Soundtrack Review: Lost Season 4 (2009)

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This is a review of the television soundtrack Lost Season 4 by Michael Giacchino.

“The reflective optimism is gone, but the more dominant action and somber tones craft the strongest album for the show”

I think Season 4 of Lost was a fine return to consistent excellence that had been missing since the show’s first season, and with its superb introductions of new characters and heightened drama in the climactic closing episodes it may stand as the show’s best if the upcoming final season slips a bit.  With a less optimistic season comes an equally less optimistic score.  While other albums began with suspense or action before switching to emotional bright spots like “Credit Where Credit Is Due”, Season Four’s opening is decidedly more somber and would set the tone for a more intense album than we’re used to.

New Theme

The new theme in “Giving Up the Ghost”, the reverent “Locke’ing Horns” (a variation on “Looking Glass Half Full”), and the soaring take on Sayid’s theme in “Lost Away-Or Is It?” all give off a slightly worn down sense, and from here the album builds to its epic emotional conclusion.  As a representation of a season where things continue to go wrong it is superb, and it makes for a fantastic musical journey on album as well.  Certainly helping this is the new five-note freighter theme, a somewhat ominous brass statement that gets determined and dark to close the claustrophobic “Locke-About” and feels undeniably epic in the last minute of  “Bobbing for Freighters”, the series’ most exciting cue yet.  In fact, long stretches of the album constitute the most driving material yet for the series.  The stretch from “Bodies And Bungalows” to “Hostile Negotiations” features the brass, strings, and tribal drums at their most tense levels, though the closing cue does feature a statement of Ben’s theme with a heightened sense of drama.  In the climactic action cues from the season finale, even familiar themes get taken to their most soaring, dramatic heights.  The journey theme gets more powerful brass backup in “Nadia On Your Life” and “Timecrunch” while the emotional main theme from Season 1 flies in “Can’t Kill Keamy.”  Only the raucous “Keamy Away From Him” slightly disappoints due to its performance of the season finale action theme receiving little variation from its Season 2 statement.

Lighter Side

Of course, a number of cues still exist on the lighter side of the show’s musical tapestry.  Desmond’s love theme receives two performances with a more romanticized string presence, as well as a nice inclusion of harp plucking, while the love theme for Jin and Sun is beautifully weaved with the life and death theme in “Ji Yeon”.  “Maternity Hell” is the album’s sole comedic outlier, a light racing atmosphere that seems more at home with the style than Season 1’s “I’ve Got A Plane to Catch”, partially due to its subtle inclusion of the main emotional string theme.  Still, the reflective optimism that could always be sensed in previous albums is gone here, though thankfully the more dominant action and somber tones still explore enough excellent musical ground to make up for that.

Conclusion

Some individuals may lament the small amount of new thematic additions, and certainly casual listeners will fail to pick up on the three-note theme for Michael that starts “Michael’s Right To Remain Wrong.”  But as the show has progressed it has required fewer themes, and the superb development of previous themes (the somber deconstruction of Ben’s theme in “Locke of the Island” perhaps the best) makes the above concern fairly irrelevant.  The introduction of the new Oceanic 6 theme, perhaps the series’ finest musical creation, should mitigate what’s left of those concerns.  It’s certainly a sad melody to start, but it swells superbly as it goes along, and as the only theme of the show to really play out for an extended length it feels even stronger.  The more menacing trombone hits in “Of Mice and Ben” gives it a real heft, while the low-key shift in one of the themes from Season 1’s “Parting Words” to start in “Landing Party” creates one of the most affecting cues of the series.  On the whole, the album has no major weak points; its focus is enough to make up for the brevity of its suspense inclusions and crafts the strongest album for the show.  That it challenges Giacchino’s equally superb Up for emotional resonance is astounding for a Lost album, let alone an album for an TV score.  Here’s hoping Giacchino’s hot streak continues with Land of the Lost and that none of you accuse me of bias!

1. Giving Up the Ghost (2:40)
2. Locke’ing Horns (1:52)
3. Lost Away — Or Is It? (1:41)
4. Backgammon Gambit (1:19)
5. Time and Time Again (2:42)
6. The Constant (3:52)
7. Maternity Hell (2:31)
8. Karma Jin-itiative (1:24)
9. Ji Yeon (3:09)
10. Michael’s Right To Remain Wrong (1:54)
11. Bodies and Bungalows (1:23)
12. Benundrum (3:24)
13. Hostile Negotiations (2:21)
14. Locke-about (6:05)
15. There’s No Place Like Home (2:35)
16. Nadia On Your Life (1:42)
17. C4-titude (2:00)
18. Of Mice and Ben (2:19)
19. Keamy Away From Him (4:58)
20. Timecrunch (2:06)
21. Can’t Kill Keamy (1:48)
22. Bobbing For Freighters (5:20)
23. Locke of the Island (7:07)
24. Lying For the Island (4:53)
25. Landing Party (3:23)
26. Hoffs-Drawlar (3:50)

Listen to Lost Season 4 by Michael Giacchino below:

Find more videos like this on Soundtrack Fans

Other articles of interest:

• Soundtrack Review: Caprica (2009)
• Soundtrack Review: Crash the Series (2009)
• Soundtrack Review: Prison Break Seasons 3 & 4 (2009)
• Soundtrack Review: Heroes the Score (2009)
• Soundtrack Review: Lost Season Three (2008)

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