CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE music composed by Mike Patton

Mike Patton. Ha-ha....where to start? I could go on forever about this guy, but I'll just keep it simple and say Angel Dust and Disco Volante.
Patton is no stranger to the film industry as of lately, having contributed a song "Bird's Eye" with System Of A Down singer Serj Tankian, composed by Mark Streitenfeld for the Ridley Scott film Body Of Lies, lent his voice talents to the Will Smith film I Am Legend and Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen and sucessfully "scored" a short film called A Perfect Place. Hell, he even replaced Dennis Hopper for a role in the low budget carnival film, Firecracker....stick to your day job, Mike.
So what to do next?
Score a film starring the always entertaining Jason Statham.
I don't care what people say, Statham is a wonderful addition to the entertainment world, with his work on The Transporter series, War, Snatch and The Italian Job (who doesn't want to see Statham work side by side with Seth Green and Mos Def to defeat Edward Norton?). So along comes Crank, a gritty over the top action film co-starring Amy Smart and Dwight Yoakam.
Crank is a movie that really has a simple premise, something like Speed, Statham's character Chev is injected with a poison that forces him to keep his heart rate up or else he dies. Stupid, huh? Well...yes. But it's just so damn fun, you should just sit back forget all your worries for an hour and a half. Now along comes the sequel Crank: High Voltage, (SPOILER ALERT!!!! Chev technically would've died at the end of the first one, but we'll let that slide and enjoy another helping of intense, at times hilarious, testosteroney fun) this time his heart is replaced with a mechanical one that needs to keep getting charged up to keep working or else he dies. Stupider, huh? Well...yes, but adding to Amy Smart and Dwight Yoakam as the cast, Statham brings along Corey Haim, Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell, David Carradine, TOOL's Maynard James Keenan and Linkin Park's Chester Bennington along for the ride....what do you expect? Good Old Ridiculous Fun. That's what.
Now the original film was scored by Underworld composer Paul Haslinger, but ended up being mostly littered with hard rock and punk bands' songs as the background music. The original score did the trick for the first film (only 13 minutes of music was written for the film!), but was a little too serious for the sequel (which by no means could be taken seriously, I mean c'mon! Chev whistles along with the score!)...so Haslinger was dropped and in walks Mike Patton.
With Patton's score to A Perfect Place he obviously lifted from the noirish works of Bernard Herrmann and Henry Mancini, so one would be curious to see what he would do with an action film. It's pretty much a given, Patton would not be using the traditional orchestra for his score, but rather the standard rock band instruments, some electronics and an army of obscure world instruments, used untraditionally.
Kicking off this weird, wild mind-boggling intense trip is "Kickin'" a track that is one of two tracks on the album, that closely resemble a song (Sweet Creem [Redux] being the second). "Kickin'" starts off like a sped up western in space, then in just a few seconds, kicks into a punked up little ditty...something I can only describe as Ministry covering The Pixies' "Nimrod's Son".
"Chelios" sputters along at first sounding like a drunken Secret Chiefs 3 trying to play Morricone, but it quickly gets heavy, now sounding like The Melvins hitting the sauce and trying to play Morricone, it then teeters back and forth between soft and heavy.
"Organ Donor" rolls in rather nicely right at noon...you can almost picture the tumbleweeds passing by with it's bad to the bone attitude.
If things weren't all ready weird enough, along comes "Chickenscratch". It bubbles, it titters, it wobbles, it makes french fries and three different...well...you get the idea.
"Doc Miles" is a welcome little ditty, which echoes something Henry Mancini or Nelson Riddle would write in a true espionage funky fashion. This track is officially now my theme for walking down the street. "Here comes Doc Miles, ladies, watch out....he's really weird".
"El Huron" manages to confuse and delight all together...at one moment it broods and lingers, with it's synthesized woodwinds, but from out of nowhere, a Danny Elfman like Eastern European carnival ride passes by laughing and mocking you, only to fall over in cymbal crashes and broken strings.
"Tourette's Breakdance" blips and bleeps around, like Daft Punk with bad gas, but it doesn't really do much, other than irritate...this is Patton, so it's to be expected.
Rhythmic breaths introduce the Korn-flavored "The Hammer Drops". A track that might actually be a welcome addition to the album for the average score listener, as opposed to the rest of the chaotic, yet structured, noise that populates the larger portion of the album.
"Triad Limo" sticks out as a highlight track for me. With it's stereo-typed Chinese flavoring, posing as the theme for the villians of the film, "Limo" is an interesting listen that it's almost euphoric to my ears.
"Shock & Shootout" is a violent guitar driven piece that would make Slayer proud. It's hard sludgy thrash metal at it's grisliest.
"Pixelvision"...what am I supposed to say about the wonders of a mouth harp? The mouth harp bounces around, as a synthesizer plucks away in the background like a sneaky cat, followed by what sounds like an 80's video game....I love it!
Sounding like it just jumped out of Ocean's Eleven, "Spring Loaded" saunters in, but is suddenly stopped by an ominous gong and heavy percussion, only to be dismissed by this cool cat...he stops for nothing.
"Supercharged" spits and growls like your usual thrash metal, but it can't be taken all that seriously, due to some humourous "Woo-Hoo"s thrown in, which is all too Homer Simpson-ish. It's strange but it works.
Coming off as the longest track on the album at 4:15, "Epilogue/In My Dreams" is a definite album highlight. It teeters back and forth between slow thrash metal and sludgy electronica and ending with noises that will make your cat or dog pack up and leave home.
"Friction" and "Epiphany" finish off the album, played back to back. With "Friction" sounding like the tolling of the Death Bells and finishing off in Texas Chainsaw Massacre ambience, it almost immedietely melds into the sad(?) "Epiphany", which blends a reverberated church organ and awkward vocalizations to perfection.
Patton's Crank: High Voltage will without a doubt anger most film score listeners and rock fans as well, but it will without a doubt find a cosy little home with his rabid fanbase. Whether fans of the Crank films, will hate it, ignore or even notice it, has yet to be seen. Many artsy fans of Patton (and there's alot of them), will probably sneer at the fact that he's scored a Jason Statham film and not something a little more serious or weirder...but they can go to hell with that stick up remaining up their ass. It's a fun score to a fun film. The score album does run at 55 minutes and personally I would have shaved 10 of those minutes off, to make it a little more enjoyable in one sitting...instead, I'll probably find myself skipping a track here and a track there and therefore it gets half a star knicked off it's rating. While as an album, it doesn't live up to most of Patton's other works, it does impress as an addition to his budding film score career...guess we'll have to wait and see what he does with next year's Pinion.

*** 1/2 out of 5

DEFIANCE music composed by James Newton Howard

In the same tradition of his previous films, Glory, The Last Samurai & Blood Diamond, Edward Zwick tells the story of another violent time in history, this time during World War II in Defiance. Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell are cast as three brothers who escape the invasion of Poland by the Germans and hide deep in an Eastern European forest. There they begin building makeshift homes in the cold, uninhabitable forest, only to attract other Polish Jews on the run who want to hide in their "community". This not only puts a strain on the brother's relationships, but also the secrecy of their new "homes".
Zwick knows how to pick the composer for the film he is making, as all his film's scores are well received by the critic and the fans alike. There was James Horner's beautiful scores to Glory and Legends Of The Fall and Hans Zimmer's mysterious and haunting The Last Samurai. Before Defiance, Zwick teamed up with Zimmer's pal/composer James Newton Howard for Blood Diamond, a score which I can not say enough good things about...I absolutely loved Howard's work on that film....loved it.
James Newton Howard, ofcourse, is mostly famous for his 8 Acamdemy Award nominated scores, most notably the hauntingly wonderful The Village and now Defiance and was also the co-composer of the Christopher Nolan Batman films, with Hans Zimmer.
For Defiance, Howard and Zwick originally wanted a less obvious sound for the Jewish culture of that time in history (meaning the Itzhak Perlman violin solos of John Williams' classic Schindler's List and other films depicting such atrocities of the Holocaust), however after they went through a long list of instruments to represent the sound, they finally gave in to the beauty of the violin. Howard was no stranger to using the violin as a solo instrument in his scores, having used it to perfection in The Village, with violinist Hilary Hahn. This time around, Howard would call upon another young violinist, Joshua Bell, who shined quite brightly on John Corigliano's score to The Red Violin, to play as a soloist for Defiance.
Unlike William's fully orchestrated Schindler's List, Defiance plays much more subtly, almost to the point of minimalism in some spots. The instruments weave in and out of each others spotlight, rather than play together to reach an emotional climax of Hollywood grandeur, like some WWII Holocaust films before it would do.
From the first track we know immedietely this is not the album to put on while doing housework or going for a brisk walk. This album requires you to sit down and absorb the pain and emotion that is bled into each note.
"Main Titles" starts out with a low ominous growl with the brass section rumbling away, only to be broken by a lone stark violin angrily played by Joshua Bell, followed by the string section becoming more and more anxious or urgent. It's the perfect way to let you know the next 45 minutes of listening is going to be a dark one and will sour your good mood.
So be warned.
"Survivors" manages to break one's heart with Bell's violin playing at the outset, followed by Howard's recognizable string composition of string over string over string, which wouldn't sound out of place in The Village. "Make Them Count" continues with the dissonant ambience we briefly heard in "Main Titles". This ambience suffocates you and puts you into a place most would rather not visit, but we are given a breath of air with the strings filling in the end only to well up the tears.
"Your Wife" allows Bell's violin to play over a brand new string section theme. This theme is perhaps the most heartbreaking beautiful score cue to come across the screen in 2008...and that's just the music without the amazing scene it's played over...absolutely unforgettable. Howard and Bell are at their best during this cue.
"The Bielski Otriad" threatens to completely smother you with that brooding ambience again, even more so than previously, however this time around it plays like a desperate crescendo. The strings elegantly rush past you with anger and despair alike, played with perfection and a sense of urgency that gets your heart racing and just when you think your going to have a heart attack, the brass and percussion jump in and make sure you have that heart attack.
"Camp Montage" almost echoes Michael Kamen's Band Of Brothers or Williams' Saving Private Ryan, with the lone horn section introducing the cue and developing into a sad string heavy cue, that begs you to stare off into the grey sky off the shore of a lonely beach.
"Police Station" acts as if it's watching you from a distance and creeps in closer and closer...if the dreading dissonant tracks before didn't do the trick, this one will. It's ripped right out of the pages of a Hans Zimmer war score...the low synths sounds, the long brass tones and the high-note string section that almost pierce the ears.
"Tuvia Kisses Lilka", "Nothing Is Impossible" & "The Bielski Brothers/ Ikh Bin A Mame" end the album and prove to be 13 and a 1/2 minutes of solid music...not a second to be wasted. These three tracks pretty much round up all the themes and motifs heard throughout the rest of the score and play them to absolute perfection. Joshua Bell's playing on "Nothing Is Impossible" is something most players probably dream of being able to perform. Never have I heard such beauty and emotion put into one track before. I can't even do it justice, I believe it is that good. "The Bielski Brothers/ Ikh Bin A Mame" finishes off everything with a glimmer of hope and sadness rolled into one.
While the album does end on somewhat of a hopeful note, the last few notes played on the violin somehow doesn't let you forget the tragedy you've just experienced as well. The emotions linger for awhile and most often I find myself sitting in silence for a sometime, after finishing off the album, deep in thought and heart.
I've picked James Newton Howard's Defiance as my pick for the the Oscar Winner this year, for it's stark beauty, sadness and astonishing solo work by violinist Joshua Bell, all done with subtly and perfection you hardly notice how much it is affecting you until your far into the score all ready. In the end, whether Howard wins the award or not, it still proves he is one of the best film composers today and so far he has only gotten better and better. Hopefully he keeps going that way, which I'm sure he will for the years to come.

* * * * * HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

81st ANNUAL OSCAR NOMINEES FOR BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

With the 81st Annual Academy Awards rearing it's golden little head around the corner, I thought I'd take the time out to run through the five nominees in the "Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score" category.

First off, we have Alexandre Desplat's

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON

I have a strange feeling this will be the one to take home the award.
Alexandre Desplat is probably most well known for his previous Oscar Nod for The Queen in 2006 and his impressive scoring job in 2007's The Golden Compass.
Benjamin Button is a rather slow moving, subtle score, like the David Fincher directed movie itself, that really begs for the listeners to sit down and enjoy the score with no distractions whatsoever. Desplat displays some interesting techniques with this score, particularly the theme which he very subtly reverses in play during the duration of the film. He also never really makes use of any fully orchestrated melodramatic cues and instead opts for a series of intimate instrumental solos played over a slight rhthymic waltz timing that quietly weaves it way through the score. While, I find the score to be a pleasant listen, the disc probably won't leave it's case that much in the near future. Even thouhg it is a 2-disc set, one disc featuring the score the other featuring most of the source material from the film's various eras. I won't listen to either of them that much, because the score disc is just too slow and quiet for me and the soundtrack disc, while I do like the songs, unfortunally contains dialogue clips which I really find irratating.

* * * out of 5

next up Danny Elfman's

MILK

Elfman's fourth collaboration with director Gus Van Sant, is generally a success, probably more so than the earlier Van Sant/Elfman Oscar nominated team-up Good Will Hunting. The Milk score, like Benjamin Button's, is quiet and subtle...well, mostly. It doesn't really have any recurring themes at the forefront, but Elfman does manage to sneak in some which the ear won't pick up at first and that's just fine. Unlike most of the composer's other scores, Milk proves to be very warm and optimistic. A piano and saxophone are Elfman's choice solo instruments this time around, which fit in the mood of the movie like a glove. While the score consists of mostly heart-warming cues, Elfman does throw in a few short "dittys" that sound like they just jumped out of the goofier moments of Edward Scissorhands. If you're looking for something like a Tim Burton/Elfman score, then this isn't for you...it leans more towards the tone similiar to some of Elfman's work he did in the early 2000's. Ofcourse, I do enjoy this score, but don't think it deserves the Oscar, mostly because the Academy ignore some of Elfman's better work this year such as Standard Opertating Procedure and Wanted and I hope Elfman wins an Oscar for something that people will remember for years to come, rather than a subtle drama score, which most likely quickly be forgotten.

* * * out of 5

Now let's take a look at A.R. Rahman's

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

Let me start off by saying, when I started reviewing these scores I quickly went through all five of them again, skipping quite a few tracks on each disc, but with this score, I found myself listening to it from start to finish.
Allah Rakha Rahman (aka A.R. Rahman) really deserved this Oscar nod, with it's fresh blend of Bollywood textures and Electronica/Hip-Hop. Danny Boyle's Slumgdog and everybody involved in the film, are quite obviously the Oscars and critic's darlings this year.
The soundtrack album is 51 minutes of loud, fast-paced bliss, which kind of outcast itself from the majority of score listeners out there. Most fanboy score fanatics would prefer to leap around their mother's basement, in their Spider-Man underoos with a plastic lightsaber, to some bombastic Hans Zimmer & Friends' score (because it's so 'epic'), while the snooty score collector detested the idea of a hip-hop fusion score.
Rahman's score, to my ears, is absolutely wonderful and a very welcome addition to my collection. He cleverly fuses traditional Indian instruments with hip hop beats, electric guitars, sound manipulations, and even a muted choir at one point.
"O...Saya" opens the album (and the film) with a bang, with it's frantic drumming in the foreground and a brief vocalization from British hip-hop artist M.I.A. "Mausum & Escape" is my personal favorite at the moment, as it bounces solos back and forth with a guitar and sitar at first, but quickly develops orchestrally and electronically, with a wall of sound that practically smothers you. We are then treated to M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes", with it's gun shots, The Clash-samples and all, from her Kala album. It's then followed by a remix of the same song, which is pretty good, but I wouldn't have put them back to back. "Latika's Theme" is one of two moments on the album where we are allowed a momentary breather. It's a beautiful piece with vocalizations provided by Bollywood singer Suzanne D'Mello. The album finishes off with "Jai Ho", an excellent, excellent, excellent uplifting song, that dares you not to feel good when listening to it. Both "O...Saya" and "Jai Ho" were nominated for best songs of the year, for this year's Oscar, alongside Peter Gabriel's "Down To Earth" from Wall-E . I'm sorry, but as much as I like Peter Gabriel, "Jai Ho" has easily taken the award.

* * * 1/2 out of 5

Let's move on to Thomas Newman's

WALL-E
Newman's second dive into the Pixar world, (Finding Nemo being the first) is a sucessful one in mood and tone for the film, but I really just couldn't get into it as a score album. I love Newman's work, especially on American Beauty, The Green Mile and Lemony Snicket's , but this album presentation just felt really off to me. I think I blame this on the length of most of the tracks on the album. 12 out of the 38 tracks are under one minute, the shortest being 15 seconds, while most other tracks barely make it to the 2 minute mark. As a listening experience, it just doesn't work for me. It barely gives the listener enough time to really get a feel for the track before it moves onto the next one. Newman could have mixed some tracks together to create some mini-suites, but instead opted for this poor presentation. Don't get me wrong, I actually do like what I hear, particularly the superb crystal-clear recording job, but it's over before I even knew what it was. I enjoy the genre-jumping throughout the score and the way Newman incorporated the feel of robot movements in his music. He sucessfully entered into the Sci-Fi score world for the first time in his career, which especially shows on the opening score track, "2815 A.D.". The album is a fun listen, but also very irritating as well. I'm sorry, but the short tracks were something I just couldn't get past and I do realize it's not Newman's fault, it's the director/producer's want in the film. It reminded me of the way Clint Mansell presented his Requiem For A Dream score, great music but too many 20 second cues. All in all, the score is fun, not award worthy though and the album presentation is a major drawback. I do look forward to Newman getting into some more sci-fi scores in the future if what he did here is any indication of what he can do.

* 1/2 for album
* * * as in context of the film

...i'm going to save the final score, which I think should take home the award, for a review by itself....

DOGMA music composed by Howard Shore

Dogma.
It's a world where Alanis Morissette is God, a descendant of Jesus works in an abortion clinic, Chris Rock is the forgotten 13th Apostle and stoner-characters Jay & Silent Bob are prophets...it's the world of Clerks & Chasing Amy writer/director Kevin Smith.
Released in 1999, Dogma, without a doubt would have controversy ready to run it down with an army of tanks going 200 miles a hour. It's satirical look into the Catholic Church and it's beliefs, were enough to cause protests all over the world (Kevin Smith even joined one himself under a pseudo-name) and an astonishing number of death threats aimed at Smith and the then film company behind Dogma, Disney. Death threats from practicing Catholics....Death Threats From The Children Of God Towards Disney?!?! That's like Mister Rogers tossing puppies and kittens out into traffic...something so very wrong.
The film itself was pro-God and pro-religious, but that was overlooked by many, as some people were so quick to label it blasphemous before they even saw the film and forgot how to look at their own views from a different angle or perhaps they just had a crucifex lodged up their ass. I still think it would have helped, if Smith included a homosexual character on the good side, to really stir the all ready overflowing pot (or maybe just a platypus...if you know what I mean Dogma-fans).
In a strange twist of events (for Smith), instead of littering the film's background music with rock songs, he opted for a more traditional style by using original orchestrated music. Enter Canadian composer Howard Shore, famous for his Oscar Award-winning Lord Of The Rings' masterpieces, The Departed, Se7en, The Silence of The Lambs and pretty much every single David Cronenberg film there is, as well as the original Saturday Night Live musical director and one of the brains behind The Blues Brothers.
While, Shore up to that point had become known for his generally dark, brooding scores, (with the exception of Tim Burton's Ed Wood), Dogma was sort of a change for him. And I mean you to take "sort of" very lightly, in a good way ofcourse.
What could of been a silly comedic score, which I loathe, Shore took a different approach and createad a melodramatic, almost epic sound for the film. It suited what would end up on screen, as Smith decided to shoot with more of a theatrical visual style for once.
The score portion of the Dogma album begins with the title track, "Dogma", a delightful little track, which slowly eases you into the mood of the album. It's almost scary horror sound sneaks up on you with with it's church bells and tense brass section and shades itself with a Bernard Herrmann Psycho-esque string section.
We are then treated to "Behold The Metatron", starting with a gothic choir, provided by the always wonderful Metro Voices, then devoloping with a church organ and a string section that drives at you as if Beetlejuice (or in this film's case, The Voice Of God) was about to appear in your bedroom.
"Mooby The Golden Calf" is an album highlight, as it was played during the scene that fallen angels, Loki and Bartleby, violently punish a room full of office executives for worshipping a false idol. With it's childish vocals, that mirror that of "It's A Small World" only not as annoying, "Mooby" is a strange creature, indeed. Fortunally the lyrics are included in the liner notes as the words are difficult to decipher from just listening to it.
"The Golgothan" creates a steady sense of dread and fear of The Shit Monster. The gothic organ is a major part on this particular track, but remains very well mixed in with the rest of the players, so you aren't immedietely drawn to it.
An ascending brass section introduces "The Last Scion", which serves as the Bethany character's theme. Although it begins with a sense of fear, "Scion" quickly evolves into a rather peaceful and mystical mood, which sounds as if Shore is toying with the Elven theme from the future "Lord Of The Rings" compositions.
"Stygian Triplets" twists back and forth with a psychotic orchestrated charge, that could please the ears of The Cryptkeeper. A fun little sweeping piece that reminds me of the first scene with The Wicked Witch in the tornado from The Wizard Of Oz for some strange reason.
The gothic organ and orchestra is really turned up for the "Bartleby and Loki" track. The pure melodrama of this piece is like heaven to my ears, it pretty much makes me want to stand on top of rocky mountain during a violent thunder storm and cackle loudly up to the sky.
"John Doe Jersey" eases in very gracefully after the previous track, as the climax approaches, the action motifs ride through better than most "serious" action movie music would. The religious tones of each theme throughout the entire score, clash back and forth, only to have some superbly composed choral work climb into the mix and completes this piece.
Finishing off the album is "A Very Relieved Deity", which continues with the heavenly chorus and orchestrations. Playing as a variation on Bethany's theme and introducing a new theme, which would serve as God's motif, this track would definately not be out of place on "The Lord Of The Rings".
While the album plays a mere 41 minutes, 35 minutes of that is given to Howard Shore's wonderful score and the other six is saved for Alanis Morissette and her original song, "Still".
This sole "rock" song opens the album and is suprisingly suiting to both the film and the soundtrack album. With it's world music sound texture and it's religiously controversial lyrics, I think Morissette holds up pretty well, like she did with "Uninvited" on the City Of Angels soundtrack. Other than those two songs, I'm not much of fan of her work.
I could of done with a longer playing time for the album, but am not sure how much music Shore actually wrote for the film, so this might be a pretty accurate presentation of the whole score.
All in all, I think that any Howard Shore fan will be fairly pleased with this early score, as would most film score collectors. So if your looking for a fun, dramatic, but not too serious, almost epic score then this Dogma's for you........unless your the President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights (that's right, Little Willy Donohue, you ass, here's looking at you).

****

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: THE SCORE music composed by Christophe Beck

Based upon the 1992 box office bomb, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, was a television series that would grow into a pop culture phenonmenon during it's seven year run, beginning in 1997. Oscar-nominated Buffy creator, Joss Whedon, all ready had quite the resume under his belt, as a co-writer on Toy Story & Titan A.E. (with Tim Burton regular, John August & Firefly/Angel scribe Ben Edlund), the unfortunate writer on Alien Resurrection, script-doctor on Speed, Twister & Waterworld and writer on the TV sitcom Roseanne. Unhappy with the way his scripts turned out on film, due to the directors, Whedon decided to turn to television. From there he resurrected the idea of a highschool girl turned superhero and developed it into a critically acclaimed televsion series.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer mixed horror, humour and human drama into it's stories unusually well. It's characters were given the gift of witty dialogue and even greater character arcs. However it was the music that brought a cinematic feel to the series, when it went into it's second season.
In the first season, Walter Murphy scored the show, with mixed results. His music felt overly synthesized and low budget, which really stood out (and not in a good way). Murphy left the show and went on to score Family Guy, which better suited him. In stepped Canadian composer, Christophe Beck, who really hadn't done much, other than collaborated with then unknown composer Marco Beltrami on the forgotten series, Land's End.
Christophe Beck, brought the cinematic feeling to Buffy, that it needed and it almost immedietely took the series to a brand new height.
Beck, used a mixture of synthesizers and real instruments to create a sound that could very well belong in a feature film. Pouring everything in the mixture that he could, Beck's music was at times touching, horrific, exciting and humorous.
He ended up scoring 58 episodes in total, during the years of 1997 and 2001 and picked up an Emmy Award for his work on the season two episode, Becoming Part 1. During that time, his music was rarely ever released on album, besides a single track on the first official soundtrack album and one on the 2nd UK edition soundtrack. Followed by that, a few suites were released on the Buffy musical episode soundtrack album. Fans didn't think that was enough and wanted a whole score album. It wasn't until 2008 (five years after the show went off the air), that an official score album was released to the rabid fans of the show.
Clocking in at nearly sixty minutes worth of music, the album is what anybody who was a fan of show's score would want. It's score follows through with cues starting from the pivotal season two episode, Innocence, all the way to season five finale, The Gift, which was Beck's run through the series, if you don't count the single musical season six episode, Once More With Feeling.
The album begins with a bang, with "Massacre" from the season 2 episode, Becoming Part 1. An exciting cue, with it's sweeping strings and violent brass section that match Beltrami's horror cues from his Scream scores. It slows down at the end to interpolate with the Buffy/Angel love theme, that fans will immedietely recognize and cherish. Coincidentally, Beck would reuse the action theme from this cue, in Becoming Part 2 and the season one Angel episodes, I Will Remember You & War Zone. Followed by "Angel Waits" from the Season two's Passion. Quite possibly my favorite episode from the entire series and the music has alot to do with it. "Angel Waits" is a stalking soundscape, which creaks back and forth with pure evil. "Remembering Jenny" is another track from Passion, which is the Giles/Jenny Calender love theme. A theme I could listen to forever and wish so badly there were more variations on the theme itself. With it's deeply moving piano and Anthony (Giles) Head's vocals, it puts a lump in my throat just thinking about it. Followed by "Twice The Fool" from the season two Xander-centric episode, Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered. A playful little ditty, with strings that could quite possibly pop out of Elfman's Beetlejuice score.
"Kralik's House", from the season three episode, Helpless is an uber-creepy track that layers synthesized strings and an ominous droning sound, that sends chills up and down the spine, then suddenly jumps out at you, just like the Kralik character relished in doing so much. Things get emotional with "Magic Snow Music" from the season three Christmas episode, Amends. You get the feeling, Whedon wanted something straight out of Edward Scissorhands and Beck delivers. A funny little tidbit on this track, if you put the cd in your computer, it reads as "Magic Snow Missile", possibly thrown in there by some D & D fan.
"Slayer's Elegy" from the Season 3 episode The Wish, is a beautiful gloomy track that focuses mainly on a female soloist vocal performance, which mirrors Beltrami's Scream cue, "Sidney's Lament".
The action really picks up again, with "Faith's End" from the season three episode, Graduation Day Pt. 1. This cue is like the bigger, meaner brother to the "Massacre" track. It makes you want to jump up and kick some ass...you could almost imagine the internet child star "Star Wars Nerd" filming himself again, only this time he's a vampire slayer and...well...it just gets weird.
"From The Grave" from Season Four's This Year's Girl, is a somber cue, which plays along with Faith's dream/nightmare before she wakes from her coma.
We are then treated to several unreleased cues from the Season Four episodes, the Emmy-nominated Hush & Restless. Even though the Once More With Feeling soundtrack included some extended suites from these episodes, it is nice to hear even more score from Beck's masterpieces. I'm particulary fond of the cues from Hush, as it is probably my second favorite episode. The Gentlemen's theme is just so damned creepy, it's like something out of a classic horror movie from the Golden Age. Restless being my third favorite episode, musically, was a real treat. I loved the vocals that were used in this, they remind me of the Hans Zimmer/Lisa Gerrard score for Gladiator.
The album ends with a handful of tracks from Season Five, which I find somewhat forgettable, other than the final track "The Gift", from the season finale of the same name. This track is labelled as an alternate version, from the version that was heard on the OMWF soundtrack. Personally, the original version stands up better, than this alternate version, as it ends more dramatically.
In the end, "Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Score" is a pretty decent stand alone album compiling some of the best cues spanning over Christophe Beck's work on the series. However several of the tracks are edited down from the season two and three era, which really makes me wonder why, as they could still easily fit on the album in their complete running time. Personally, I don't mind too much, as all these tracks can be found on the Season Two & Three score promotional albums in their entirety. Unfortunally the promo albums were never released to the public, so the only way to get them is to hunt them down online and get the MP3's. Another annoyance is the way the album was released. By purchasing the album online, you would recieve several bonus tracks, all of them differing depending on where you bought them from, whether it was iTunes, Amazon or Rhapsody.
I highly recommend this album and the two promo discs (if you can find them), whether your a fan of the series or just a score collector, it stands on it's own feet either way. So here's hoping a volume two is on it's way, right?

****

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT music composed by Alan Silvestri

What started out looking good on paper, ended up being just that and ten times better on film. It was everything in between that proved to be a complete nightmare for everybody involved in the 1988 classic, Who Framed Roger Rabbit With Robert Zemeckis at the director's chair, having proven himself a good bet at the box office with Back To The Future, as well as Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy as producers, the film was destined to be a success. Only it wasn't these big Hollywood names that would catch the public's attention, it was the seamless mixture of live action and classicly animated cartoon characters. A form of film which hadn't really been used that much at that point, other than Disney's Song Of The South and Bednobs & Broomsticks. Using original cartoon characters at the forefront was the easy part (well, not easy, infact quite difficult to film, but that's beside the point), it was the meeting of Warner Bros., MGM and Disney characters for the numerous cameos that became a legal nightmare for the producers, studio, animators, scriptwriters and director. In the end, everything came together, but would never be done again, although a sequel had been in talks for quite a few years but was eventually scrapped.
With the film winning numerous awards for it's special effects, other aspects of the film almost went unnoticed by most. Bob Hoskins, who held his own extremely well against his cartoon co-stars, as well as Christoper Lloyd, almost unrecognizable if not for his voice. Another performance that most people forgot about was the wonderfully performed colorful score by Zemeckis regular, Alan Silvestri.
At that point the composer had only worked on three projects with Zemeckis so far, those being the two films, Romancing The Stone and Back To The Future and a single episode of Spielberg's TV anthology series, Amazing Stories. He would go on to compose for all of Zemeckis' films afterwards, including What Lies Beneath, Forest Gump, Death Becomes Her and The Polar Express. However, Who Framed Roger Rabbit is his busiest, zaniest Zemeckis score to date.
The score album begins, like the film, grabbing your attention right away, with "Maroon Logo". An obvious tip of the hat to Carl Stalling, who scored pretty much every Looney Tunes 'toon you can remember, which in turn was a tip of the hat to avant-garde jazzster, Raymond Scott. This immedietly leads into the "Maroon Cartoon" score, which is a dizzying muscial ride into cartoon violence and suspense, with the tippy toe plucks included, something that made the old Tom & Jerry cartoons so great.
The album quickly takes a breather, which is needed fairly soon, with the somber "Valiant & Valiant", the perfect jazz piece to reflect the Hoskin's P.I. character, Eddie Valiant.
"The Weasels" is a sly, sneaky little piece, that Silvestri seemed to perfect as he showed in Back To The Future and Death Becomes Her. The brass section toots as the strings pluck away rather dastardly and finally meet in a swirling hurricane of trouble.
By now, you can feel the album working just like a cartoon score, with it's style changing every other second.
Silvestri's theme for "Judge Doom", while not very memorable, works extremely well for the characters itself. It's ascending horns and ominous death bells in the background, would certainly strike fear in me, if I were a cartoon bear....Dip be damned.
"Jessica's Theme" is a sultry little number for the Mrs. Rabbit, who's "not bad, just drawn that way". It's an instrumental variation of the "Why Don't You Do Right" song, heard in the seedy nightclub. I would have been fine without the song on the album and just the instrumental theme itself, but I might be alone on this one, as it is a pivotal moment in the film.
The second half of the album mostly consists of entertaining goofy action cues, which Silvestri perfected, as Danny Elfman would too, in the next few years to come. They juggle back and forth between jazz, cartoon madness and straight up orchestrated intensity, that almost sounds as if it came from Silvestri's Predator scores.
The "End Credits" is always a favorite for me when it comes to film scores, as it lets the composer go nuts with his themes without having to follow the action onscreen. And Roger Rabbit's End Credits are one of the best I've heard even up to this very day.
The official soundtrack release runs at 46 minutes, with 7 minutes of that being the "songs" from the film. Those songs I really could of done without, especially the annoying "Smile Darn Ya Smile" heard at the end of them film, but again it's the finale of the movie, so it had to be included. The two other non-score cues are Roger Rabbit's "Merry-Go-Round Broke Down", which I really can't see anybody listening to with careful attention, other than a six year old with ADD. Finally, there's "Dueling Pianos" which was performed by Donald & Daffy Duck in the film. I actually don't mind this, as it was one of my favorite parts of the whole film and apparently one of the most controversial, due to both duck's speech impediments, it's not clear as to whether or not they are muttering racial remarks to each other...one duck white, the other black.
Again, there are two other harder to find releases of the soundtrack. First off there is 40 minute promo, of which I don't own as I never bothered to seek, so I don't know much about it. Secondly there is the 2-Disc Expanded soundtrack which clocks in at a whopping 1 hr and 40 minutes, which contains several alternate cues that are well worth the listen. The 2-CD Expanded set is next to impossible to find, so the official soundtrack release is your best bet. Anybody who enjoys old fashioned cartoon music or just a good musical ride, I highly recommend this little gem to you and your big wascally wabbit ears.

**** - for official soundtrack release
***** - for 2-CD expanded edition

SCREAM/SCREAM 2 music composed by Marco Beltrami

In the winter of 1996, a tiny little low budget film completely revitalized the slasher film franchise, which had been whimpering away since the last few dismal releases from The Nightmare On Elm Street and Friday The 13th franchises. Scream, scripted by Dawnson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven, didn't have much in the way of expectations, but by word of mouth, it became one of the biggest hits of the following year, after it's re-release in April of '97. It was quickly followed in December of '97 with a sequel, which was equally as good and finally in Febuary of '99 with the lacklustre Scream 3 (here's hoping a 2010 release of Scream 4 never makes it past the pre-production stage). Of all the things I noticed of the Scream franchise, the one thing that really got in my head was the musical score. Up until then, slasher flicks never relied on orchestrated music, only bad synthesized blips and bleeps, which tend to outdate themselves rather quickly (with the exception of John Carpenter's uber-creepy Halloween theme). It wasn't until Marco Beltrami, then unknown, stepped up to the job to compose/orchestrate music for a slasher film. The results were an unbelievable success and has been emulated over and over again since.
Originally, we were only blessed with 3 and a 1/2 minutes of score from the first film and none from the second on the official rock band soundtrack releases. Finally, after two years of constant online petitions and fan mail, film score label, Varese Sarabande released a score album for Scream and Scream 2 on the same disc.
Unfortunally the album clocks in a few seconds shy of a half hour, which is ridiculously short for even one film score, nevermind two and it doesn't even include Danny Elfman's "Cassandra Aria", which he wrote for the second film (more on that later). However, as the album has it's extreme faults, it doesn't take away from the incredible music that is on track here.
Beginning with the first title, and the most memorable of the Scream trilogy's themes, is "Sidney's Lament". The track immedietely screamed out to me when I first heard it in the film...I knew I must own this score. With it's hauntingly beautiful solo voice, performed over some dissonant warped brass, Sidney's Lament would be what would define the Scream franchise's sound. Followed by "Altered Ego", a short but loud little ditty, with it's violent orchestral manipulations and brass jabs, this is just a taste of what's to come ahead. "Trouble In Woodsboro" sounds almost as if Trent Reznor and Jerry Goldsmith got together to rework Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana". With it's strange chain-rattling in the background, heavy guitars in the forefront and synthetic choir layered neatly on top, "Trouble In Woodsboro" is a definite album highlight. "A Cruel World" and "NC-17" are both interesting reinterpretations of "Sidney's Lament", but go in two different directions, one relying heavily on a gothic sounding piano and ending with a string and brass section lightly playing over it, while the latter track is "Trouble In Woodsboro"'s erotic cousin, with it's somber sounding piano played with an industrial beat one would expect to hear in a softcore porn film.
We then dig into the Scream 2 half of the album, beginning with "Stage Fright Requiem". This track is meant to be heard on a really good sound system or earphones, just to distract you from that fact that you've just wet your pants. "Stage Fright" starts off with a b-movie horror score rock beat and melts into one of the most intense frightening pieces of score I think I've ever heard. A loud gothic choir, mixed with an avant-garde brass section that almost sounds like raining blood and low pounding drums make this track a must hear. Following this terrifying track is yet another, which is equally as good if not better, "Love Turns Sour". It starts off with a sweet Ennio Morricone spaghetti western sounding guitar that would be Dewey's theme, (which by the way was replaced in the film by Hans Zimmer's Broken Arrow theme) and creeps into a loud, violent, pounding from the orchestra ending with a dramatic gothic choir. The string section in this piece blows me away everytime I hear it, with shades of Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Hermann, "Love Turns Sour" dares you to keep a relaxed heartbeat while listening to it. Other tracks further explore the Sidney and Dewey themes, while a few others are quiet, creeping tracks that are guaranteed to give chills The album ends, with a beautifully harmonic rendition of Sidney's theme, with "It's Over, Sid", which is like the bowtie on the present or the afterdinner mint...a pleasant little surprise at the end of this rollercoaster ride of a score.
In the end, there's only about 12 minutes of score from Scream and 17 minutes of Scream 2, which can only lead to disappointment for the score collector. Many collector's complained that Hans Zimmer's Broken Arrow theme was not on the album...idiots...go buy the Broken Arrow soundtrack then. Instead, we are graced with Beltrami's original Dewey's cowboy theme, which was never used in the film due to studio executive's believing Zimmer's music would be more listener friendly. Beltrami had his music replaced in a few more spots in the film, mostly with bad alternative rock songs, as the studio heads thought his music was a little too dark for the film. Danny Elfman's Cassandra Aria was absent from the album and still has yet to see an official release anywhere else. However, if you're like me, you will track down the underground complete score albums to both films and wallow in the musical goodness. Most tracks featured on the public release of the scores are edited down, so finding the complete score albums are a delight, especially with "Love Turns Sour" which has it's extra two minutes tagged to it, as well as Elfman's contribution. Another interesting addition to the complete score albums, are at the end, with some alternate versions of some cues and some orchestral nonsense showing the players warming up. If those aren't hard to find for you, another challenge, is to track down the expanded Scream/Scream 2 album, which adds 5 more minutes to each score (which is still too short), including the Elfman track, Beltrami's song "I Don't Care" which he wrote for the first film and Bjork's "Disorder" which was written for the 2nd film but never released on the official "Scream 2" soundtrack or anywhere else.
All in all, the official "Scream/Scream 2" score album is a pleasurable and frightening listening experience, but is unfortunally just too short. Even though the length of the album is extremely disappointing, this album has been a favorite of mine since it's release, just because the music itself is just so damned good.


**1/2 for score as heard on the official "Scream/Scream 2" score album
*** for score as heard on the expanded "Scream/Scream 2" score album
**** for score as heard on "Scream" & "Scream 2" complete recordings albums