Movie Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the motion picture score Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Christophe Beck.

“Percy Jackson appears to be quite heroic and big on the outside, but it’s not quite there”

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief is based on the book by Rick Riordan who has written 5 very succesful books about Percy Jackson, the fantasy novel based on Greek mythology. Percy Jackson isn’t like regular kids, he is the actually a demigod, the son of a human woman and the Greek God Poseidon. An apocalyptic war is afoot between the Greek Gods Zeus, Poseidon and Hades and Percy and his friends are on a mission to stop it. It’s directed by Chris Colombus and starring Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson. The composer is Christophe Beck who returns to the fantasy movie genre for the first time since 2007.

Track List

01. Prelude (****)
02. The Minotaur (****)
03. Chiron (****)
04. Victory (****)
05. The Fury (*****)
06. Dyslexia (***)
07. The Hydra (****)
08. Medusa (***)
09. Son of Poseidon (****)
10. The Parthenon (****)
11. Hollywood (****)
12. Lost Souls (****)
13. Fighting Luke, Part 1 (*****)
14. Fighting Luke, Part 2 (****)
15. Hades (***)
16. Mount Olympus (***)
17. Poseidon (****)
18. Homecoming (*****)
19. End Credits (****)

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief marks Christophe Beck’s comeback to the fantasy movie genre since The Seeker: The Dark is Rising from 2007. Both movies are based on books and could possibly generate more movies if they were to be successful. I was slightly intrigued when I saw Beck’s name tied to this movie. The Seeker was ok, but nothing more than that, but I always felt there was potential to be used in another fantasy action movie. So color me intrigued.

Big Budget Score

Percy Jackson feels like a big budget movie when you listen to the score. There’s lot of great and pompous moments and the score almost feels like it’s trying too hard at times. Still it can feel good to listen to a score that tries to be bigger than it is. The theme is heroic and big, like a hero’s theme, but it’s also one of those fire-and-forget kind of themes. You will forget about it quite quickly, and emotionally it might not tickle your fancy, at least it didn’t for me.

‘Prelude’ starts of slowly with the main theme played on a single flute before it goes into the fantasy genre with more power. Not the best cue or the best start, but Beck’s intentions are clear as soon as the choirs and the big horns enter the fray. Christophe Beck wants big so he does his best to provide that. ‘End Credits’ is quite similar to the opening cue, and replaces the flute with some horns to play the main theme. Of course it is almost 5 minutes longer so there’s a lot more here. It is a ‘best of Percy Jackson’ cue, but I feel it is perhaps too long and the best parts of Percy Jackson could be shortened a bit. My favorite cues are ‘The Fury’, ‘Fighting Luke, Part 1’ and ‘Homecoming’ which has that little extra. Most of the cues here goes into each other. It suffers a bit from the well-known “if you’ve heard this cue, you have heard it all” syndrome. I feel the cues I’ve mentioned is similar to the rest, but has slightly more to them. Beck tried to be big and succeeds with these cues.

Conclusion

It’s a good score, not a great score. Percy Jackson appears to be quite heroic and big on the outside, but it’s not quite there. It’s definitely top marks for effort as nothing has been spared. It feels like a big movie score, it just fails to give me my need for something emotional. Christophe Beck has proven one thing, he certainly should be considered when there are fantasy movies to be scored.

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Movie Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the motion picture score: She, A Chinese by John Parish.

“She, A Chinese isn’t your average Hollywood score.”

She, A Chinese is an indie movie written and directed by Xiaolu Guo and starring Lu Huang as the main character Li Mei. It is the story of a young woman who escapes from he Chinese Village to travel West, and I mean West, like London West. However she is not long in paradise as entrapment is very much the case in London as well. A limited release all over and not scheduled for USA as of yet this movie might be hard to come by but it has already won a few prices at Hamburg Film Festival for Best Screenplay and a Golden Leopard at Locarno International Film Festival. The soundtrack is being released by Dreamboat Records and the composer is John Parish.

Track List

01. Li Mei (****)
03. Banjo X (****)
04. Li Mei Makes a Break (****)
05. Drone X (**)
06. Li Mei & Brother Qiang (***)
09. Snake at the Docks (****)
10. Spikey’s Place (**)
11. Spikey’s Death (***)
13. Rachid (****)
14. Unseen/Mr. Hunt (****)
15. Li Mei & Rachid (*****)
16. Link X (***)
17. November (****)

John Parish is a British musician and producer best known for his work with singer and songwriter PJ Harvey. He has however worked on many soundtracks including Batman Forver, The Crow: City of Angels and The Sum of All Fears. She, a Chinese is a movie most people have never heard of, but hey we don’t always have to review the famous ones right? I thought it would be fun to do this one since it’s not my usual kind of soundtrack. I had no idea what to expect and that was a perfect starting point.

Not Your Average Hollywood Score

She, A Chinese isn’t your average Hollywood score so let just get that out of your system right away. It’s very much in the alternative section, and I was afraid that I would hate it, but luckily I didn’t. It has a very grunge, indie rock vibe going on closely following Li Mei’s journey through the movie. It felt like a road movie kind of score and made me a believer after the second listen. The first time it was kind of off-putting because I usually don’t listen to this kind of music but it grew on me. Parish has created a very interesting soundscape with lots of guitars that sounds like they been through hell. There’s a very varied mix of instruments, but it’s mainly focused on the guitar.

Li Mei’s journey starts with the title theme ‘Li Mei’ which is mostly a lonely guitar playing describing the character and what she is like. It makes me want to meet her as she sounds kind of twisted, but in a fun way. ‘Rachid’ is another character with a cool guitar theme, but this time more rock style. It’s really hard to describe the sound until you have heard it, so make sure you listen to the sample below. My favorite cue on the score is ‘Li Mei & Rachid’ which is a potent mix of percussion and guitar and it even has a more mainstream theme at the end which doesn’t happen a lot here. It all ends with ‘November’ which is another guitar theme played on a rusty guitar and that’s pretty much it. It’s twisted but fun stuff.

Conclusion

She, A Chinese grew on me as I didn’t like it much the first time. I have come to appreciate it and want to see the movie. John Parish will probably never be a mainstream composer, but this is his style and I applaud him for it. It’s always interesting and fun to take a look at scores not produced in Hollywood and She, A Chinese to be fair would probably not fit in there. I like this, I really do, but I think this is a score for a special time and a special mood.

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Movie Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the motion picture score Leap Year by Randy Edelman.

“The Irish tones are unmistakable, but there’s a lot more to Leap Year.”

Leap Year: A year containing an extra day in order to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year. That means February has 29 days instead of 28 this year. It only happens once every 4 years. The movie is set in Ireland as the main character, played by Amy Adams, is set to propose to her man on February 29. Of course things don’t go as planned and she is hurdled across Ireland in a funny and romantic comedy. Randy Edelman is the composer and with the Irish roots we should expect something great.

Track List

01. Anna’s Theme (*****)
02. Hymn to a Faery King (*****)
03. The Slea Head Cliffs (*****)
04. Declan’s Walk (****)
05. Ballycarbery Castle (****)
06. Stirring the Pot (***)
07. An Early Sunrise (****)
08. A Leap Year Promise (*****)
09. Stoney Road to Dublin (****)
10. Racing for the Train (****)
11. Morning on Boston Common (****)
12. Bed and Breakfast (***)
13. A Steep but Beautiful Climb (****)
14. Dingle’s Senior Citizens (***)
15. Crossroads (****)
16. Cross Bow (****)
17. A Texas Oasis (***)
18. Stormy Seas Meet a Peaceful Shore (****)
19. Cozy Quartet (****)
20. Faddle Fiddle (***)
21. Arrival in the Big Bad City (****)
22. One too Many Martinis (****)
23. Irish Schnitzel (***)
24. One Long Bluesy Night (***)
25. A Father’s Wish (****)
26. Home to a Welcome Village (****)
27. Don’t Mind the Black Cat (****)
28. V.O. Lyle (****)
29. Love and Warmth o’er Yonder (****)
30. A Stinging Truth (*****)
31. Right Time.. Wrong Guy (***)
32. Settling the Bill (****)
33. Offering the Claddagh Ring (****)

It’s always good to have Randy Edelman back. I remember in the early days of Soundtrackgeek back in January 2008 I reviewed a romantic comedy score by Edelman called 27 Dresses. I found it a bit lacking, but there were signs of the old Edelman who could compose some of the best themes in the world. Now it’s 2010 and Leap Year apparently, and this time he doesn’t skimp on the theme, nor the score. The Irish tones are unmistakable, but there’s a lot more to Leap Year.

Hopeless Romantic

On an emotional level it hits me and being the hopeless romantic that I am, I find Leap Year both charming and lovely. I used to live in Ireland a few years ago and this score brings me right back to the shores of that beautiful country. It’s amazing how a score can touch you like this, but Edelman has done it with Leap Year. He mixes some traditional Irish music with Hollywood orchestras and themes that not only sound great, but have a clear purpose. The parts that give me goosebumps are the orchestral parts that truly shows Edelman’s skills as a composer. He is truly given us more than we ordered this time.

‘Anna’s Theme’ introduces us to the main theme which we will hear more times throughout the score. It is both uplifting and beautiful. The light piano played upon an underscore of guitar is just what the doctor ordered. Despite the complexity of the theme it’s as simple as only Edelman could do it. It is made to play you on an emotional level and it succeeds. In ‘A Leap Year Promise’ is played on a much slower temp, but still just as beautiful. I mentioned that it has some traditional Irish sounds as well. You can hear it mixed with Edelman’s orchestral theme in ‘Stoney Road to Dublin’. He doesn’t go half-assed into it as ‘Racing for the Train’ and ‘Cross Bow’ bpth show. It really sounds properly Irish, and not quite like a Hollywood movie.

Conclusion

Yes Edelman has succeeded on almost every level. A wonderfully romantic and charming score that is deeply tied with Irish roots. What more can you ask for? It is a long score and it has 33 cues so naturally not everything is great, but what is great is more than worth it in my opinion. I love Leap Year, I really do and I’m glad Randy Edelman still has what it takes to keep up with the Hollywood favorites.

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Movie Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the documentary score Between The Folds by Gil Talmi.

“It is really growing on me and the captivating main theme is truly a force to be reckoned with.”

Between The Folds is about the world of paper, but that’s only scratching the surface. It’s about advanced mathematics and it’s about origami. Origami is an ancient Japanese artform in that you fold paper and make it look beautiful. These days Origami is a lot more. It is used in various scientific appliances and this documentary directed and written by Vanessa Gould takes the scientific aspect of this very seriously. We follow a few scientists from MIT and NASA who seemingly spend all their day folding paper. It’s a fascinating story about science and humanity itself. The score is by Gil Talmi who you might recognize from my review of Forgotten Ellis Island.

Track List
01. What Do You See? (*****)
02. The Colors of Life (*****)
03. Petite Choses (****)
04. The Wait Op. 1 (****)
05. Harmonic Ratio No. 1 (****)
06. Birth of a Thought (*****)
07. Sailing Through Time (****)
08. The Push and Pull (*****)
09. Light Patterns (****)
10. Born from Chaos (**)
11. The Wait Op. 2 (****)
12. Understanding Peace (*****)
13. Making Life Happen (****)
14. The World we Share (*****)
15. The Wait Op. 3 (****)

Gil Talmi’s style is soothing, in fact it’s a zen experience every time I listen to his scores. In Forgotten Ellis Island, a documentary about Ellis Island and the brave women and men of medical profession who treated immigrants, his style is fully orchestral and very unobtrusive. I liked that one, and in Between the Folds he continues on the same path, but with a more scientific approach. I’ll get to that in a minute, but I have to tell you that if you didn’t enjoy Forgotten Ellis Island, this might not be for you. Gil Talmi is in my opinion very talented and has in the last couple of years produced around 15 scores, which is quite impressive.

The Sound of Paper

Paper, now there’s a medium I haven’t dabbled to much with, but paper has a sound like everything else. If you take away the folding sound, what kind of music would you associate with it? I would say a fleeting music, almost like wind. Gil Talmi’s score makes paper sound interesting as it is just floating on the surface of your mind. It is not a score that makes you lose your footing, but you might lose yourself in it. It is captivating and beautiful in it’s own right and lovely as a musical wallpaper for the movie.

We can divide this score into two parts, one scientific and one emotional side. The main theme presented in the cue ‘What Do You See?’ represents the emotional part which at first sounded ambient and dull, but the more I listened to it, the more I found to love. It is floating in my mind and is a true piece of art. You can hear it in cues like ‘The World We Share’. It’s quality lies in the suggestions and let you decide the thoughts. Nice touch with the folding paper as well. The scientific side can be heard in the more hurried cues ‘The Colors of Life’ and ‘The Wait Op. 1’. It has a very different mood from the main theme. It has more speed and usually fast percussion and for me it represents the advances in science. There’s one really experimental cue called ‘Born From Chaos’ which the title suggests is very chaotic. Not getting used to that, but then again I am being spoiled here with a wonderful emotional theme mixed in with life itself.

Conclusion

The first time I listened to Between The Folds, I didn’t really get it. It was nice, but what would it represent? As time goes by and I listened to it again my mind suddenly turned on and it was another experience. It is really growing on me and the captivating main theme is truly a force to be reckoned with. That’s my favorite part, I can probably do without the scientific blips here and there, but they too are part of the life experience. If you liked Between The Folds, and you like haunting, fleeting music then I suggest you get Between The Folds. It’s another home run by Gil Talmi.

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Movie Soundtrack Review: This is a review of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus by Mychael Danna & Jeff Danna.

“It’s a challenging score made for your brain cells to consider and analyze.”

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is an amazing tale about a man, Dr. Parnassus, who made a bet with the devil himself and won immortality. Only that’s not enough, so he trades immortality for youth against his first born’s soul when he or she becomes 16. 16 years later and Dr. Parnassus meets the devil again who is willing to make another bet. The first man/devil to consume 5 souls will get the possession of Dr. Parnassus’ 16-year-old daughter Valentina. Intriguing indeed and with Terry Gilliam as director anything can happen. A star-studded cast with Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell and John Waitts joins as well. Mychael & Jeff Danna are composing the score.

Track List

01. One Upon a Time (*****)
02. The Imaginarium (****)
03. The Tack (*****)
04. Tony’s Tale of Woe (****)
05. The Monastery (****)
06. Book & Story (****)
07. Sympathy for the Hanged Man (*****)
08. The First to Five Souls (****)
09. Escape from the Pub (****)
10. The River (****)
11. Suicide Attempt (****)
12. Tango Amongst the Lillies (****)
13. Victory in the Lillies (***)
14. Four Through the Mirror (****)
15. The Ladder World (****)
16. We Love Violence (***)
17. Top of the Wagon (***)
18. We are the Children of the World (***)
19. Tony’s World Collapses (****)
20. The Devil’s Dance (***)
21. Tony’s Salvation (****)
22. Parnassus Alone (****)

After the slight disappointment that was The Time Traveler’s Wife and the slightly better (500) Days of Summer, Mychael Danna rejoins his brother Jeff. Not since the excellent Lakeview Terrace in 2008 have they collaborated, but this is sure to test the mind and grab many by the ear. The movie itself is exciting, but what boggles the mind more is the possibility of a great score. There’s nothing like these fantasy movies that test the mind. Mychael and Jeff has a great reputation for collaborating and usually come up with something good. One also has to consider Tideland from 2005, which Gilliam wrote and directed and had Jeff and Mychael Danna write the score. It turned out to be a great relationship so here’s hoping they are able to recapture the magic.

Imaginative and Entertaining

From the early samples, you only got a glimpse of what was to be the full score which runs 47.5 minutes. It’s certainly imaginative and entertaining, fitting a fantasy movie of this scale, but is it enough? My feeling is a bit off on this one, it has to be said, because I don’t know what to feel. This is your typical intellectual score, feeding off your mind and your imagination. It’s not an emotional score, which is definitely my favorite sort. The mind needs to be fed as well however, and I love the analytical mind being given a workout now and then. This is a score that requires a few listens and each time I listen to it I find new exciting details. It’s a powerful orchestral score that any old school film music fan should enjoy right off the bat.

Don’t get put of by the first cue ‘Once Upon a Time’ which was really hard to get into. The deep string intro is a tough one, but once you get past that, it’s an easier listen. It’s a very string driven score, but it holds a few surprises up it’s sleeve. I love the way ‘Once Upon a Time’ changes from 1:15 onwards into a more fantastical theme made for a fantasy movie just like this. The highlights are not that many, but there’s a couple of cues which are truly spectacular. ‘The Tack’ is an impressive powerhouse of a track and is a great fantasy cue. It starts off like an action cue with all the trimmings, but changes into a more heroic and lighter theme around the 0:50 mark. ‘Sympathy for the Hanged Man’ is another wonderful cue that is much calmer than other cues on the album. I like it because it is quite simple but is a good change of pace just when the score needs it. There are many great moments sprinkled throughout, but it doesn’t have the consistency to properly engage me the way I want to be engaged.

Conclusion

I have a feeling this score will be great on film and a lot more powerful than it is as a standalone experience. While it has the potential to make you laugh and cry, this was something that I didn’t find when I listened to it. Like I said, it’s more a challenging score made for your brain cells to consider and analyze. All in all I’m happy with this score, it’s better than the samples I heard a few months ago.

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Movie Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the motion picture score The Road by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis.

“It certainly does a number on me emotionally and intellectually”

The world has ended… in America at least, as a man and his son walk the desolated wastelands looking for food and shelter. It’s another post-apocalyptic tale of hardship and the struggle to survive. Directed by John Hillcoat and starring Viggo Mortensen, Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce, it’s an interesting if very dark tale of what could happen. The story is based on the Pulitzer winning book The Road by Cormack McCarthy. It seems to have been well received all round and the music is provided by the critics’ favorites Nick Cave & Warren Ellis.

Track List

01. Home (***)
02. The Road (*****)
03. Storytime (*****)
04. The Cannibals (***)
05. Water and Ash (***)
06. The Mother (****)
07. The Real Thing (****)
08. Memory (*****)
09. The House (***)
10. The Far Road (*****)
11. The Church (*****)
12. The Journey (****)
13. The Cellar (**)
14. The Bath (****)
15. The Family (***)
16. The Beach (*****)
17. The Boy (***)

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis are most known for their 2007 score to the movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. That title alone got them a lot of praise and so much is expected of their score to The Road. Can they continue making emotional folksy music or discover another musical style they have yet to employ? To be honest, there is much of Jesse James in The Road, but luckily it’s all good and very fitting. Of course being the dynamic duo that they are, nominations come hard, especially at the academy. They don’t seem to mind though. I think it better to let them focus on what really matters, and that’s delivering great music to the masses.

A Little Sad and Crazy

How does the score to The Road make me feel? A little sad, a little thoughtful and a little crazy. The sad part is quite easy to identify with as the score has a dark undertone to it, the sort that makes an impression on you that you can’t get rid of no matter how hard you try. There is a message here, a story that Cave and Ellis are trying to tell. It’s an interesting mix of fleeting music like the lovely piano sequences that can only be described as hope, yet it also makes me feel sad, why is that? I start to think about the main characters, this world they have been thrown into and what they have experienced and it gets to me. Cave and Ellis plays me like a fiddle and get right to my emotions. This score can put you in a reflective mood and stir your emotions with thoughts only disturbed by the occasional crazy=sounding cue that is tailored for the action sequences.

The piano cues are truly great. The themes are lovely and the cues ‘The Road’, ‘The Far Road’ and ‘The Church’ represent slight hope in the darkness. They are kind of uplifting, but the underscoring is sad with the heavy strings. ‘Storytime’ and ‘Memory’ are stories told for you by music. They are emotional string-driven cues that tell you a lot about the mood they are trying to capture. It has a lot of heart and the darkness seeps in like water in a cup. In fact, The Road falls somewhere in between the duo’s scores for The Proposition and Jesse James, but it doesn’t end up between two chairs, just a pleased audience. It’s less experimental than The Proposition, but more so than Jesse James. Cave and Ellis might have found the perfect mix, but it’s always hard to please everyone at the same time. It’s mix of subtle piano themes and the weird but fascinating dramatic cues, like ‘The Cannibals’ and ‘The Cellar’ that sound like a proper acid trip with banging drums, whining violins and an orchestra gone wild.

Conclusion

The Road is another winner for Nick Cave & Warren Ellis’ growing list of accomplishments. I like the mix they’ve got going here. I knew beforehand that it was never about the themes or their desire to impress, it’s about the story and it’s being told through the minds and music of Cave & Warren. This score can easily accompany your own story with it’s thoughtful and eclectic tones, as it certainly does a number on me emotionally and intellectually.

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Movie Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the motion picture score Armored by John Murphy.

“I’m on the fence here, but I’ll give Murphy the benefit of the doubt”

Armored is a movie about a group of people who work for an armored truck company. There’s a new guard on the job and he’s got himself tangled in a real mess because a group of people at work want him to join them in stealing a truck containing $42 million. The plans goes bad pretty fast and soon it’s every man for himself. Directed by Nimród Antal and starring Matt Dillon, Jean Reno and Laurence Fishburne, this movie doesn’t look bad at all. There are interesting characters, even though the plot is pretty thin. John Murphy is the man to put it all together musically.

Track List

01. Morning (****)
02. Armored Truck Chase (***)
03. Ty’s Decision (*****)
04. Fake Heist (***)
05. Getting Cover (****)
06. Ty Saves the Cop (****)
07. Federal Reserve (***)
08. Work (***)
09. Black Van (***)
10. Warehouse (*****)
11. Stashing the Cash (****)
12. Get the Kid Outta the Truck (***)
13. Ty Escapes (***)
14. Killing Dobbs (**)
15. Booby Trap (****)
16. Ty Runs (***)
17. The End (****)

John Murphy, what happened to him? His scores to 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks later and Sunshine were spectacular I thought, but he hasn’t been able to get back there. Of course it happens to every composer when they get a lot to do and John has been getting a lot of jobs lately. Good for him! Then what about Armored, what can we expect? I came into this expecting nothing as I didn’t know what to expect. Coming from that angle is most interesting for me as the score can tear me in any direction.

Old John Murphy

What I found was that parts of the “old” John Murphy are back, that’s right, and I’ll tell you why soon. As a standalone score it is less effective than in movie I’m sure because the score is just pulsating rhythm, but it works (at times). It doesn’t get me as emotional as I’d hoped, instead it gets me interested in viewing the scenes that go along with the score. I think John Murphy might have gotten it spot on with Armored. The score would be pretty useless for me if I didn’t have the affection for 28 Days Later.

Why 28 Days Later? Because the cues ‘Ty’s Decision’, ‘Warehouse’ and partially ‘Booby Trap’ sounds a lot like ‘Tower Block’ and ‘The Tunnel’ from that score (and also ‘Don Abandons Alice’ from 28 Weeks Later). Is it sad that these cues are the best on this score? Perhaps, but I sure enjoyed listening to them, and that is what it’s all about. The rest of the score is drone music to be honest, but effective drone music. There’s definitely a lot going on here, but you might miss it if you don’t listen closely. It lacks the energy of the cues I mentioned, but it works great as background music, rarely does it go over the top, and rarely does Murphy overextend himself.

Conclusion

I’m on the fence here, but I’ll give Murphy the benefit of the doubt. The fact is that I enjoyed this score, but it’s far from being another 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later or Sunshine and neither should it be. I just miss something from those scores and Murphy is on the verge here of getting back, whatever he has been missing of late. I think that we should give him time and let him concentrate on making music, because one of these days he is going to hit the jackpot.

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Movie Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the motion picture score Legion by John Frizzell.

“The most exciting moment was when I got the score, not while listening to it.”

It’s time for another Supernatural movie, in fact it sounds a bit like the series Supernatural. God loses faith in all humans and sends a legion of angels to bring forth the end of the world. The only hope us humans have is the Archangel Michael apparently. Sounds a bit lame if you ask me, but hey, I do enjoy Supernatural so I can’t be a hypocrite now can I? This falls more into the horror genre than in the fantasy genre from what I have seen and John Frizzell is the composer.

Track List
01. When I Was a Little Girl (***)
02. Michael Descends (***)
03. It’s Started (***)
04. Old and Pissed Off (****)
05. This is Not a Test (***)
06. Clouds Don’t Buzz (***)
07. The Aftermath (***)
08. Now What? (***)
09. They’re Here (****)
10. The Ice Cream Man (**)
11. Attack and the Possessed (***)
12. We Got ‘Em Running (***)
13. God’s Plan (****)
14. Percy’s Story (****)
15. Dark World (****)
16. Bob Blames Himself (****)
17. I Didn’t Even Want This Baby (****)
18. Open The Door (***)
19. Are We Safe Now? (***)
20. A Rebellious Son (***)
21. The Battle (***)
22. Die Like One of Them (****)
23. That is Why You Failed Him (****)
24. You Are the True Protector (****)
25. You Are the True Protector (Alternate Version) (****)

Is it just me, or am I reluctant when  it comes to listening to horror scores? Well more reluctant than for example a fantasy score. It’s this predetermined notion that I already know what to expect. Sometimes I get surprised, but most of the time I do not. As for John Frizzell, his horror scores have never exactly thrilled me. Last one I heard was The Reaping which wasn’t great. Legion does have some fantasy appeal to it which is why I hope this has some adventurous and bold cues.

Adventurous?

As for adventurous, scratch that. What you’ll hear when you listen to the score is, yes you guessed it, uninspiring horror music. The kind no one really can enjoy outside of a movie. But wait, it does get better. ‘Old and Pissed off’ is the score’s first good cue. It’s good because it has a nice theme, very dark and glooming, which is very welcome at this point. Don’t give up listening to it after track 3, because there are more like this in the wings. God has a plan you see and in ‘God’s Plan’ and the following cues ‘Percy’s Story’ and ‘Dark World’, we suddenly get invited to another realm of Legion. This realm is more inviting, it has more depth and warmth than the usual horror stuff. Just skip the mediocre parts because this is where you want to be.

It’s incredibly dark this score, in fact very depressive. It doesn’t move me emotionally, but perhaps it is because I’m a happy guy. Sadly there are no cues that put me in a different emotional state, no cues powerful enough to stir something inside me. Legion might be a fine movie, but its music is emotionally dull to me. This is the way it goes sometimes with horror scores. You want to write for the film and director first because ultimately it’s what works on film that matters. There’s not much consideration for us who just enjoy listening to scores for pure entertainment.

Conclusion

I will say this, it never gets exciting for me. The most exciting moment was when I got the score, not while listening to it. I do like angels and demons so I’ll probably watch this movie and I’m 100% sure it will be better in the film than as a standalone musical experience. I hope that Frizzell does some more drama/comedy scores like Henry Poole Was Here which I thought was a wonderful score. This score is not so much to shout hurrah for, and unfortunately my expectations were met.

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TV Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the Television Score Leverage by Joseph LoDuca.

“Another fine release by LoDuca who for all I care, can keep on doing TV scores forever”

Leverage is a Television series about a gang of con-artists who steal from the wealthy and corrupt. It stars Timothy Hutton and has a cool vibe around it. Sort of like a light version of Ocean’s Eleven. I did watch half of first season but it didn’t have the staying power so I left it. I did notice the score, but didn’t think to much of it at the time. The composer is none other than Joseph LoDuca who seems to do every TV score these days. He is certainly versatile and this cool show needs a cool score.

Track List
01. Leverage Main Title (*****)
02. The Team (*****)
03. Inside Job (****)
04. What I Do (****)
05. Parking Lot Mischief (***)
06. Viva Vegas (****)
07. Zagreb (***)
08. Surprise (****)
09. Can’t Go Home Again
10. Magical Soil (***)
11. On the Con (*****)
12. An Honest Man (****)
13. Loosing Underpants (*****)
14. Mumbai International (****)
15. Rattlin Pots and Pans (***)
16. Nate Comes Clean (****)
17. Nate Gives Himself Up (****)
18. Diversion (****)
19. Count to Three (****)
20. Emergency Landing (***)
21. Do You Remember? (***)
22. Tank Fight (****)
23. Lifting Flies (***)
24. Out of Tricks (****)
25. Courthouse Security (****)
26. Madame Administrator (*****)
27. Father Daughter Dance (***)
28. Wanna Bet (****)
29. Metamora (***)
30. All My Decembers (****)
31. Gone Crazy (***)
32. Diamond Heist (***)
33. Bellbridge (****)
34. Elevator Bomb (***)

What is it about Joseph LoDuca and TV scores? His name seems to be on every release lately. Well it’s probably just me but he did get The Triangle and Legend of the Seeker released last year and then I recently started watching Spartacus: Blood and Sand and guess what, his name was there as well. He does TV scores so well and ever since Xena and Hercules I’ve been paying attention to whatever he has been attached to and very rarely come out of it disappointed.

Cool But No Cigar

As cool as it is, it still lacks that ultra coolness that David Holmes managed in Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen. Still there are some great moments here like ‘On The Con’ and ‘Loosing Underpants’ both which oozes coolness. The funky jazz-like sound comes straight out of a Vegas crime syndicate, that’s how cool it is. You’ll certainly enjoy it in some other cues as well, but none as good as the cues I mentioned. ‘Leverage Main Title’ and ‘The Team’ are other good examples of this kind of music. There’s not only funky music though, as LoDuca has created some great emotional moments in ‘Madame Administrator’. It’s a Chinese inspired cue with all the trimmings. It’s calm as it is beautiful and again shows LoDuca’s versatility. He can do it all.

As for emotions, what does this score make me feel? Well it make me feel cool, like a slick gangster in a white suit just before going in and rob a casino. And this is all I want the score to do, to get me imagine scenarios and flow with the music. This certainly does the job and then some. I really enjoy the way it makes me feel. Aside from the jazzy lounge style, there are also some calm and beautiful cues as I mentioned. It allows you to drift away from your Vegas casino for a while and into a Chinese spa — not speaking from experience of course! Yes, LoDuca get his feelings and emotions out there and it’s so damn catchy.

Conclusion

Another fine release by LoDuca who for all I care, can keep on doing TV scores forever, because they always end up great. His work definitely heightens the show’s value for me and I consider going back to watch what I’ve missed of Leverage. It has it’s filler moments, but if you want to feel like a bonafide con-artist for an hour, then Leverage isn’t your worst bet.

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Movie Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the motion picture score The Hurt Locker by Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders.

“The experience of watching The Hurt Locker can’t be fully felt on the score album alone.”

I first saw the one-of-a-kind war movie, The Hurt Locker back in February of last year and since then it has seemed like an eternity waiting for the release of the film’s score by Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders, a soundtrack I’d been anticipating as soon as the credits rolled eleven months prior. The duo gave me the surprise of 2009 with their unsung effort for the otherwise dreadful, Max Payne. What I admired so much about their second collaboration in conjunction with the film, was that it did so much more than simply evoke an emotional response from the viewer. It got us inside the heads of a three-man bomb disposal unit, trying to survive the Iraq conflict in 2004. Life in a bomb disposal unit in the Middle East is probably not like anything that you or I could possibly begin to conceive of, but all the elements of The Hurt Locker; direction, camerawork, acting, editing sound design and score are wholly dependent upon each other in believably taking us there and placing us in the thick of the action, to jaw-dropping effect.

Track Listing

1 The Hurt Locker (*****)
2 Goodnight Bastard (****)
3 The Long Walk (*****)
4 Hostile (****)
5 B Company
6 Man in the Green Bomb Suit (***)
7 There Will Be Bombs (***)
8 Body Bomb (***)
9 Bleeding Deacon (***)
10 Oil Tanker Aftermath (****)
11 A Guest in My House (****)
12 The Way I Am (*****)

Hostility From All Angles

The opening note of the title track plunges the listener into an environment of hostility from all angles. Every which way you turn your ears is threatening and dangerous. Emerging from this queasy froth of strings is the wailing heartbeat of increasing tension.

The atmospherics of “Goodnight Bastard” give off the harsh shimmer of heat and unforgiving desert surroundings, whilst also lending them the feel of an alien landscape. As it builds beyond topographic impressions, it begins to sound more and more like music you’d associate with “the man with no name” arriving in a ghost town western. This is appropriate since the film builds a picture of the protagonist Staff Sgt. James as being quite the gung-ho cowboy on the job, addicted to the rush of danger in dismantling bombs. Not in any way parodic or lazy caricature, a guitar line and returning queasy strings are mournfully sombre, the first indication to the methodical and isolated intensity of James’ psyche. The final minute of this cue is an illustration of director Kathryn Bigelow’s desire to “blur the line between sound effects and score” and Beltrami and Sanders’ decision “to use a small ensemble and some of the film’s production sounds fused together” to create this effect. This alloy of two separate soundtracks had the chaotic effect of discombobulating and confusing me as much as the soldiers when all hell breaks loose while watching the film, making the fog of war just as aural as it is visual.

“The Long Walk” is music set to one of the film’s signature sequences. Sgt. James, walking out in the open towards a bomb with possible hostiles all around him in 125 degree heat, wearing a 100 pound bomb suit, his peripheral vision cut off and reduced only to what’s directly in front of him, all sounds other than his own breathing heard as though he were underwater. The listener immediately gets a sense of the mortal danger faced every day by those in the bomb unit, working a daily grind that most of us couldn’t even begin to imagine. Layers of distorted instrumentation acting like the padding of the bomb suit on the listener’s ears, the sound effects of what sounds like muffled gunfire ever-present in the background. Visually and sonically, this indelible moment of the film is inherently tense, iconic, and cinematic, and as James draws closer to the I.E.D. (improvised explosive device) he’s attempting to dismantle, the score surges in a knife-edge rush of tension, sounding like something being tracked along the serrated edge of a blade. One of those “don’t cut the red wire” trailer moments of old.

In light of all the Iraq movies that have tanked at the box office, The Hurt Locker is to be commended for being low on speechifying and choosing to turn its attention on the machismo tension of three guys doing a really interesting job under unbelievable pressure and insurmountable odds. It never once seems to use any of this as a political platform and the score is approached the same way, “Hostile” being a good example of this. Iraqi instrumentation is always present but never rammed down the listener’s throat the way Zimmer or one of his cronies would’ve probably scored it. The cue has the sound of the country, but ethnic instruments are directly competing against — and trying to intrude upon — the steady, determined and focused electronic (heart)beat of Sgt. James trying to block all that out and focus on his job of defusing an I.E.D. It was so refreshing to hear an ethnically orientated cue do something with its unique sounds other than routinely and lazily tell us what country we’re in.

The Enemy Within

From this point on there, there is a marked shift in the following three or four cues, from an exterior, hostile landscape into an interior, psychological space. “B. Company” seems to suggest something of the enemy within, as the increasing life-or-death stakes of their job get under the skin of the men and begin to psychologically unravel them. “Man In the Green Bomb Suit” takes on a more singular point of view, bristling with uncertainty and second-guessing doubt; each echoing footfall that resounds under the instruments, implying someone looking every which way, constantly reassessing the danger of their surroundings. The feeling of paranoia continues and builds to pressure-cooker intensity for “There Will Be Bombs”, all sweaty strings and shrill wind instruments anticipating the chaos that is to come.

“Body Bomb” is slow-burn drama, taking its cues from the camerawork; a grimier, grittier, handheld and painfully authentic alternative to telegraphed Hollywood action scenarios. For this scene of a suicide bomber with second thoughts, the music is not meant for movie moments built around countdown clocks or red-wire/green-wire dilemmas; it’s all sweat and shouting and men working quickly while other men watch, frozen in the shadows. The string work here is as haunting as it is terse and unnerving.

“Bleeding Deacon” has the queasy quality of earlier cues, but reminiscent of the uneasy menace and creeping dread of the scores to recent David Lynch films; the strings eulogising spilled blood n’ guts and body parts blown all over the battlefield.

I talked about being discombobulated earlier and how the score, by mixing both music and sound effects helps the film to this end. That blending is nowhere more evident than on “Oil Tanker Aftermath”, an abstract expression of — and a window into — the traumatic state of mind of someone in the midst of the cacophony of war. Here the score pitches the intensity of battle in slow-motion; a suspended echo of the world around you, roaring in your head. After the first minute, the strings take precedence and proceed to give the cue more obvious form before being asphyxiated by sound effects once again, leaving the listener shell-shocked.

A Change of Pace

“A Guest In My House” is the most straight-up adrenaline junkie type cue, exploding in the mid section into more atypical action-suspense music with an electronic edge. When listening to the soundtrack away from the film, this offers a welcome change of pace, although the austere strings soon beat this into the background towards the end of the cue, ensuring that it stays relatively dark in mood and that the action isn’t played just for straight thrills. This is undercut by the abruptness of the way the strings cut off at the climax, a jolt unpleasant enough to make your skin crawl.

The album ends with “The Way I Am”, a short cue that puts us back in the head of Sgt. James, reprising the “Western motif” of earlier. Although largely unchanged, the strings this time are a lot grander and also more sympathetic, as if the cue has accumulated more weight and resonance at the end of the album as a direct result of the experiences, musically described by the preceding cues. The overall feeling is one of both the heroism and futility of war, whilst simultaneously suggesting a sense of loneliness amidst the madness.

Conclusion

A fever-dream score that works in lethally accurate accord with the sense of 360-degree immersive threat created through the bravado filmmaking. However, one is so synonymous with the other that the visceral nature of the experience of watching The Hurt Locker can’t be fully felt on the score album alone.

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