Buy it... if no summer blockbuster score would be complete for you without a healthy dose of electronic bass, simplistic chord progressions, drum pads, and predictable light percussion.

Avoid it... if you expect Mark Isham's attempt to combine a Media Ventures sound with his own orchestral creativity to cause the end product to transcend an unsatisfyingly predictable outcome.

Isham

Next: (Mark Isham) Isn't it natural to assume that if you had the unexplainable ability to see a few minutes into the future, your first choice of action would be to move to Las Vegas? Nicolas Cage's character does, and he's a magician living off of his gambling winnings while hiding from government agencies that would love him to be their own fortune teller. When the threat of a nuclear bomb arises in Los Angeles, the FBI seeks to capture the gifted man and use his ability to help avoid the tragedy. For Paramount, the early summer potential at a blockbuster would steer them in the direction of a soundtrack typical of such heated testosterone, which is why the choice of Mark Isham as composer for the project was somewhat surprising. Perhaps more than any other composer currently working in the industry, Isham is an artist from whom you never know what to expect. His recent orchestral masterpieces for The Black Dahlia and Racing Stripes have begun to cast away the memories of such uninspired duds as Twisted and Don't Say a Word, while some of the more notable projects from his past ten years include entries like Men of Honor and Rules of Engagement, scores that are competent but not necessarily particularly interesting. Despite his significant contribution to film music since the late 1980's, one area intriguingly short in his career is that of major, blockbuster action films. The circumstances of the story in Next lead to endless possibilities for a creative score, one that foreshadows, reprises, and manipulates its components to mirror the primary character's abilities in the film. The most telling aspect of the score for Next is that despite Isham's wide range of talents, his end product here is a rather mundane and predictable action score. His orchestral ensemble is sizable, but so is his electronic library, and almost immediately you will hear an awkward combination of Isham's own understated thematic sensibilities and the brute synthetic force of an average Media Ventures effort. The resulting mix is moderately interesting, but ultimately disappointing given the opportunities that this score could have explored.

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Only a close examination of the film would reveal the extent to which Isham used the score as an instrument of intrigue in the foreshadowing sequences of the story. A similar examination of the album will produce no intelligence of that level built into the score, with not even a synthetic manipulation of the music accompanying the supernatural aspect of the film. Thematically, Isham offers what could be called the "Destiny" theme, a solitary piano affair that very quietly graces three or four tracks on the album, including the bookends. As has happened in some of his suspense scores, the theme quickly becomes lost because it isn't stated with much obvious ambition in the action pieces. With a dazed electronic atmosphere, the theme exists in a fog of wonder and contemplation, and its restriction to statements on piano until the final moments of the concluding track diminishes its impact. A ten-note action motif of sorts exists in true Media Ventures spirit throughout the action cues, given one last statement in the final twenty seconds of the score. It causes the chasing sequences to remind you of Trevor Rabin and Harry Gregson-Williams scores of the late 1990's because of both the simplicity of the motif's structure (never deviating more than one note from its center) and the tired electronic aids used to augment the orchestra's performances. Isham does try to spice up the equation with a wild counterpoint idea over the action motif, usually performed by frantic violins, but the dense instrumentation of these cues overwhelms their contribution. The same could be said of the use of muted trumpets and other somewhat distinctive techniques; in the end, the electronic bass, simplistic chord progressions, drum pads, and predictable light percussion rhythm-setters take whatever tact the mid-range brass can provide in a track like "Pier 18" and reduce it to address only primordial emotions. Collectors of Craig Armstrong's works will note a connection to the chopping high string movements often heard in his scores. There are bright spots throughout Next, and Isham never allows the music to become intolerable, but he does tap into a sound that is derivative enough to constantly make you wish that he had stuck with a more unique approach to the project. **   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Mark Isham reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.9 (in 21 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.88 (in 8,084 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.