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Changing Lanes: (David Arnold) Considered a diversion for
director Roger Michell, who is better known for comedies (and a partnership with
composer Trevor Jones for his scores),
Changing Lanes starts with a
traffic accident and develops into a tale of vengeance and desperation between
the two involved men (played by Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson), both of whom
battling their own internal demons and having little to lose. The story is
saturated with the ills and struggles of urban lifestyles, with the fates of the
two men intertwined in a nasty, self-destructive battle. The film never plays
the race card, however, which is one of the reasons it was critically acclaimed,
and that also makes a statement about the soundtrack. Despite David Arnold's use
of his rock, funk, and techno knowledge to fit well into situations requiring
hip styles of music representing black culture, the racial differences in
Changing Lanes are not the reason Arnold choose his path here. Instead,
the brooding oppression of an urban nightmare is the inspiration for this
choice, and Arnold is equally up to the task for this experiment of his own. The
composer was, of course, a punk rocker in his years before feature film scoring,
and the techno sounds heard in his British television works of his previous
years are arguably the true sound of Arnold's personal style. After announcing
himself back into a non-orchestral scene of style in a different genre with
Shaft in 2000, he began accepting scoring assignments with which he could
vary those techno elements in different urban settings. The hip score for
Baby Boy followed in 2001, and at roughly the same time as his
suspenseful, but stylish effort for
Enough, Arnold went to the far,
abstract end of the techno scale for
Changing Lanes. Enthusiasts of
Stargate and
Independence Day may not have wanted to believe this
at the time, but
Changing Lanes was, more or less, a return to Arnold's
most familiar territory. Unfortunately, his work for
Changing Lanes is
the kind of music that, despite some necessarily irritating moments in the
context of the film, simply doesn't translate well onto album. You really have
to understand the troubled environment of the film to have an appreciation for
this music whatsoever, because without that context, you're left with an
extremely underwhelming and occasionally obnoxious listening experience on your
stereo. Unless Varèse Sarabande was intentionally targeting a crowd of
demented listeners with this product, there's no good reason for it to
exist.
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This is a composition as far removed as possible from the
orchestral melodies and harmonic sensibilities that Arnold has displayed in his
mainstream hits. Instead, he utilizes every synthetic drum loop, sound effect
sampling, and keyboarding technique in his library for
Changing Lanes,
pushing them at you with a different combination of sounds every time. The only
overarching tone, motif, or style that exists to define the score is a deep bass
droning that underlines the character flaws and primordial emotions that grip
the story. Otherwise, there is seemingly little organization to the
techno-madness that is presented for the entire length of this work. Neither the
beats of the rhythms, nor the volume of the electronic instrumentation, are
elevated to an unforgiving, loud, and irritating level. The score doesn't
conduct an ass-kicking in any part, for instance, but rather maintains a
consistent level of suppressed anger and mid-level angst. The score also doesn't
offer rhythms in an enticingly cool sense, either, which Arnold had done over
the previous two years with his techno rhythms. The emotional distress heard in
Changing Lanes has caused comparisons to arise between this score and
Thomas Newman's most serious, introverted efforts for arthouse dramas, though
with a distinctly synthetic edge. Some of Arnold's looped or singular sound
effects, mixed forward and backwards, imitate the sounds of seagulls, sirens, a
wobbling sheet of plastic, or even those revolutionary, pulsating mob control
devices meant to disperse angry crowds of rock-throwing juveniles. These effects
define the score, making the rather large list of performers for the recording a
rather curious aspect of the production. Overall, the music fails to identify
with the listener on any level, remaining impersonal, abrasive, and distant as
necessary for the on-screen battle of wills. The mixing of the score accentuates
this difficulty, with considerable reverberation and deliberate distortion of
string effects adding to the nightmarish scenario. It is almost as though the
music puts you in the head of a person who has an immense headache, and that
either signifies a great success by Arnold or a total musical failure.
Regardless of the score's effectiveness in the film, though,
Changing
Lanes will try your patience on album. The product does not include the end
credits song performed by Annie Lennox ("Waiting in Vain"), a fatal omission
for the film's fans. The album also has 26 tracks, but no track names. Ultimately,
Arnold's techno abilities are varied and marginally effective, but
Changing
Lanes is simply too disorganized and distressing to enjoy to any degree on
album.
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| Bias Check: | For David Arnold reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.33 (in 15 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.33
(in 42,389 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes a list of performers, but no additional information
about the score or film.
