Soundtrack Review: True Blood (2009)

Posted by Jorn Tillnes

October 12, 2009

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093009 0427 SoundtrackR1 Soundtrack Review: True Blood (2009) This is a review of the television score True Blood by Nathan Barr.

“Nathan Barr has created a score which is worthy of the praise True Blood the TV show has gotten from fans and critics”

Welcome to the world of sex, violence and vampires. They are all ingredients in the critically acclaimed HBO TV show True Blood. Personally I thought it was a bit meh myself, but it’s certainly has a different take and feel than teeny vampire movies and shows like Twilight and The Vampire Diaries which is why everyone loves it (apparently). Carter Burwell did a minimalistic and rather plain score for Twilight and for True blood they got composer Nathan Barr. They are very different composers with different styles.

Track List

Take Me Home (By Lisbeth Scott)
Hairclip (****)
Bill’s Lament (***)
Gran’s Story (****)
Bill’s Entrance (*****)
First Taste (****)
Tara In The Pool (***)
Tripping (****)
Tara And Mother (****)
Grieve To Grave To Groove (*****)
The Tribunal (*****)
Amy’s Goodbye (*****)
Bill And Sookie Together (*****)
Priapism (*****)
More Than You Can Imagine (***)
The Cabin (**)
The Funeral (***)
Sancto Erico (Feat. Lisbeth Scott) (***)
Bill And Sookie’s Reunion (*****)
Jason And Amy (*****)
Love Theme (By Lisbeth Scott) (*****)

Horror and Violin

Nathan Barr certainly is no stranger to the horror genre, but he is new to the TV genre (unless you count a couple of TV show episodes he did in 2000). The style in True Blood is generally very dark and moody and it is Nathan Barr’s job to capture that. Has he succeeded? Let me just start by saying that it’s not your usual horror score. It’s moody yes, quite dark most of the time, but it’s not scary, scary bad that is.

Generally Nathan Barr opts to use violin, piano and guitar for the main course and pretty much stick to it, even for desert and beyond. As we all know, violin is a recipe for great horror stuff. The orchestration is pretty simple, which I like, except for a couple of cues. The themes are themselves quite simplistic, but that’s a good choice for the show. ‘Bill’s Entrance’ is an excellent example of how a simple theme can be great in this setting. Nathan Barr uses piano for the main motif while the guitar and strings make it a beautiful harmonious cue.

Rarely does he go the very dark place where so many horror scores have done before True Blood. ‘More Than You Imagine‘ is a very dark cello cue and with the cues ‘The Cabin’ and ‘The Funeral’ represents the darkest material on the score. ‘The Cabin’ is a typical horror score cue with random violin noises and what appears to be harp-like rambling in the background. Not a big fan to listen to cues like this on its own, but it’s creepy as hell when put with the right images.

Horror Scoring Done Right

‘Grieve To Grave To Grove’ is a great example of horror scoring done right. Nathan Barr has built a simple theme and utilized a voice as instrument (could this be Lisbeth Scott’s voice?). ‘The Tribunal’ is another great track which uses violin to great effect. The next cue ‘Amy’s Goodbye’ is an uplifting track for a change with a catchy piano and skewed guitar playing along the violin. This is clearly the best part of the score with the great cues racking up. ‘Bill and Sookie Together’ is a calm and quiet cue that gets a dramatic change about halfway through. ‘Priapism’ is like a page from Marco Beltrami’s playbook. It reminds me of that zany unorganized cue ‘Door Jam’ from Knowing in parts. It all ends quite uplifting with a couple of cues ‘Bill and Sookie’s Reunion’ (which reprises the theme from ‘Bill’s Entrance’ and ‘Hairclip‘) and ‘Jason and Amy’ which is a somber folksy theme. ‘Love Theme’ is credited to Lisbeth Scott (she does the piano bits according to my sources), but it sounds a lot like Nathan Barr. Great stuff nonetheless.

Conclusion

Nathan Barr has created a score which is worthy of the praise True Blood the TV show has gotten from fans and critics. It is very fitting, dark and moody, just not very scary (but it wouldn’t be a better score if it was). Lisbeth Scott is also featured in the opening song ‘Take Me Home’ and ‘Sancto Erico’, but this is definitely a Nathan Barr production and I thank him for another good score.

093009 0427 SoundtrackR2 Soundtrack Review: True Blood (2009)