One of the most difficult things I experience when I try to
\nreview soundtracks is that I’ve often not seen the corresponding
\nmovie. While I can often get an idea of where the song fits in the
\nmovie based on the style of music, the tempo and the title of the
\ntrack, I’m still somewhat at a disadvantage. Such is the case with
\nthe soundtrack for the film
\nMeet Joe Black<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Oh, it’s not that I think Thomas Newman failed to convey the
\ndark mood of the film (at least what I’ve read about it) – no,
\nNewman’s music is superb and beautiful. (In fact, allow me to offer
\nthis word of advice: Don’t listen to this album if you’re feeling
\nsad; the music has the tendency to amplify those feelings.
\nFirst-hand knowledge here.) But unless you’ve seen the film, this
\nis less of a soundtrack and more of a collection of rich mood music
\n– not a bad thing in and of itself, but not the album’s primary
\npurpose.<\/p>\n
I’ll get the one criticism out of the way early: It seems
\nstrange to me that, on an album of somber orchestral music, a few
\nupbeat swing numbers would be included. “Cheek To Cheek” thrown in
\nwhere it is happens to be a rather rude jolt to the system that has
\ngotten used to a more introspective style of music. Again, I’m
\nfreely admitting that I might understand the inclusion of these
\nsongs had I seen the movie.)<\/p>\n
Otherwise, the songs that make up
\nMeet Joe Black<\/i> are some of the most beautiful songs I’ve
\nheard in the world of film music in some time. From the opening
\nmoments of “Yes” to the ten-minute journey of “That Next Place” at
\nthe other end of the disc, this soundtrack captures some wonderfuly
\npoignant moments that form the picture of a man preparing himself
\nfor his upcoming death. Some of the titles are a bit confusing
\n(“Peanut Butter Man”? “Cold Lamb Sandwich”? For that matter, would
\nyou really want to refer to “lamb” in any movie with Anthony
\nHopkins these days? “Hannibal Lechter”, anyone?), but I found
\nmyself relying less on the titles and more on the music itself on
\nthis disc.<\/p>\n
And while it sometimes feels that some pieces on this soundtrack
\nare much too short, the whole disc moves briskly, never getting too
\nweighed down in its subject matter. Even the closing version of
\n“Somewhere Over The Rainbow \/ What A Wonderful World” (performed by
\nIsrael Kamakawiwo’ole – the only vocal performance on the album)
\nrings through in its sparse arrangement – something that works well
\nfor this particular soundtrack.<\/p>\n
Naysayers can speculate all they want on why the film hasn’t
\nlived up to its expectations, but just on the soundtrack alone,
\nMeet Joe Black<\/i> shows a lot of promise. If you are a fan of
\nrich orchestration and powerful, moody pieces, you’ll love this
\ndisc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5729],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36100","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-soundtrack","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36100"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36100"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}