| Road to Perdition |
|
Composed by Thomas Newman |
|
|
Orchestrated by Thomas Pasatieri Produced by Thomas Newman and Bill Bernstein Release Date: 2002 |
Purchase this CD at:
|
|
While David Newman provided the whimsical score to this years first CG-animated romp, Ice Age, his brother comes along with a completely opposite score in the form of Tom Hank's latest film, Road to Perdition. The film, which takes place in the era around the 1930s, deals with mobsters, hit men, and Tom Hanks's character on the run with his son. From the very beginning Newman's score puts forth the tone of one of the darkest scores for this genre I've ever heard. It is also one of the more emotionally moving scores I've experienced since Christopher Gordon's On the Beach. The first track is immediately interesting, due to the incredibly dark nature of the music along with Newman's use of Celtic instruments. While he doesn't go overboard with them (they don't appear again for sometime later), they give a nice flavor to the score that is immediately noticeable. Thomas Pasatieri's orchestrations also work to great effect in making this score sound wholly original, and worlds apart from the work of other contemporary composers. There are lots of interesting moments to be heard from the string section and the use of piano (both solo and in accompaniment) works very well in bringing about the emotional level of the music. His scant use of a children's choir is excellent, but it left me yearning for more. As a contrast to the dark melodic pieces, Newman's suspense music runs along a more bizarre vein. With dissonant performances and quirky percussion noises, these tend to become a little painful to listen to, but still fascinating in their own sort of way. Newman takes these cues to the edge of being unlistenable but never allows them to fall over. Their appearance is rather jarring in respect with the surrounding cues, but they thankfully don't last too long. As far as thematic work goes, it is found here, though Newman likes to keep it subtle. For this type of score, it's quite a good call, and there are at least plenty of interesting moments to make up for heavy thematic usage, as a score of this type runs a great risk of becoming bland. As it is, the music doesn't escape from that fault entirely, but it succeeds far more often than it fails. Newman's themes are beautifully realized, and as all great emotional themes go, the primarily string-based ones are quite strong. Several period songs are sprinkled around the album, but I found myself just skipping past them. Stylistically they are a total departure from the music, and thus break up the flow a little. I would have preferred the songs to be congregated at the end of the album, but at least they are easy to bypass. While I haven't had a lot of experience with Thomas Newman's work I am quite pleased with this score. For those looking for a more darker, emotional score than what can usually be found, this would be a good CD to check into. **** |
| Track Listing - Total Running Time: 70:25 | |
|
|
