Retrospective: Tomb Raider music albums produced by Dave Stewart featuring Rhona Mitra as Lara Croft [Updated]

Rhona Mitra as Lara Croft

In the late 1990s a commercial oddity in Tomb Raider music occurred, consisting of three peripheral releases green-lighted by the merchandise-hungry Tomb Raider marketing team (amidst their infamous efflux of licensing collectibles). Somehow Lara Croft ended up with a legitimate pop album on CD.

Dave Stewart, the other half of Annie-Lennox-featuring British 80s pop-rock duo Eurythmics, picked up the existing official Tomb Raider model - Rhona Mitra - to create a spin-off pop-driven amalgamation of electronica, dance, alternative and soft-rock music encased in Croft's name. Mitra lends her vocals and image, in-character, to the interesting collection.

1998's "Lara Croft: Come Alive" and its provocative single "Getting Naked" ('97) were successful enough (attribution to the character's popularity at the time, no doubt) that they were followed by another full album release entitled "Lara Croft: Female Icon" in 1999. The albums only saw a general release in France, and as Bert's All-New Citrus Sarcophagus puts it; "there’s so little about it on the web you’d think someone had tried to quietly erase it from pop history."

Track-by-track Tomb Raider: Original Soundtrack commentary

Composer Jason Graves has taken the time to discuss the entire Tomb Raider: Original Soundtrack with Europe's GameReactor magazine, providing a track-by-track commentary for the album. Graves details the musical construction of each track and alludes to their relative locations in the score by breaking down time-stamps. The critically acclaimed 20-track Tomb Raider: Original Soundtrack is available for purchase via:

• Amazon - Audio CD
• Amazon MP3
• iTunes (US; search in-program worldwide)
• Sumthing Digital

Follow the jump to read the entire commentary! SPOILER WARNING.

Tomb Raider: Original Soundtrack by Jason Graves launches, sold out, to a veritable triumph of critical acclaim

The Tomb Raider: Original Soundtrack CD is sold out on Amazon!

Get your copy of the Tomb Raider: Original Soundtrack today! Now available:

• Amazon - Audio CD
• Amazon MP3
• iTunes (US; search in-program worldwide)
• Sumthing Digital

Via Sumthing Else Music Works and in conjunction with Square Enix, BAFTA-winning composer Jason Graves accomplishes the first Tomb Raider video game soundtrack release in 17 years of the franchise with the publication of the Tomb Raider: Original Soundtrack. To much anticipation from fans, old and new, the official release of this body of music marks a triumph in the growing video game music industry. The demand as a collectible is maximally quenched as the first batch of the physical Audio CD sells out on major retailer Amazon.com:

Two exclusive Tomb Raider tracks released by composer

As teased earlier in the year, two exclusive musical pieces by Tomb Raider (2013) composer Jason Graves have been released at the 1 million fan mark for the Official Tomb Raider Facebook Page:

We've crossed the million mark on Facebook.com/TombRaider! Claim your tracks by @jgmusic for supporting: sqex.to/7q6

— Tomb Raider (@tombraider) March 5, 2013

Download the tracks via the links below! These two do not feature on the 20-track Tomb Raider: Original Soundtrack, released in physical and digital music stores today. Graves details each new piece:

Hunted
“There’s a lot of exploring and sneaking to do around the island. I wanted ‘The Island’ itself to have a voice, speaking through the music when Lara was exploring. Even more so when she’s being stealthily, like in this cue. Listen for the textures from The Instrument and my own percussion sounds. They represent The Island as one of the game’s main characters.”

MP3 & Wav Files: Download

Scaling The Mountainside
“This piece is a great example of the dynamic music system in Tomb Raider. A great deal of the game was scored one event at a time, so as Lara progresses through a level the music moves with her. This is a lot more seamless than just using a standard two minutes loop and repeating it for ten minutes. Listen for the music to change as Lara explores the mountainside and encounters enemies.”

MP3 & Wav Files: Download

First impressions of the Tomb Raider: Original Soundtrack

Lara Croft & her mentor Conrad Roth
This article will serve as a review of the upcoming Tomb Raider (2013) soundtrack release, since we are able to listen to the entire album at music.aol.com. But I warn you; it is my opinion and not everybody will agree with it.

Correction: "Survivalist Cut" a selection of tracks from the Tomb Raider: Original Soundtrack; no longer exclusive cues

Tomb Raider's "Survivalist Cut" Audio CD in the NA Collector's & Survivor Edition(s)

Today in an interview by Meagan Marie for the 18th Crystal Habit Podcast, Tomb Raider (2013) composer Jason Graves detailed that due to beureaucratic difficulties the "Survivalist Cut" of the soundtrack to Tomb Raider (that comes packaged in the deluxe retail editions of the game) has been altered in content since its annoucement.

Originally the "Survivalist Cut" was intended to consist of 10 exclusive tracks for fans and collectors; material that would not appear on the impending standalone commercial release (Tomb Raider: Original Soundtrack). Unfortunately, the 35 minutes of music that features on the "Survivalist Cut" is now a selection of the 70 minutes available on the full soundtrack release. Composer Jason Graves:

"...I was going to put 30 minutes of exclusive music on the collector’s edition, the Survivalist Cut, and then have as many minutes as I could cram onto the soundtrack release. But I’d have them be different, because to me, as a fan of music, if I were getting a special edition or anything like that, I would love to have… In film music the equivalent is like outtakes or unused cuts or deleted, never-used music. There was something with the record label and the UPC codes and things that basically… We had to make the collector’s edition a subset of the final album. There’s about 35 minutes on the collector’s edition. Those same 35 minutes are on the final album, plus another 40 minutes of music."

Nevertheless, Graves intends to see at least some if not all of the missed tracks become available for streaming via SoundCloud. Tomb Raider and the Tomb Raider: Original Soundtrack release worldwide on March 5th, 2013.

Jason Graves talks music in the Crystal Habit Podcast #18: selection of community questions via MoTR answered!

Two weeks ago MoTR was invited to provide community derived questions for Crystal Dynamics Community & Communications Manager, Meagan Marie, for use in her interview with BAFTA-winning composer Jason Graves about his work on Tomb Raider (2013).

Today the podcast went live @ the Official Tomb Raider Blog! The recording reaches almost an hour and is immensely detailed. After a lengthy discourse on Graves' career background and particular tidbits regarding the music of Tomb Raider, Marie asks the composer a selection of community questions from those submitted.

Tomb Raider, a reimagning of the iconic franchise, is set for worldwide release on March 5th for PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

Follow the jump for the entire transcript!