ESCAPE ROOM OST / COMPOSER: BRIAN TYLER, JOHN CAREY / LABEL: MUSIC ON VINYL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Brian Tyler and John Carey’s score for the thriller Escape Room, directed by Adam Robitel, is beyond exciting. As director Robitel points out in his liner notes for this release, it grants the film “titanic size and sweep” and exclaims that “this incredibly visceral and wholly unique score is the final character of the piece.”
Tyler and Carey’s music is by turns intense and spooky, fueled by analog keyboards and a mish-mash of sounds captured from all manner of things from ticking clocks to power tools, representing the time-pressed characters and the constantly moving environment from which they’re attempting to escape.
The remix of the composers’ Escape Room theme by Madsonik and Kill The Noise comes right after the original version of the theme, and it’s a pulse-pounding explosion of energy which carries through the score. This is a film score which mirrors the pace of the movie, yes, but it’s also an excellent album, just as suited for soundtracking a late-night dance party.
However, while pieces such as “Coaster” and “Testing Your Limits” feel as if the heart will beat right out of the listener’s chest, moody pieces such as “The King Of Trading” or “Let the Games Begin” will remind listeners of the melancholic despair evoked by another composer who works with found sounds, Cristobal Tapia de Veer. By the time the music concludes with “Escape Room Finale,” the listener is wrung out and ready to collapse, but with a definite hint of a smile upon their face.
Given that the film was a massive success, pulling in a nearly $155 million box office on a $9 million budget, there’s already a sequel in the works. Hopefully, that means there’s another batch of tunes on the way from Brian Tyler and John Carey as well.
The double LP release from Music on Vinyl’s At the Movies imprint is a limited edition of 500 copies on red hot vinyl, packaged in a gatefold jacket. The printed inner sleeves further feature the puzzle box from the front cover, as well as stills from the film. The gatefold spread includes the aforementioned liner notes from director Robitel. The vinyl isn’t just red hot in color, but in sound as well: this is a massive sounding pair of records, fairly exploding from the stereo.
