| Spy Game |
| Composed by Harry Gregson-Williams |
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Conducted by Harry Gregson-Williams Performed by The London Session Orchestra and Metro Voices Produced by Harry Gregson-Williams, and G. Marq Roswell Release Date: 2001 |
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Well, it has definitely been experimentation time for the Media Ventures crew. While Black Hawk Down will probably be the most noticeable of the two efforts, Harry Gregson-Williams' score to Spy Game could be seen as starting it all off. In fact, I find it to be really similar to Black Hawk Down except for the fact that its ethnic stylizations come from the Middle-East as opposed to Africa. Even though the credits list the talents of The London Session Orchestra, this score is still heavily electronic driven. Gregson-Williams has always seemed to score music that retains some Media Ventures flavoring while establishing an underlying voice that is different at the same time. Just witness such scores as AntZ and Chicken Run. The same can be said of Spy Game, even though it is a lot closer to the Media Ventures sound than those other scores. The CD starts off well enough. We are first treated to the ethnic Arabian sound that provides the style basis for the score, before launching into a tension-filled orchestral piece (which, as usual, is pumped up via electronics), which segues into the second track which delivers the main theme of the score. From there, the first half of the score is interesting enough, if derivative of other Gregson-Williams scores, but it isn't too long before the music starts to drag. While he does some interesting things with the Arabian style, the excellent boy soprano, and the larger chorus moments, the space between these moments is just to long. This proves to be the biggest downfall of the soundtrack release. Gregson-Williams has himself stated in an interview that the CD was sequenced to be far too long. With track upon track of atmospheric music that largely splits up the more interesting parts of the score, the CD becomes anything but enjoyable. This is not really a bad score, but there was just a lot of material that would have been better off not making it on the CD. Without a tremendous amount of thematic development or more interesting cues, this CD stands out as a mishmash of good sections interspersed with a lot of nothingness. If you're a fan of Gregson-Williams, than the opening half of the CD might be all you need to convince you of a purchase. Otherwise, only fans of the film who enjoyed the score should bother with this one. *** |
| Track Listing - Total Running Time: 71:34 | |
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