Buy it... if you seek something other than Joel Goldsmith's well known television/sci-fi music, for Diamonds is a lovable romantic comedy score.

Avoid it... if you're easily annoyed by scores that borrow inspiration heavily from several contemporary, mainstream composers.

Diamonds: (Joel Goldsmith) The details of the plot of John Asher's 1999 Miramax film Diamonds are largely irrelevant, but any character drama of the era that could reunite Lauren Bacall and Kirk Douglas wins points for sentimentality. Douglas, in his first role since suffering his stroke several years earlier, leads his family from Canada to Reno in search of a stash of lost diamonds and, along their journey, they patch up their own relationships in tender fashion. The romantic comedy didn't make much of a splash at the box office, but for film score collectors it represented an important step for composer Joel Goldsmith. The son of the legendary Jerry Goldsmith had been struggling to define his own career in the late 1990's, eventually becoming lodged in the "Stargate SG-1" television series for many years. Diamonds was definitely a departure for Joel Goldsmith, requiring a snazzy and heartfelt score consisting of an occasionally unsteady balance between big band and melodic orchestral sequences. It's a work that both borrows heavily from other composers' styles (with his father thankfully not among them) and changes moods quite frequently in the middle portions of its length. Most attractive among those parts are a handful of very lovely cues that convey intimate and contemplative symphonic undertones to match the sensitivity of the relationships in the story. Goldsmith's orchestral ensemble is only marginal in size for Diamonds, but sharp orchestrations by Nicholas Dodd and an extremely crisp recording provide for a surprisingly vibrant and enticing atmosphere. Thematically, Goldsmith's score is dominated by one lush string theme heard over "Main Titles" and in several incarnations later. While the performances of this theme on solo piano at the very outset (and elsewhere) will remind of James Horner's smaller-scale recordings, the theme itself has significant similarities in tone and progression to any one of Cliff Eidelman's similarly light-hearted themes of the era.

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As the score progresses, the title theme's performances are spread to secondary instruments in solo or background roles, though the momentous crescendo of harmonic resonance at the end of "Compartment in Box" neatly wraps up the idea for the finale. Disrupting the very undemanding woodwind-dominated cues of the middle portion of the album are a few comedic sequences in Reno that require loud, big band swings. In and of themselves, these little tributes to Henry Mancini are quite fun, but they detract from the often subtle emphasis on melody in the adjoining orchestral tracks. Downright bizarre is the exotic "Lance's Girl" cue, with a hilarious attitude and cool electric guitar more at home in a George S. Clinton score. Fans of Elmer Bernstein westerns will hear the spirit he made famous in this score's road trip cue, "Harry Drives," which offers some of the best mixing of the players on album. By the end of the score, Goldsmith returns to yet another considerable length of solid performances of straightforward harmonic material from the orchestral players. The only blemish on the road to those performances is a pair of brass mishaps in "Mugger." The concluding cues for Diamonds are as lush in string performance as any Rachel Portman score, with a return to the quiet piano solos that once again mirrored Horner's concurrent works. The momentous, overly positive spirit of "Compartment in Box" sports the kind of sincerity that you hear from Marc Shaiman. The album ends with a funny adaptation of the song "Keeps This World Alive," performed by Herman's Hermit Peter Noone and giving co-compositional credit to Nicholas Dodd. The jolly Broadway spirit of the performance merges with Noone's accent to form a bizarre sort of Monty Python sound. Otherwise, Goldsmith's score is a strong effort. On album, the big band casino cues may cause some continuity problems in the listening experience, but for those of you who have been listening to his father's music for decades, you might consider taking a moment to hear Joel Goldsmith's considerable talents outside of his mainstream television efforts represented by the several "Stargate SG-1" albums. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download