Buy it... on the rare 2008 promotional album if you originally enjoyed the R&B and noir elements of the score and are open to hearing Christopher Young's own rearrangement of the material to better reflect them.

Avoid it... on the same promo album if you seek a true representation of the music actually used in the film (including the orchestral portions), which the 1999 Varèse Sarabande product more accurately reflects.

Young

In Too Deep: (Christopher Young) As a fragmented tribute to several cop and organized crime thrillers of the past, In Too Deep didn't really present any new concepts with which to draw audience interest. Decent performances by Omar Epps and LL Cool J were wasted by a derivative script and poor pacing. Epps plays an undercover cop assigned to infiltrate LL Cool J's drug distribution business in Cincinnati, and the (often tense and violent) interaction between the two is the central focus of the story. Australian director Michael Rymer was unsuccessful in reaching out to black pop culture audiences with In Too Deep, despite the heavy influence of rap and R&B sounds in the songs and score for the production. Composer Christopher Young had proven his ability to provide convincing scores for black culture films with such noteworthy efforts as Tales from the Hood and Set It Off, and In Too Deep is an intelligent extension of some of the same ideas. At the time, the project reportedly represented the first in a set of three films that Young was signed to write for Miramax arthouse ventures. He was thrilled to not only have the opportunity to write the score, but also contribute the melody to one of the film's songs. The assignment required Young to infuse an orchestral base of urban suspense and drama with an R&B sound representative of the culture in the story. Not only did he accomplish this, but he even managed to incorporate a slightly noir style of classic street thriller origin with the use of muted trumpets and saxophones as counterpoint to the score's more fluid R&B movements.

Fans impressed by the diversity of the symphonic and synthetic blend of Young's just previous work for the mainstream film Entrapment will be equally impressed by In Too Deep, though the latter score is far more understated. In fact, the score album release for In Too Deep didn't meet with much praise in 1999, and Young himself was among those who expressed dissatisfaction with the product. Because of a licensing conflict with the song album for In Too Deep, Young's song "Give Me a Reason" (co-written with Frank Fitzpatrick and singer David Hollister) and was not allowed to be included on the score album, despite its influence on the thematic and stylistic contents of the score. The 1999 Varèse Sarabande album does, however, feature a rounded balance of all the atmospheric, symphonic, and R&B elements of the score. The only theme for In Too Deep is indeed the melody of the graceful R&B song "Give Me a Reason," though you don't often hear it on that initial release. The majority of the score, as Young states, consists heavily of "synth drones with slow moving chords and minimal melody on top." Aside from these lengthy atmospheric sequences of subtlety and brooding, however, are a handful of robust orchestral passages, including the pounding timpani and brass rhythm of "Bust." None of these symphonic sections is equal to Entrapment, Hard Rain, or other previous action scores by Young. As such, with mostly ambient droning, sparse orchestral bursts, and the lack of the actual song, the brief Varèse album, despite establishing a decently dark, hip mood, was dissatisfying for both Young and his fans.

The two most engaging cues (amounting to over six minutes) on that Varèse album were not actually used in the film. The opening title track, in which Young establishes the most acute R&B beat and solos by a piano and trumpet, is actually a demo piece that the composer wrote to get the assignment. The final track, titled "Missing Vocal," is just that. It's the instrumental background for the "Give Me a Reason" song, and Young insisted that it be included on the product as a "statement of my disappointment." For mainstream score fans, this material still bordered on being inaccessible, and the album fell into obscurity (especially compared to the song compilation album released by Sony). In 2008, however, In Too Deep was resurrected in the form of a promotional album that Young produced to wash out the sour aftertaste that the score's initial circumstances had caused. He personally rearranged the score and song material into a presentation different from that on the Varèse album. Much of the orchestral material was removed in favor of the R&B flavor that featured both the references to the theme and the overdubbed, noir-like tones of the trumpets and saxes. Three versions of the song are included, with the song compilation's version at the end. Two mixes far more classy in their percussive placement are provided as well, with the second presentation offering an extended, lovely series of solos by trumpet and sax. These lighter mixes of the song are far superior to the more famous version, and frankly overshadow the remaining score on the album. Young once again includes the three-minute demo recording on the 2008 promo.

	1999 Varèse: Only $9.99

The remixed and rearranged score material on the promo is a more consistent listening experience than on the 1999 Varèse product, dropping most of the least interesting ambient contents. A track such as "Tank Trips 2" contains both "Tank Trips" and the distinctly cool "God's Alive (Inside a Movie)" tracks from the previous album. It is disappointing in some ways that an orchestral track like "Bust" didn't make Young's choices for the promo, but he's done better with the idea in other scores. Additionally, the promo really defines itself as a better R&B product, though it should be noted that a dramatic orchestral exploration of the theme in "Thank Not You" is fresh on the promo. Everyone's personal taste in a particular score is slightly different, and while Young's arrangement is superior, some fans may want to hear "Bust" and "Missing Vocal" (despite the redundancy) appended to the promo for a more complete experience. Getting a hold of that promo will prove difficult, however. Entitled "In Too Deep: Revisited," it was professionally pressed in extremely limited quantities. Circulation never seemed to hit the full spread of soundtrack specialty outlets, with copies advertised as being a free bonus on orders of over $100 at Buysoundtrax.com in mid-April, 2008. The BSX Records label has been a supporter of Young's work (much like Intrada) and it's likely that they coordinated the promotional pressing and distribution. Unfortunately for fans, the album was no longer advertised as being available just a couple of weeks later, and copies began floating to auction venues for upwards of $40. As Young states about the score, though, "Thanks for giving it another shot. At long last I think I can finally live with this score." That's a fascinating statement about a score that most fans had long forgotten about. The revisit is a justified and pleasant surprise.   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Music as Written for Film: ***
1999 Varèse Sarabande Album: ***
2008 Promotional Album: ****
Overall: ***

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.