The Perfect Storm

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

It's hard to describe a score like this, it has to be non stop suspense, has to sound heroic and uplifting, but at the same time fearsome and tragic. James Horner delivered this all in almost 80 minutes of music, making it one of the longest scores on one single disc. It's no surprise to tell you that Horner borrowed motifs or sounds from his other scores, but it's nothing like Bicentennial Man or something. Only little motifs are found and that doesn't bother me a lot. The Perfect Storm is really suspense all the way when the storm starts building up and from that point on James starts cooking big time, the suspenseful orchestrations and powerful moments never stop, only for the outburst of the heroic theme. You can definitely say that Horner delivered an emotional roller coaster because every track does feature a serious amount of impact. The tragic attempt that Horner creates is really no surprise, like we have witnessed for ourselves in his earlier scores. The score starts soft and somewhat cheerful, this represents the homecoming of the fishermen. The first themes are then already presented and will be heard during every track to come. But when the track 'The Decision to Turn Around' starts it is the begin of suspense and it doesn't stop until the begin of the track 'Rogue Wave', which features the killer wave in person. How Horner presents the domination of the storm is truly impressive, almost totally musical and nothing that sounds horrible to hear.

The score has it moments of pure power and those reflect the storm itself, the score of Horner doesn't stop and that's the same about the storm, it never lets go of his toy ball. I don't have to tell you that Horner is a master in these situations, it isn't something utterly beautiful like for instance Titanic or Braveheart but it has emotion and fits along with the insertion of the electric guitar very nicely with the movie. Heard in full effect during 'Small Victories' and 'Coast Guard Rescue'. The first moment of 'Rogue Wave' is truly breathtaking, the sheer force of Horner's orchestrations take enormous height and suddenly stop, it then becomes totally silent before returning to the soft heroic if what dramatic music. The song at the end, written by Horner and performed by John Mellencamp is very good to hear, it uses the main theme of Horner like in the other recent soundtracks. I can only say that The Perfect Storm is a very effective score, very good by melodic standards and impressive through suspense and power. Two things are somewhat disappointing, first of all, I think that the score lasts 20 minutes too long, a sixty minute album (which is also enormously big) should've been better. Secondly, the themes are used too much. This makes the score a bit tiring to hear every time again. Overall, everything is present in The Perfect Storm, the good powerful and strong themes and his re use of tiny motifs. This makes it a score for the fans and for those who don't have anything against Horner, because it's impressive to hear the impact of the music in and outside of the movie.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Coming Home From The Sea (9.25) Excellent Track

2. "The Fog's Just Lifting ..." (4.11)

3. "Let's Go, Boys" (8.54)

4. To The Flemish Cap (7.17) Excellent Track

5. The Decision To Turn Around (9.20)

6. Small Victories (8.30) Excellent Track

7. Coast Guard Rescue (9.47)

8. Rogue Wave (10.03)

9. There's No Goodbye ... Only Love" (7.33)

10. Yours Forever: John Mellencamp (4.02)

Total Length: 79.10

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=== Link to Composer Site: James Horner ===