The Day After Tomorrow
Music composed by Harald Kloser
Available on Varèse Sarabande Records (VSD-6572)
Running Time: 38:18
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Another up and coming composer Harald Kloser demonstrates a capable grasp of cinematic emotion and drama with this new big budget production from Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Godzilla).
There are no great surprises with this score, which is very much in the tradition of modern day disaster movies but with a more serious-minded edge. A simply structured, sombre but quite affecting melody appears as the central theme on 'The Day After Tomorrow' and this understated, subtly heroic motif is heard again in 'President's Speech', building to a stirring conclusion. There is also some quiet foreboding and unease on pieces like 'Tornado Warning', while the action music on cues such as 'Tidal Wave' is no more than background suspense work, although it does achieve the required effect.
Other similar tracks fare less well like 'Blizzard' and 'Superfreeze', doing little more than punctuating the on-screen drama with crashes and stings that pass by without making much of an impression. Elsewhere, the brief but attractive 'Hall's Plan' comes and goes too quickly, although it is reprised in the final track 'Burning Books' without really doing justice to what is actually a strong melody. The rhythmic 'Rio Grande' on the other hand threatens to develop into something powerful but ends before it has had an opportunity to gain momentum after only just over a minute.
Solid and efficient, but only just pushed above average by its relatively engaging melodic themes. A tentative thumbs up then to Kloser and the hope of better things to come in the future.
Mark Hockley
3
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