Soundtrack Review: Lost Season Two (2006)

Posted by Jon Blough

June 8, 2009

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Lost Season 2 This is a review of the television score Lost Season Two by Michael Giacchino.

“The album is a strong dark expansion, but the lack of thematic focus for those darker parts holds back greatness”

Season Two of Lost was probably its weakest. The Tailies storyline (SPOILER!) was ultimately superfluous, especially with all but Bernard being deceased, and some of the flashbacks were a bit pointless. Lost was still a strong show, but not brilliant anymore, though it would regain that mantle midway through Season 3. Still maintaining the show’s high standards would be Michael Giacchino’s music, which stripped away the melodic focus of season one and became harsher and suspense oriented. It was a good idea as a full reprise would have been redundant, and pared with the show it was of course excellent, but on album the challenge would be keeping up the focus that made Season One’s arrangement of highlights so superb.

Bleak Feeling

At least in stylistic focus, Season Two’s album succeeds in feeling bleak. No understated emotional uplift comes until about 10 minutes in, and the album concludes with a lengthy arrangement of more menacing cues. The action is more tense and menacing, like the percussion-controlled “Peace Through Superior Firepower” (again with the witty track titles!) and “The Hunt” (with that brass motif that oddly appears only in season finales). The suspense is more textured; the scattered piano in “Charlie’s Dream” gives the familiar use of the mystery motif a more creepy (dare I say “lost”) edge while the constant percussive beat to “I Crashed Your Plane, Brotha” gives a determined one. And the concluding cues sharply contrast with the close to Season One’s album, giving us Ben’s descending brass slurs (one of the most memorable thematic uses in the show) and the primative, chromatic motif for The Others. Yet there was something to be said for the simple, elegant beauty of the melodic statements on Season One’s album, and though the material may have matured, it is a slightly less attractive package this time round, at least separated from its imagery.

Not All Bleak

However, the album is not all bleak; it isn’t Lost’s take on Call of Duty. Much of the album’s middle, as well as most of the new themes introduced in the earlier parts, are in the same vein as the emotionally resonant personality of Season One. Hugo gets a whopping three motifs in succession, with the uplifting, strumming one in “Hurley’s Handouts” (melodically similar to “Parting Words from Season One) being the best, one of the happier statements of the series along with the similarly strumming theme for Eko in “All’s Forgiven…Except Charlie”. And the introduction of the love themes for “Rose And Bernard”, Jin and Sun (“The Last to Know”), and Desmond (“Bon Voyage, Traitor”) give the show its most heartfelt presence yet, with the latter being even heartbreaking. Still, the later references slowly become more sorrowful until the aforementioned bleak conclusion. The somber addiction theme in “Charlie’s Temptation is too brief to leave an impression here, but the sorrow behind the piano solo on Sayid’s theme in “A New Trade” is memorable.

Conclusion

Perhaps the score’s smartest element is how it twists most of the major themes from Season One into more bleak or uncertain incarnations. The former main theme is less uplifting and more sorrowful here, like the lonely string use in “Ana Cries”. Locke’s hunter motif weaves a superb, sometimes hypnotic suspense feel in “The Final Countdown” as it contrasts with the primary suspense motif and the new creepy string melody for the hatch. Not all moments are bleaker (“The Gathering” and “Shannon’s Funeral” are touching emotional expansions), but the feel at the end of the album is that things have become a bit uneasier in the Lost universe. Overall, the album is a strong dark expansion, but the lack of thematic focus for those darker parts holds back the organized highlights from greatness. If the themes for Ben, the Others, and the hatch recieved more development and performances, perhaps the album could stand toe-to-toe with its predecessor. Still, it’s one of the most ingenious and character-driven scores for a TV show you’ll ever find.

Album (64:47)

1. Main Title (:17)
2. Peace Through Superior Firepower (1:26)
3. The Final Countdown (5:48)
4. World’s Worst Landscaping (1:17)
5. Mess It All Up (1:27)
6. Hurley’s Handouts (4:42)
7. Just Another Day on the Beach (2:47)
8. Ana Cries (1:48)
9. The Tribes Merge (2:03)
10. The Gathering (4:19)
11. Shannon’s Funeral (2:12)
12. All’s Forgiven… Except Charlie (5:19)
13. Charlie’s Dream (1:50)
14. Charlie’s Temptation (:51)
15. A New Trade (2:39)
16. Mapquest (:39)
17. Claire’s Escape (3:44)
18. The Last to Know (2:21)
19. Rose and Bernard (2:39)
20. Toxic Avenger (:40)
21. I Crashed Your Plane, Brotha (1:45)
22. Eko Blaster (1:44)
23. The Hunt (3:57)
24. McGale’s Navy (2:22)
25. Bon Voyage, Traitor (5:30)
26. End Title (:32)