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Orchestrated and Co-Conducted by:
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Nicholas Dodd
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Co-Conducted by:
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Sonny Kompanek
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Release Date:
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April 30th, 2002
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you are expecting David Arnold's most heavily
techno-influenced score to date, with no harmony, consistency, or pleasant
interlude.
Avoid it... if even the mild techno in Arnold's earlier James Bond
scores turns you off.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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Changing Lanes: (David Arnold) After announcing himself
back into the techno scene with Shaft in 2000, composer David Arnold
began accepting scoring assignments with which he could vary those techno
elements in different urban settings. After the hip score for Baby
Boy in 2001, and at roughly the same time as his suspenseful, but
stylish effort for Enough, Arnold went to the far end of the techno
scale for Changing Lanes. The film was a diversion for director Roger
Michell, who is better known for comedies (and a partnership with composer
Trevor Jones for his scores). In it, a traffic accident turns into a tale of
vengeance and desperation between two men (Ben Affleck and Samuel L.
Jackson) who are both battling their own internal demons and have little to
lose. The film is saturated with the ills of urban lifestyles and struggles,
with the fates of the two men intertwined in a nasty, self-destructing
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 techno knowledge to fit
well into hip, black styles of music, the racial differences in Changing
Lanes are not the reason Arnold choose this path here. Instead, the
urban nightmare is the inspiration for this choice, and Arnold is equally up
to the task for this experiment of his own. He 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 the true sound of
Arnold's personal style. Fans of Stargate and Independence Day
may not want to believe that, but Changing Lanes is, more or less, a
return to Arnold's most familiar territory. Unfortunately, his work for
Changing Lanes is an experiment that doesn't entirely work.
It is a composition as far as possible from the orchestral
melodies and harmonic sensibilities that Arnold has displayed before.
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 sound, motif, or style in 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 a
particularly irritating level. The score doesn't "rock" in any part, for
instance, but rather maintains a consistent level of suppressed anger and
mid-level action. The score doesn't offer rhythms in a cool sense, either,
which Arnold had done in 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. With Arnold, however, the music fails to
identify with the listener on any level, remaining impersonal, abrasive, and
distant. The mixing of the score accentuates this difficulty, with a
considerable reverberation and deliberate distortion of string effects
adding to the nightmarish scenario. It's 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. On a side note, the album does not include the
end credit song performed by Annie Lennox ("Waiting in Vain"), an irritating
omission for the film's fans. The album also has 26 tracks, but no track
names. Overall, Arnold's techno abilities are varied and strong, but
Changing Lanes is simply too disorganized and distressing to enjoy to
any degree on album. *
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Changing Lanes (2:11)
• 2. (Untitled Track) (1:07)
• 3. (Untitled Track) (2:20)
• 4. (Untitled Track) (1:24)
• 5. (Untitled Track) (0:50)
• 6. (Untitled Track) (1:16)
• 7. (Untitled Track) (1:06)
• 8. (Untitled Track) (1:23)
• 9. (Untitled Track) (0:15)
• 10. (Untitled Track) (0:57)
• 11. (Untitled Track) (1:36)
• 12. (Untitled Track) (0:41)
• 13. (Untitled Track) (1:13)
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• 14. (Untitled Track) (1:13)
• 15. (Untitled Track) (0:41)
• 16. (Untitled Track) (1:27)
• 17. (Untitled Track) (0:45)
• 18. (Untitled Track) (1:46)
• 19. (Untitled Track) (1:35)
• 20. (Untitled Track) (3:42)
• 21. (Untitled Track) (1:01)
• 22. (Untitled Track) (1:10)
• 23. (Untitled Track) (2:23)
• 24. (Untitled Track) (0:57)
• 25. (Untitled Track) (2:25)
• 26. (Untitled Track) (4:21)
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The insert includes a list of performers, but no additional information
about the score or film.
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