As much as I don’t really listen to soundtracks like I should —
\nsomething a publicist friend of mine will vouch for, given my “to
\nbe reviewed” stack from her — I’ve noticed this year that many of
\nthe discs I’ve listened to have music strong enough to stand on
\ntheir own without the aid of the film they’re supposed to go with.
\nNow, a listener can go into a CD without feeling guilty that they
\nhaven’t seen the corresponding movie.<\/p>\n
In the case of
\nThe Village<\/i>, I’m led to understand I haven’t missed much by
\nnot seeing the movie. Yet James Newton Howard has composed a score
\nwhich is hauntingly beautiful, if not a bit scarce, and stands well
\non its own.<\/p>\n
The overall theme of the music is what I would call
\npseudo-classical — that is, orchestral instrumentation with a
\nclassical bend to the playing, yet not strictly classical-type
\nmusic. Confused yet? Don’t be — one listen to the music on this
\ndisc (a surprisingly short listen, clocking in at around 43
\nminutes) puts it all in perspective.<\/p>\n
Working with the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra and utilizing the
\ntalents of violinist Hilary Hahn, Howard paints a dark yet
\nbeautiful portrait through his composition and arrangements, almost
\nsoothing the listener yet keeping them slightly on their toes for
\ndanger around the corner. You get that feeling with the opening
\ntrack “Noah Visits,” and it is most obvious in selections like “The
\nBad Color.”<\/p>\n
If there is a fatal flaw to
\nThe Village<\/i>, it is that there is almost too relaxed of a
\nfeel to this soundtrack. Maybe the overall volume of the
\nperformances needed to be boosted to keep the listener’s attention.
\nMaybe the soundtrack didn’t need to end on a gentle note with “The
\nShed Not To Be Used” — honestly, I was expecting something a
\nlittle more powerful to close things out.<\/p>\n
\nThe Village<\/i> is the kind of soundtrack one can have on in the
\nbackground while you work, gently easing your mind into your labors
\nwhile subtly suggesting that evil is lurking below your desk. (No,
\nwait, that’s a ham sandwich I dropped down there last week.) Howard
\ndoes an admirable job with this score, and is enjoyable without the
\nbenefit of having seen the corresponding film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7060],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38108","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-original-score","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38108","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=38108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38108"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}