Brikar

"Serenity"
Composed and Conducted by David Newman
Varese Sarabande
49.8 Minutes

Let's get right off with the one thing that irks me about this CD: there's music missing from it that's readily available on the internet. An entire cue from one of the film's primary action sequences, a desert chase where the Serenity crew are pursued by the vicious Reavers, a cue over five minutes in length which was distributed on a promo CD at this year's Comic-Con... is simply not there. Ouch. There is also another solid minute of build-up for the "Space Battle" cue that is also missing. While this might seem like griping from a whiny fan, I have to say, at the very least, the Reaver chase cue is a sore issue.

However, as the CD exists - David Newman has delivered an excellent score for an excellent movie. While not musically up to snuff with say, John Williams' "Star Wars", Newman's "Serenity" is perfect for this movie. It has just the right eclectic mix of traditional orchestra, electronic synth work, and experimental sounds that the universe of "Firefly" and "Serenity" lends itself to. Where else will you find swelling brass that gives way to accoustic guitar?

The 50-minute album starts off slow, with "Into the River", which is mostly atmospheric sounds that swells into an action cue at the end that leads directly into "Escape". It's these cues in which we first hear River's haunting theme, created with an out-of-tune antique piano. In the album's liner notes, Joss Whedon tells us that Newman was reminded of River when he heard the instrument: "Something beautiful that had been warped."

"Serenity" is the film's title music, and is also used as Mal's theme later on. It's a modestly heroic bit, with strings and brass mixed with some almost folk-or square-dance music.

Soon after, we are introduced to the musical style of the Reavers - clanging, atonal, relentless and chaotic sounds that somehow produce a rhythm... and a sense of dread.

The second half of the album, after a few more atmospheric tracks, focuses on the movie's climactic action sequences: the massive space battle, a ground battle between the Reavers and the Serenity crew and Mal's showdown with The Operative. Loud, clanging Reaver music mixes well between swells of Mal's theme and more generic action-style cues, but with a hint of the easily identifiable "TWANG" strings that tells us "This is 'Firefly'."

The final four tracks are the movie's final scenes, emotional resolution music. The last track, "End Credits" is an expanded version of the "Serenity"/Mal's cue theme that sounds great. But where's the theme song from the TV show? Wouldn't that have been the perfect thing, to have a big, badass movie remix of the show's original theme?

Still, Newman has provided an excellent album that, although missing some cues that are easily found online, is both perfectly listenable and perfectly fitting for the movie it accompanies.

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

http://olympusmans.blogspot.com
http://benforrealz.blogspot.com