Soundtrack Review: The Life Before Her Eyes by James Horner (2008)

Posted by Jorn Tillnes

May 20, 2008

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051208-1601-soundtrackr1 Soundtrack Review: The Life Before Her Eyes by James Horner (2008) This is a review of the motion picture score for The Life Before Her Eyes by James Horner.

“The real fans can enjoy this for years to come, but it won’t be a bestseller which it truly deserves to be”

This is James Horner’s second offering this year. The first one was for the fantasy movie “The Spiderwick Chronicles” and this score is for a drama/thriller called “The Life Before Her Eyes”. I don’t need to introduce James Horner because he’s of course one of the most famous composers in Hollywood and has composed for over 100 movies. His last thriller score was in 2006 for “All the King’s Men” which was a rather disappointing soundtrack. This movie was released last year, but the score was released on April 15^th. This is the track list of The Life Before Her Eyes:

Track List

An Ordinary Day
Diana - A Future To Be…
Becoming Close Friends
All The Memories From An Old Photo Album
The Gift Of A Necklace
”Choose! Time to Decide”
Diana Gets Hit By A Car
Two Lives Slowly Converging
Diana’s Young Conscience Is Finally Formed
The Memorial - The Laying Of Flowers
Two Worlds; The Past and the Future
Young Diana’s Future - A Future That Could Have Been…

Magnetic Power

There’s only 12 tracks here, but they are quite long. Total play time is 54 minutes. It’s always exciting whenever James Horner comes out with something new, and this is actually something “new”. This is not a typical James Horner score with grand thematic sweeping elements that he so good at. We have to go back to 2003 and his score to “House of Sand and Fog” to find similarities. The score has a magnetic power on me, it draws me in to listen closely to the small variances, the tinkling piano and the seemingly everlasting strings. There’s almost no percussion (except for the last track), but just piano and strings for the most part.

Best Score Of The Year?

This is some of James Horner’s best work and it’s both a shame and joy that it is to an “unknown” movie. The real fans can enjoy this for years to come, but it won’t be a bestseller which it truly deserves to be. You can listen to this to almost any situation, as for me, I would like to be high up in the mountains looking down at the world enjoying this hour of amazing music. It is a truly breathtaking effort from James Horner and is his best score since “The Missing” and “House of Sand and Fog” in 2003. The best score of the year so far.

Negatives: