The Emperor's Club

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

Every once and a while you get a score so lovely yet so obviously temp tracked that it makes the most of two composer's fan bases. I definitely know that fans of Thomas Newman will think the most of their composer's soundtracks and consider one like Scent of a Women to be better, since it carries overall a bigger set of highlights. Yet James Newton Howard's The Emperor's Club comes close anyway and with close I mean close enough. This is an easy fare listen, one that takes you smoothly through the first time you encouter it. Meaning this is a lovely listen but one that doesn't require many repeated listening to get further detail of some hidden brilliance waiting to emerge. That is one of its downfalls and doesn't make the score higher in rating. Another downfall is the length of the album but perhaps a longer length could have hurted the smooth tone of this music, so perhaps that was a good thing. Yet, Howard's music is nonetheless lovely on the ears and makes therefore of The Emperor's Club an easy background score. One that sooths the film, one that sooths the fan of both Newman and Howard. The question of who will like it the most will depend on the grade of how you love Newman (as a Howard fan) and how you accept temp influences (as a Newman fan). Either way, it is simply lovely to digest on a summer night.

The score is light and so are the themes of which the main theme opens the score, in 'Main Title' this main theme takes the form of some Scent of a Woman opening style since the playful attitude is evident and the strings and guitar create the bouncy feel of Newman's score. This more then ever in 'Teaching Montage'. A secondary theme (which then listens like a Rachel Portman theme) in 'Hundert Remembers' is all you need to get that nice feeling inside you since it is a simple but enjoyable theme. This one will not appear anymore but the third theme that appears in the second part of that track does, with flute in 'Hundert Quits' after some piano and soft string work and in 'Young Martin Blythe' which contains a small finale with the main theme itself growing a bit. A lovely moment is saved in '25 Years Later' when the main theme receives a violin treatment and the piano performs equally this theme in track 11. The last tracks by the way are a nice finishing touch to the short album, with small and lovely signs of the main theme either with strings, flute or piano. And as expected, even some guitar is added to give it even more flavor. Altogether, The Emperor's Club is a simple but lovely score which captures more hearts I think than fans. It is easy to like it but its a bit light to worship it. Still, Howard's smooth short album is a recommendation for soft evenings, since then the music flows ever so gently through the ears.

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. Main Title (2.17)

2. Teaching Montage (2.38)

3. Hundert Remembers (2.39)

4. Quiz Montage (2.20)

5. The Big Test (1.25)

6. Hundert Quits (2.56)

7. 25 Years Later (2.30)

8. Elizabeth (1.29)

9. Sedgewick's Father (1.18)

10. Confronting Sedgewick (2.08)

11. Hundert Comes Clean (2.41)

12. The Toast (2.36)

13. Young Martin Blythe (2.16)

Total Length: 29.13

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=== Link to Composer Site: James Newton Howard ===