Signs

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

James Newton Howard keeps scoring the goods or better said the Shyamalan projects with great class. The latest anticipated work of both have once more enchanted practically everyone interested in either movie or film music. The movie was celebrated as another masterpiece and the score received warm and critical acclaim. To tell you the truth, I never imagined something else. Shyamalan is the kind of director everyone simply adores by now, giving us intelligent and breathtaking pictures that carry emotional surprises and surprising emotions and Howard basically adds all that up into his music of which Unbreakable was the best listen. Now Signs was going to be different but I expected the gap to be bigger since it basically is about Alien contact and the unexplainable premise of crop circles that portrays the movie's soul. Now the score by Howard is somewhat lighter and not that scary as imagined but you still have the usual scare or in this case the brilliant ode to the best horror music ever composed. No matter if I never heard Hermann (his scores, of course I know what Psycho sounds like) but the opening track 'Main Titles' is all Hermann in his strings and brass and is simply one of the best ever looking pieces for this genre. It blessed the teasers and trailers, it blessed the movie and score and it is a perfect fit of cinema magic. Now, I kinda wished it went into this direction for the rest of the score.

I have no problem with this music and it all functions way better then first imagined. But the truth is, apart from the begin and ending there is barely a sense that points diversity in the score. Mostly the tracks starts the same and mostly they cover music that one way or another listens the same. From track 2 to 9, the music varies barely of the same theme, the main theme played lighter on flutes, occasionally going into Hermann mode (like in 'Brazilian Video') and containing usually either some wondrous moments (flutes that carry a sense of magic like Jerry Goldsmith did in his score of Total Recall to represent Mars on occasions) or some darker moments that listen fine, but after the fourth try you have heard them by now. Signs in this situation would have benefited from more diversity, like Unbreakable which covered two good themes. The usual choral power that Howard usually inserts is equally missing and this could have given the score that set of diversity. Of the better tracks of the middle we can put 'In the Cornfield' (with its otherworldly flute touches a la Goldsmith) and 'Boarding up the House' with a wonderful mid moment of score as the most interesting. At the end you receive a bit more dissonant openings and scares but luckily nothing to the point that it actually hearts the overall rating or listen.

And then we receive the end, usually these parts also seem to rock with Howard and just like The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, also Howard can benefit from the climax that Shyamalan creates. The double track 'The Hand of Fate - Part 1 / 2' is blessed with the best Howard trademarks and as it would be anticipated, the climax here is solely Howard's doing. The first part is a dazzling mix of the main theme in all its horrifying glory of track 1 with fanfares that knock your socks off when combined with the tempo of the amazement and climatic pace. The second part is low and behold quite beautiful with more of the soft thematic gift of Howard's style and a breeze to hear after what is still basically a bit of the same in the middle. Signs is simply this, begin and end are spectacular but the middle is sadly not different enough. All of the tracks are fine onto themselves and this to my utmost delight. Yet too much of them together and it somewhat nags in the experience. But this of course is at the end loads of crap because the opener of the score and movie is horror music at its best and the end offers us a climax that really impresses. No matter what you expected of the film or the score, no matter how good you thought they would be, I always knew the collaboration would be a perfect match. After all the signs of perfection were always there.

\ЕЕЕ1/2/

Tracks

Single Disc

1. Main Titles (1.45) Excellent Track

2. First Crop Circles (3.15)

3. Roof Intruder (2.19)

4. Brazilian Video (1.55)

5. In The Cornfield (5.42)

6. Baby Monitor (1.09)

7. Recruiting Office (2.11)

8. Throwing A Stone (5.47)

9. Boarding Up The House (3.00)

10. Into The Basement (5.23)

11. Asthma Attack (3.41)

12. The Hand Of Fate - Part 1 (5.32) Excellent Track

13. The Hand Of Fate - Part 2 (3.48) Excellent Track

Total Length: 45.36

The use of artwork or photos is posted for non profitable reasons

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