Circle of Friends

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

The movie Circle of Friends isn't exactly the highest known film Michael Kamen scored, yet his Irish background composition is at times quite charming. For 30 minutes, the score mixes again the obnoxious dialogue common apparently for Irish movies, just like Angela's Ashes the dialogue makes no impression but especially here it makes no sense at all. And apart from the 3 songs, we have a Michael Kamen score which is not usual for the people that know him from either X-Men, Robin Hood or Die Hard. This is a soft, playful piece which captures one theme and mixes it around in both a song version and as a charming main theme to guide the score through its running time. Circle of Friends starts with the song version and I can actually see this as sort of an Irish ballad, starting with Maire Brennan and continuing with Shane MacGowan proving that Michael Kamen is a born writer of melodies for songs and movies, mixing them with no problem at all through each other. The song here is the only one worth hearing also, since the short yet classic 'Bo Weevil' is normal and 'Love is a Many Splendored Thing' is as many others in its genre a boring jazz piece without a sight of interest in it, except for the fans then.

To tell you the truth, Kamen's score isn't exactly also the score worth paying bucks for, but a nice rental listen or a very cheap sounding copy proves the Irish qualities of Kamen as a composer. At times the violin reminds me of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves or the rather playful return of the Chieftains in track 'Dublin' is enough to give you signals of Williams' own Angela's Ashes and Far and Away scores, yet of course sounding completely different. It are the dramatic pieces and of course main theme versions that make Circle of Friends at least interesting on its own. Tracks 3 and 4 stated already the theme on piano or through the performing Chieftains but 'Knock Glen' is a real beauty, capturing the Irish flair with a beautiful rendition of this theme on violin, penny whistle and piano, giving you exactly what Irish scores are so good for, a wonderful breeze of only several instruments at play. The London Metropolitan Orchestra stated isn't exactly largely present and it feels like only members of that orchestra, or perhaps scoring parts that aren't released on this CD bring the score to live. Circle of Friends isn't much on the whole but the theme is lovely, the mood pleasant for background listening and apart from crappy dialogue and occasional dead moments, it is nice for a listen once and a while.

Score: ***
Songs: **1/2

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Tracks

Single Disc

1. You're The One: Shane MacGowan & Maire Brennan (3.56)

2. Ireland 1949 * (2.28)

3. The Cottage * (2.59)

4. Dublin *+ (2.51)

5. Knock Glen (1.03)

6. Air / You're The One (3.55)

7. Bo Weevil: Fats Domino (1.51)

8. Sean * (2.19)

9. Benny & Jack (1.56)

10. Father's Death (3.52)

11. Love Is A Many Splendored Thing: The Long John Jump Band (4.05)

* Containing Dialogue

+ Performed by The Chieftains

Total Length: 31.15

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

=== Link to Composer Site: Michael Kamen ===