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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Analyze That: (David Holmes) With New York's most powerful gangster now "getting in touch with his feelings," this sequel to the highly popular film Analyze This returns the same principle cast under the direction of Harold Ramis for another go-around of psychiatrist versus mob boss fun. The original film had a hip score by Howard Shore, released by Varese Sarabande on album with comedic Italian music references. With Shore focusing his attention on the Lord of the Rings series at the moment, the producers of Analyze That agreed to hired the up and coming talent of David Holmes to produce the score for the sequel film. Holmes, an Irish electronic musician, is a newcomer to the scoring scene, though fans of his funky electronica claim that his music has resembled the style of soundtracks for nearly a decade. His lively and diverse combination of rhythms, samples, and live musicians has sparked a cult-like following outside of the film music scene. His entry into film scores came largely when he was hired by Steven Soderbergh for two of his hit films Out of Sight and Ocean's Eleven. Holmes' music for those films was greeting with praise from both his traditional fans and film music enthusiasts. The film Analyze That marks the third major scoring assignment for Holmes. Whether you will enjoy his music or not will depend completely on your opinion of this genre of sound. For the film Analyze That, it is undoubtedly a more than adequate work, for the film requires nothing of any seriously dramatic tone to further its comedy. The score is very continuous in its style, and while it lacks in a reoccuring theme, it relies on its easily distinguishable style of rhythm and electronic samplings to succeed in producing a unique character. There is no orchestral ensemble hired for accompaniment and no remarkable solo performance. Those dominant rhythms are built on a foundation of jazzy funk, and Holmes then inserts techno and electronica synthesizer effects and motifs on that consistent foundation. Holmes is also able to frequently insert layers upon layers of samples, and no better an example of this is heard than in the opening track, in which a female voice saying "oh, yeah" is mixed in at appropriate beats and even the sound of a wristwatch alarm clock does the same. Analyze That doesn't have as much of the appealing funky work (in tribute to the Vegas style of Lalo Schifrin) as Ocean's Eleven, but the same sense of urban sophistication is present. The sound is refreshing in the context of this setting, and Holmes' busy loops and processing of retro sounds into modern electronic instrumentation is interesting, if not an easily flowing listening experience on album. The detractors of the album aren't many if you are a die-hard fan of Holmes' rearrangement of familiar ingredients in his earlier scores and especially on his own album. The score does suffer from a few basic flaws that will likely not affect the livelihood of a comedy like Analyze That for which music isn't as an integral part of its success. It is music that would work exceedingly well in a night club atmosphere, mixed into free flowing cues that meld well into each other. That sound is terrific for the genre on album, but it doesn't hold true to the basic rules of cue scoring for films; there is no punch line accentuation, nor is there any single sharp cue change that would indicate that something funny was said on screen or perhaps even a change of scene has happened. In these regards, the score functions as only the most basic form of background entertainment, and while it fits the mood of the film well, it may neglect specific moments that need an accent in the film. The only scene for which the mood may not match entirely is the Sushi Bar scene, for which Holmes' has used a slight guitar plucking in an Asian sense with a strangely loungey and almost-Hispanic rhythm. Additionally, the score features no central theme, but the rhythm of the title sequence does return in the Strip Club clue for good measure. Finally, the album is relatively short and ends without so much as a basic repeat of this lively rhythm, leaving the listener wondering why the music just slowly died off and stopped. In any case, this score is an extension of the David Holmes style that listeners of his previous scores will be very happy with, but traditional film score fans will find it very repetitive and lacking the usual characteristics of a film score. For the film, it's more than sufficient. ***
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