familiar with the story told through that kind of music. Orchestral and mainly instrumental music is the name of the game here, gentle sweeping movements alternating with majestic, grandiose crescendos that at times has an almost Wagnerian touch to them, with some spoken words here and there, and a liberal amount of striking, female lead and backing vocals further enhancing the emotional impact; at least for those familiar with all aspects of the story told here. The Scottish roots of the Scrooge character is a recurring feature, the melancholy of a man whose ambitions overtakes his humanity well represented on numerous occasions, and the grand adventures mapped out in suitably adventurous and breathtaking scope. The use of Spaghetti western soundtrack elements on the composition Into the West also documents that Holopainen is blatantly aware of how familiar sounding elements has a magical way of adding associations to a composition, much the same can be said for how flutes are used to produce haunting emotional laden details in numerous compositions throughout.
My conclusion is that this is a brilliant album in it’s own right. As a movie score production in itself it is extremely well made, those with a taste for productions of that nature should find this album to be a compelling and rewarding experience on those merits alone. But for those familiar with and with an emotional attachment to the genius work of Don Rosa that inspired this album, my view is that this CD is one that will impress on a massive level, a breathtaking experience of almost purebred magical bliss, an album experience that will inspire to laughs, and to tears. Immense sorrow, immense happiness and astounding beauty that should even move the heart and soul of the lonely, bitter Scrooge McDuck as he was just prior to being introduced to Donald and his three nephews.
My rating: 94/100
