| K-Pax |
| Composed by Edward Shearmur |
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Conducted by Edward Shearmur Orchestrated by Robert Elhai and Brad Warnaar Solo Vocals Performed by Melissa Kaplan Produced by Edward Shearmur Release Date: 2001 |
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When I first popped this CD into my player, it was with some trepidation. After all, how many times does a score for a character-driven film ever really turn out to be any good? It usually takes an inspired composer who is at the top of his game to provide an intriguing score of this nature. Works such as Angela’s Ashes, The Red Violin, and Snow Falling on Cedars are examples of film scores that come to mind as to what has been done right in the past. At the same time however, titles such as Brokedown Palace, and Erin Brockovich stand in contrast. With such an unknown composer as Edward Shearmur working on the film, I really didn’t know what to expect. As first track began to play, however, my fears begin to subside...and then they were validated with the beginning of the second track until the end. The score to K-Pax starts off really strong, but from there it just dips down into background techno-synth music with only the vocal work of Melissa Kaplan to break the monotony (and this occurs far too infrequently). Speaking of Melissa Kaplan, my first experience with her voice was from Graeme Revell’s interesting score to Red Planet. This brings up an intriguing comparison since K-Pax could basically be described as Red Planet except far less noisy and far less interesting. Generally, I’m not a big fan of electronically driven scores unless they are done right, and that is usually very rare. The frustrating thing about K-Pax is that Shearmur really does know how to compose for this style of music. His actual orchestrated pieces are quite good and the strings and piano moments are quite welcome. It’s just that the score is good in pieces. As a whole, K-Pax comes out feeling rather uninspired. While there is some thematic development, it needs to evolve more to keep the music from simply existing in the background. As minimalist scores go, this one is not too bad, but just simply average. Had Shearmur taken time to develop the subtleties of score it could have been something truly magical. **1/2 |
| Track Listing - Total Running Time: 43:17 | |
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