Buy it... if you appreciate Christopher Young's suspense scores that anchor themselves with a solid melodic presence and the melancholy performances of a solo piano.

Avoid it... if the grim and anxious environment of such scores is too overbearing in tone to relax to the seven minutes of purely harmonic thematic exploration in this work.

Young

The Glass House: (Christopher Young) The brainless storyline of 2001's The Glass House involves the adoption of two teenagers by a couple who were the best friends of the kids' parents before they were promptly disposed of early in the film via the typical car crash scenario. Making matters worse is a creepy cliff-side house on the ocean where the adopting couple becomes the target of the surviving teen girl's suspicion of foul play. Could it be that these adoptive parents are actually diabolical agents of evil poised to steal the considerable fortune left behind for the kids? It's not a unique story-line, but the setting plays a minor role in how veteran composer Christopher Young chose to approach the scoring of the film. The methodology of suspense was no stranger to Young, whose long and busy career had already been highlighted by several popular scores in that genre. It is this area in which Young garnered his fame, and while he may have increasingly experimented in other genres as his career matured, he has never lost his touch for orchestral fright. Granted, he hasn't produced a score with the overwhelming brute force of Hellraiser II in many years, but works such as Copycat, Species, and The Glass House offer an intelligently balanced alternative to the usual slasher scoring techniques heard in countless low budget productions of the genre. There is nothing flashy about Young's score for The Glass House, but not only is it sure to impress the veteran composer's fan base, it also extends a hand to listeners otherwise repulsed the predictability of the application of dissonance in such scores. Young's suspense scores sometimes contain two elements that the composer has utilized to the point of mastery, and The Glass House features both. First, the role of the piano is prominent in the majority of the score. The cliff-side setting of the house, along with the grand vista of the ocean offered through its enormous windows, present the tumultuous sea in all of its glory and chaos, and Young counters by creating a fluid movement in his trademark melancholy piano compositions. The expressions of the title theme for the film, exhibited impressively in the opening and final tracks on the album presentation, include piano performances that wander as elegantly but unpredictably as the ocean itself, and they offer an aural enhancement of the slow, but momentous build-up of suspicion in the plot. Unfortunately, the piano doesn't figure into many of the cues in between, replaced by a cello in a few places, but the identity of the score is still clearly established in the piano's domain.

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Regardless of the lack of the piano's employment in the mid-section of the work, the eight to ten minutes of thematic statements on the instrument in "The Glass House" and "This Too Shall Pass" (as well as a few singular passages in adjoining cues) will easily be the highlight of the score for almost all listeners. The second element which Young relies upon heavily in The Glass House is the use of very high pitched strings to elevate tension in the soundscape. Few composers can use a string section to create an eerie feeling quite like Young, and there is an abundance of quivering violin work at their extreme high ranges throughout all of The Glass House. When the strings and piano combine their efforts, they often form a remarkable duo. The closing cue, complete with a lovely piano and flute pairing, represents Young's trademark knack for morbid harmony at its very best, and collectors of his music will consider it prime easy listening. While the melody may be stark and lacking in any kind of true, personal touch, it is glorious in its soft and grim anxiety, climaxing in the form of a slight waltz in its final minutes. The mass of less outwardly harmonic material in the middle tracks of the album is rendered with a minimalistic touch suitable for the basic atmosphere of the psychological turmoil on screen. There are only a small handful of exploding, full-blown terror scenes in The Glass House, and likewise Young's score only suffers from two or three extended cues of harsh, dissonant blasts of brass and shrieking of strings in typical horror fashion. The choppy nature of these cues is as difficult as always, and along with the rather bland personality of the majority of this music, the album is ultimately a mixed bag. However, you cannot discredit Young for the effective suspense material throughout The Glass House, even if you are only drawn to the dark and depressing expressions of melody at the bookends. While the score never gained the same kind of widespread, long-term respect that Copycat built over time, it likely deserves such attention. Because Young did not take any chances with this score, it could be just another footnote in his career for those who don't find much of interest in his comparable material. The final track of The Glass House would make a fabulous compilation piece, however it should be noted that the score disappeared from the Varèse Sarabande label's catalog and therefore has not enjoyed such treatment. If you aren't entirely sure about your tolerance of Young's suspense scores, then the full album may not be recommended. And if you believe in bad karma, then take note of the album's release date. Otherwise, don't hesitate to indulge. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Christopher Young reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.3 (in 23 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.99 (in 7,951 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.