| Vertical Limit |
| Composed by James Newton Howard |
|
|
Conducted by Pete Anthony Orchestrated by Brad Dechter, Jeff Atmajian, Pete Anthony, and James Newton Howard Produced by James Newton Howard, Jim Weidman, and Robert Townson Release Date: 2002 |
Purchase this CD at:
|
|
James Newton Howard may not have the name recognition that John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, and even James Horner can enjoy, but that hasn’t stopped him from turning out delightful scores that cover a wide range of genres. From The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, to Dinosaur and Snow Falling on Cedars, there have been many hours of listening pleasure that has been created from this composer. Now with Vertical Limit, I can confidently add the action genre as a style that Howard can expertly compose for. I’ve had this CD for a while, and though I listened to a few tracks a while back, there was really nothing there to stir my interest. Or so I thought at least. When I finally forced myself to listen to this score, I found that it is a solid action score with plenty of great moments. The main theme to the score is well utilized and is thankfully not some over-the-top heroic piece, but merely does its job on a more subtle, yet still forceful, level. Howard’s scoring of the film with string heavy orchestrations help with the mountainous scenery and gives the music an air of, well, “air.” Howard’s use of chorus, while fairly subdued in this score, works well and electronic elements are generally lacking. This is simply a straight-forward orchestral score. Rarely are any action scores filled with just wall to wall with action sequences. A fully-rounded action score does need some good stuff to fill in those quieter moments. While there has been better, Howard doesn’t just use those times to push the all-too typical atmospheric crap, and while they won’t swell your heart with emotion, they won’t have you constantly reaching for the “skip track” button. There are even some great moments where the music just picks up from the quieter pieces and goes soaring. From the opening moments, to the last swell of the main theme, Howard does a good job of keeping the score flowing well. The release from Varese contains a nicely tight running time with acceptable track lengths. Though, as can be expected, the liner notes are nothing to speak of (there aren’t any notes, only pictures). Still for those of you who enjoy the work of James Newton Howard, this is a fine score to add to your collection. ****1/2 |
| Track Listing - Total Running Time: 44:27 | |
|
|
