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Composed, Conducted, and Produced by:
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Elmer Bernstein
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Album Produced by:
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Emilie A. Bernstein
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Release Date:
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April 18th, 2000
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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Keeping the Faith: (Elmer Bernstein) Extending his career into yet
another decade, Elmer Bernstein continues to produce scores saturated with his
well-known, jazzy styles. His assignments of recent years tend to stay close to
films like Keeping the Faith --films of a smaller mainstream scale with
some hope of promise, but also those that seem to fade away quickly. While his
score for Wild Wild West was an unfortunate mishap last year, his other
noteworthy score of 1999, The Deep End of the Ocean, was a remarkable
work. Along similar lines, Keeping the Faith is a score of subtleties.
With a small band ensemble accompanied by an assortment of strings and an
occasion minimal orchestra, Keeping the Faith will likely only appeal to
devoted Bernstein fans.
The album contains about 25 minutes of songs and score each. In and of
themselves, they work fine, but they clash when put together on album.
Bernstein's music has a distinct, 1970s loungey appeal to it. The majority of
score is performed by a small jazz ensemble, and Bernstein's themes are a very
lazy throwback to a time long past. Mixed in to these extended older night club
styles are a few token moments of orchestral work. One of the most dramatic
orchestral moments comes in the opening main titles, though the cue was pulled
from the film in favor of a song. The trademark of the score for Keeping the
Faith is Bernstein's typical use of the piano. Galloping along at softly
vibrant pace, his piano performances are the heart and soul of the score. On the
whole, given the film's subject area and time frame, I'd call the score
serviceable, though a tad odd, too.
The problem with this album arises when the score is put in context with the
songs. Bernstein's music only occupies 20+ minutes of time, and the style of the
songs is noticeably different. While there are two or so songs that mesh well
enough with the score, the majority are far too modern for the feel of Bernstein
to form a good blend. It's almost as though the producers wished to capture the
spirit of the older jazz but also wanted to sell the film with a few more modern
sounds. Unfortunately, it didn't work too well. The construction of the album
also has a major flaw; there are track names, but no numbers to go with them, so
you can't figure out where you are on the album if you're listening to the
middle of the score section. Also, if you count the track names, they only
amount to 17, while the CD actually contains 18 (the extra is a one-minute
Bernstein cut). On the whole, this error sums of the difficulties of the album
in establishing itself for either the songs or score. **
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Please Call Me Baby - Tom Waits (4:25)
• 2. Heart of Mine - Peter Salett (3:04)
• 3. Crazy - Travis Pickle (3:56)
• 4. Pitseleh - Elliott Smith (3:24)
• 5. The Way Things Used to Be - Peter Salett (3:42)
• 6. Main Title (not used in film) (2:42)
• 7. The Three (2:33)
• 8. Faith (1:39)
• 9. Church and Temple (1:24)
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• 10. Cloister (2:12)
• 11. Happiness Is (2:00)
• 12. Office (2:20)
• 13. Pictures (3:01)
• 14. It's Love (2:56)
• 15. All's Well (1:11)
• 16. UNKNOWN TRACK (1:02)
• 17. Play That Funky Music (White Boy) - Wild Cherry (3:16)
• 18. Got to Be Real - Cheryl Lynn (5:07)
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Insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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