Buy it... only if you are interested in the decent rap song highlighting the album or if you maintain an interest in Graeme Revell's darker, more ambient urban suspense and action music.

Avoid it... if you expect more than just flashes of the contemporary coolness or dynamic, instrumentally diverse structures that Revell has better explored elsewhere.

Revell

Assault on Precinct 13: (Graeme Revell) It's not unusual for John Carpenter's original ideas to be remade and adapted into money-seeking alternatives, and the 2005 version of Assault on Precinct 13 is Jean-Francois Richet's attempt to better the formula presented in Carpenter's 1976 suspense film of the same name. While the original cult classic built its reputation on its tension and fear, the modern remake has all the fingerprints of the culture clashes and Hollywood cliches that often kill the raw appeal of such emotion. That didn't stop the new Assault on Precinct 13 from receiving moderately reasonable critical reviews despite a mad flurry of exposed plot holes, scene contradictions, and ludicrous characterizations. These are, after all, the types of movies in which you expect to see actors Brian Dennehy and Gabriel Byrne play their stereotypical roles regardless of the fact that you wish you'd see them somewhere else. With its unrealistic and outlandish premise granted, composer Graeme Revell goes about his business as usual, visiting familiar territory in the dramatic action and siege genres. Revell seemed to have a good knack in the late 1990's and early 2000's for providing music that appropriately fits the intelligence level of the film, infusing more of his talent into projects that have three-dimensional suspense and taking a more simplistic and synthetic approach for films such as Assault on Precinct 13 that defy logic. If you listen to the spectrum of Revell's urban thriller scores, of which The Negotiator, The Siege, Strange Days, and, to a lesser extent, The Saint are best known, you hear a common thread of orchestral and synthetic blending. That mixture tends to use its ambience, sampling, and looping to create a memorable listening experience through atmospheric maintenance rather than thematic structure and clear narrative arcs. For Assault on Precinct 13, Revell would only touch upon his thematic elements at a bare minimum level, typically during moments of character development. No unique instrumentation is heard in this score either, further restraining its ability to be noticed. Without any grand outbursts by the City of Prague Philharmonic, a performing group that can very easily make itself heard when called upon to do so, Assault on Precinct 13 meanders and thuds its way without distinction.

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Any survey of Revell's career will reveal that the composer does seem to relish films that occur on a dark and stormy night, for they allow him to use the players as a "rumbling device" that he can combine with his drum loops and sampled metallic clanging to create rather easy and sufficiently suspenseful environments. Unfortunately, film music collectors have heard him produce this music in better form before, sometimes with the kind of lavish results you encounter in Red Planet. But urban thrillers for Revell are a distinct sub-genre of music that only some of the composer's most ardent collectors will appreciate. Whether non-descript droning in the depths of synthetic bass strings or crashing like a drunk brass section (take a listen to "Precinct Breach" for that technique), Assault on Precinct 13 is far from being a pleasant listening experience. While Revell does create a dirty, wet, and foreboding atmosphere, he fails to generate genuine suspense in this work, nullifying any hope that he would address the story's vaguely noir sensibilities. Similar complaints have been leveled at the film itself, and given Revell's ability to really strain the listener's nerves, it is surprising to hear a score that that is content to rumble rather than rock. The piano theme for the primary character is underpowered and unconvincing given the nature of the character. Wimpy is perhaps the wrong word to describe its tone, but only at the end of the final cue does Revell offer the kind of hip rendition of the theme (complete with standard rock loops) that the film could likely have used to a greater extent. One notable exception is "Hot Wire Girls," for which Revell has seemingly paid respect to Carpenter's usual sound by offering a dramatically heavy string theme over a meandering piano. This cue, along with the opening rap volley, is the highlight of the album. While the "Generique Assault" song (the reason why so many copies of this album were bought and then dumped on the used market) may seem like a bad offshoot of a "Grand Theft Auto" video game advertisement at first, there are redeeming qualities to be found in it; Revell's orchestrally-conceived backing presents a pretty decent chord progression and the lyrics are a rather humorous third-party description of the film's release, its premise, and its actors. Apparently, though, the word "shit" in this song did not merit an "explicit lyrics" warning label from the Varèse Sarabande label to ward off wayward, pious children. Overall, Revell's contribution to Assault on Precinct 13 is bleak and lacking in enough sustained character or suspense to warrant much interest. **   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Graeme Revell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.74 (in 19 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.74 (in 15,157 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.