Brian TYLER
The 4th Floor
OST
GNP CRESCENDO 8064 [34:19]
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I’m a little torn for how to summarise the experience of listening to
this disc. The last album that had the same effect on my ear was Don Davis’
House On Haunted Hill. What I’m referring to is an over-abundance
of different styles, but my problem this time around is in having absolutely
no frame of reference. All I can find on this album (without researching
elsewhere) is a reference to the film being "a story with otherworldly, horrific
elements." It’s got Juliette Lewis and William Hurt in it –
that’s horror enough for me right away, but since there is some fine
melodic content here I’d like to be complimentary in context. It’s
definitely an example of a CD needing explanatory booklet notes.
In just "Main Titles" alone there’s a disparate collection of things
working together: a smoky female vocal, Armenian duduk, tinkling piano, gamelan
(possibly sampled), and long-line tragic motif for strings and piano. It’s
almost an overture, except for the absence of the cacophonous action style
that later pervades cues like "Attack The Locksmith".
Twenty tracks follow in 30 minutes which means it all flies by far too fast
as well. When you’re skipping between brushed cymbals in a lounge jazz
environment ("Jane & Collins"), sprightly string ensemble providing a
waltzing piece of faux period background ("Belle"), then back to the general
bucket and spade throw together of styles ("Movers") – it’s what
I’d call a jumble. The director is certainly taken by the results from
his enthusiastic booklet spiel – just a shame he didn’t think to
give us a précis of the story so we’d understand why it jumps
about all over the place.
Reviewer
Paul Tonks
