Aliens! Cowboys! Murderers! Crooks!

Written by Rob Talbot Wednesday, 14 September 2011

OST - by Rob Talbot

A packed OST this month with five soundtracks, four of which being from esteemed score merchants Varese Sarabande. First up, as promised last time, is Michael Giacchino's score for Super 8 (Varese Sarabande), the latest of many collaborations with J.J Abrams which have included Alias, Lost and of course Star Trek (2009). In keeping with the general tenor of the film itself, Giacchino's score channels the spirit of much-loved late seventies and early eighties genre fare like Close Encounters and E.T. 

Things are off to a beautiful start as the main theme, 'Super 8', states the score's intent. Exquisitely lush and rich, it evokes some of the very finest orchestral scores from soundtrack greats like Williams and Goldsmith. Sometimes there's nothing quite like the sound of a huge (apparently 104-piece in this case) orchestra to stamp a mark of quality on the proceedings and this one impresses from the first moments. The main theme briefly established, the track moves on to a gentle piano theme, backed by lush strings, which is developed in the following two tracks, 'Family Matters' and 'Model Painting', at a slightly higher tempo in the former. These very short tracks are reminiscent of portions of the composer's recent Let Me In (2010) soundtrack (See June's OST), whilst at the same time remaining recognisably 'Spielbergian'.

The first track of a reasonable length comes in the form of the nearly six minute long 'Aftermath Class', which moves through several phases including a gentle but mysterious build-up, with soaring strings contributing that epic, cosmic feel, some haunting ethereal flute and later the first appearance of the film's brash and satisfying suspense theme. However, not much new is introduced to the score beyond this point. The three main themes alternate throughout over 30 tracks at various tempi, building layer upon layer of atmosphere.

The problem is, though, that all these very short tracks repeating the same themes become a tad, well, repetitive when listened to as an album rather than as simply accompaniment to the film; in fact to the point where it becomes almost obnoxious. And this makes for a very long score at 72 minutes. The score's real 'epic' track is the ten minute long 'Creature Comforts' towards the album's end, which, although rather chilling at times, sounds incredibly derivative by the time we get to this point. All things considered, a fantastic quality of musicianship lends an epic sweep throughout the score, but as a recording don't be too surprised if you find yourself getting bored and turning it off after half an hour. Fine, fine film music, but not so good to listen to (after a while) unless purely for the sake of reliving the film.

Similarly impressive at early doors is Cowboys and Aliens (Varese Sarabande) from Harry Gregson-Williams. The opener, 'Jake Lonergan' is a breath of fresh air after so many samey-sounding scores, with a neat electronic bassline that almost brings John Carpenter to mind and a brief appearance by a vaguely Ry Cooder-esque solo guitar, putting one immediately in the sort of pleasing genre-hybrid headspace promised by the film's title and concept. Not having seen the film, your humble narrator was beginning to get the idea that he was in for an unexpected little treat. Sadly, however, there isn't much more like this to be had for the remaining fifty-odd minutes of the score.

There's a brief return to this style partway into the track after next, 'Col. Woodrow Dolarhyde', and in the final two tracks, but aside from the odd interesting sting here and there (such as that found in 'Emmett's Close Encounter'), tracks like 'Attack and Abductions', 'Alien Air Attack' and 'Godspeed' are generic, workmanlike and unremarkable. Aside from the first tracks mentioned the score is utterly lacking any personality of its own and is, like so many contemporary releases, completely unmemorable. Where Giacchino's Super 8 score is not hugely original (and itself becomes tedious after a while) it has the saving grace of positively reeking of quality. Cowboys and Aliens gives the impression that Gregson-Williams must have had a stipulation in his contract stating that his score must be as bland as possible. As the 'suits' these days seem to crave homogeneity in every aspect of a film's look and feel nowadays, one starts to wonder why Universal actually went to the trouble and expense of commissioning the new cues when there are already so many scores exactly the same that they could have easily assembled it from.

My advice? Just download the first track from somewhere. Like most reviews I've seen so far of the film suggest, the soundtrack too is a hugely missed opportunity. It would be interesting to hear what someone like Ennio Morricone would have done with it -  not that there is anyone else like Ennio Morricone.

Thankfully, here's something a bit different (but not that different); the horrorgasm that is Brian Tyler's OST for Final Destination 5 (Varese Sarabande). The Rambo (2008) and Battle Los Angeles (2011) composer replaced the late lamented Shirley Walker as series scoresmith with Part 4 and continues her tradition respectfully, while adding plenty of pleasing touches of his own. The bombastic 'Main Title' verges on rock opera; a percussion-led affair with rock guitars backed by a lush strings that leaves one in no doubt that they're in for an all-out horror thrill ride. One can immediately imagine the film's title jumping out towards them in bold 3D.

'Fates Bridge' is more generic horror fare, another early crescendo for the score that reaches fever pitch over its six minute running time, obviously designed to accompany the nail-biting 'near death' experience that arms the film (just like its predecessors) with its main narrative thrust. This established we have an elegiac aftermath with 'Repercussions', with low, sinister strings and a muffled 'heartbeat' soon giving way to a gentle piano melody and lighter strings. With 'Kill Or Be Killed' onwards the score again becomes dark and brooding, beginning a gradual build up of terror and suspense, with most tracks culminating in an arresting sting, clearly designed to accompany each bloody murder. A ten minute epic called 'Death's Work' is the score's bravura piece; again generic up to a point, but littered with enough interesting electronic touches to distinguish it and some stings that are pleasingly redolent of James Horner's work for Aliens (1986).

'Olivia' is a nicely quirky and irreverent little detour with a muffled drum machine and bass line, obviously designed to accompany a less 'life and death' section of the film. 'The Gift Certificate' is in a similar vein; one gets the feeling that Tyler grabbed the opportunity to display some versatility and have a little fun with these tracks, escaping briefly from the tried and tested 'stalk and slash' template. Again, the score is still generic in many ways, but on the whole a more interesting and memorable affair than many contemporary scores, leading the listener to come away with an impression of Tyler having a musical personality of his own. On the whole an effective horror soundtrack with enough nice little touches to make it worthwhile. Fans of the film series and Walker's scores for Parts 1-3 should be very pleased with it.

And we have yet more slasher mayhem to come, from another highly popular horror franchise, with the score for Scream 4 (Varese Sarabande). Sorry, but I refuse to have any truck with any 'Scre4m' nonsense. I mean, come on. Composer Marco Beltrami emerged pretty much fully formed into the soundtrack scene with his score for the original Scream way back in '96, and has been in just-about-A-list work solidly ever since with many scores including his Oscar-nominated 3:10 to Yuma OST in 2007 and the forthcoming The Thing redux. Something tells me that won't be anything like as interesting or unsettling as Morricone's score for Carpenter's film, but we'll just have to wait and see on that one.

Despite eleven years elapsing since Scream 3, there's not much to distinguish 4 from the original trilogy's scores – and perhaps no-one would expect there to be, it being, like the new film itself, a pastiche of a pastiche of a pastiche. Okay there's the odd quirky little number like 'Dewey in the Morning', but these are so brief as to be hardly worth bothering with. Once again, an extremely accomplished and lush score, but purely perfunctory. As with Cowboys and Aliens, few would have noticed if they'd just cobbled the score together with stings from the previous three films. There's none of the memorable (if chronically overused) elements of the Scream series' progenitors – namely Friday the 13th and Halloween. Harry Manfredini's Friday the 13th score may have just been in essence a combination of elements from Psycho and Jaws, but it remains instantly recognisable to this day. Take note, modern soundtrack composers! If you own any of the soundtracks to the original trilogy than I recommend that you give this one a miss and go for the Final Destination album instead. If you're looking for the songs from The Novocaines, Stereo Black et al, then you need to seek out the 'Original Soundtrack' CD as opposed to the 'Original Score'.

Just as Howard Blake's Avengers OST provided some welcome relief from all these indentikit efforts last month, this time we find sonic redemption at the hands of one of the all-time soundtrack greats, Jerry Goldsmith. City of Fear (Intrada) is volume 170 of the 'Intrada Special Collection' from the Stateside soundtrack purveyors and is the soundtrack to a low budget 1959 crime potboiler, amongst the master's very first for the big screen.

With its rolling piano and discordant horns, opening cut 'Get Away / Main Title' immediately reminds the movie-savvy listener of one of Goldsmith's solid gold classics – his masterful score for Planet of the Apes (1968). Subsequent tracks like 'Roadblock' and 'The Facts' continue to crank up the suspense. Like much film music from the 50s and 60s it manages to be threatening whilst remaining oddly slinky n' sexy at the same time – essentially an exercise in 'sinister jazz'. Don't get me wrong, though; despite the bongo drums and xylophones this is in no way a 'lounge' LP (although tracks like 'Tennis Shoes' have sections that border on this),  but it's certainly one that can be enjoyed at home.

Real film music from an absolute master, working in a period of true inventiveness that the current crop of composers can only look back at in envy. The CD is a limited release that's already getting a bit tricky to get hold of but is well worth tracking down by any true soundtrack aficionado.

I'll have something a bit different for you next time. 'Til then – keep listenin'.

robyn.talbot@starburstmagazine.com