Prince had stumbled commercially with Lovesexy, which may be one of the reasons he decided to record the soundtrack for Tim Burton's dark, gothic interpretation of the DC comic Batman.
Reportedly, the Batman album was recorded quickly, and it shows in the loose, offhand nature of the songs, which actually comes as some relief after the big ambitions of all of his records since 1999.
"The Future" and "Electric Chair" are fine, funky one-man efforts, and "Vicki Waiting" is an excellent pure pop song, while "Arms of Orion" is embarrassingly enjoyable sappy mainstream balladry and "Batdance" is a fun dance-club pastiche of the entire album.
Even with these highlights, there are no true classics on the record, and it tends to evaporate in the memory after it's finished -- there's no doubt it spent six weeks at the top of the charts because of the blockbuster film.
Still, Batman sounds fine while it's playing.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The FuturePrince | Prince | Play | 04:08 | 9 MB | 20 MB |
| 2 | Electric ChairPrince | Prince | Play | 04:08 | 9 MB | 26 MB |
| 3 | The Arms of OrionSheena Easton, Prince | Prince, Sheena Easton | Play | 05:03 | 11 MB | 29 MB |
| 4 | PartymanPrince | Prince | Play | 03:11 | 7 MB | 20 MB |
| 5 | Vicki WaitingPrince | Prince | Play | 04:52 | 11 MB | 32 MB |
| 6 | TrustPrince | Prince | Play | 04:24 | 10 MB | 28 MB |
| 7 | Lemon CrushPrince | Prince | Play | 04:15 | 9 MB | 25 MB |
| 8 | ScandalousJohn Nelson, Prince | Prince | Play | 06:15 | 14 MB | 35 MB |
| 9 | BatdancePrince | Prince | Play | 06:13 | 14 MB | 38 MB |
| 42 mins | 97 MB | |||||
| 42 mins | 258 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kim Basinger | Guest Artist, Vocals |
| 2 | Atlanta Bliss | Choir/Chorus, Horn, Orchestra, Performer |
| 3 | Michael Dilbeck | Music Supervisor |
| 4 | Sheena Easton | Composer, Guest Artist, Performer, Primary Artist, Vocals |
| 5 | Anna Fantastic | Vocals |
| 6 | Clare Fischer | Orchestra |
| 7 | Clare Fischer Orchestra | Choir/Chorus, Horn, Orchestra, Performer |
| 8 | David Friedlander | Assistant, Assistant Engineer, Mixing |
| 9 | Peter Guber | Executive Producer |
| 10 | Heidi Hanschu | Assistant, Assistant Engineer, Mixing |
| 11 | Femi Jiya | Engineer, Guest Artist, Mastering, Mixing |
| 12 | Jeff Katz | Photography |
| 13 | Michael Keaton | Vocals |
| 14 | Eric Leeds | Choir/Chorus, Horn, Orchestra, Performer |
| 15 | Gary LeMel | Executive Producer |
| 16 | Chris Lord-Alge | Mixing |
| 17 | Eddie Miller | Assistant Engineer, Mixing |
| 18 | John Nelson | Composer |
| 19 | Jack Nicholson | Guest Artist, Vocals |
| 20 | Jon Peters | Executive Producer |
| 21 | Prince | Arranger, Bass, Composer, Drums, Engineer, Guitar, Keyboards, Mixing, Performer, Primary Artist, Producer, Re-Arranged, Vocals, Vocals (Background) |
| 22 | Tom Recchion | Design |
| 23 | Sounds of Blackness | Choir/Chorus, Horn, Vocals (Background) |
| 24 | Howie Weinberg | Mastering |
| 25 | Chuck Zwicky | Assistant, Assistant Engineer, Mixing |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |