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Original Review, by Christian Clemmensen
To an extent, The Perfect Storm deserves some criticism for its strong ties to other Horner works. With Titanic in 1997 came a new sound --albeit too strange for some to handle-- and for a while, it appeared that Horner was headed in a new direction. A year later, The Mask of Zorro reaffirmed those beliefs in some. But with Deep Impact and Bicentennial Man came a return to an all-too-familiar call of duty for Horner in the conductor's box. To his credit, he attempts to insert some variety into each score... But let's not kid ourselves; he repeats his stylistic motifs. Sometimes too often. To the average movie-goer on the street, these similarities are likely too insignificant to notice. For the devoted film score fan, however, The Perfect Storm will simply lead down the same thematic and repetitive path of Deep Impact and Bicentennial Man. So which of the three is best? It's really hard to say, because they are all still good. At the same time, though, Horner's recent works has sent me into a search to find those ten minutes of unique cues from each of the mentioned scores and put them into an appropriate compilation. As for the music of The Perfect Storm iteself, it is largely orchestral, but minus a real chorus this time. Horner inserts a soft electronic one to enhance a few of the cues meant to realize the power of mother nature, but it's not worth mentioning further. The title theme is noble and highly melodic, and will be very enjoyable to the untrained ear. For long-time Horner fans, you'll notice two drawbacks: first, there indeed are points lifted from his previous scores in the theme. You may have to go ten years back to find them, but they're there. Both Apollo 13 and Willow come to mind immediately. Second, Horner continues his habit of repeating the theme over and over again. And over and over again. And again. By the end of the album, which is no short one I might add, the theme barely crawls because of exhaustion. Even the best themes can wither from overuse, and Horner almost accomplishes that here. To his credit, Horner does indeed add some distinct touches throughout. Nothing as obvious as the percussion in the first track of Bicentennial Man appears here. What's new is Horner's return to the electric guitar, which rips off some accompaniment for the orchestra much in the same way Basil Poledouris employed the guitar in For Love of the Game. These fast paced, fully orchestral moments, especially with muted horns, make for the highlights of the album. In the middle of the album, Horner also excels at re-creating the swells of the ocean witht he entire ensemble, and these moments definitely deserve another play. On the whole, the album is very, very long. Mellencamp's song is a token pop effort, and adds/subtracts little to the score. The orchestra seems less enthusiastic in their performances than usual, leading to a sometimes stale and even more repetitive end. For a new collector of film music, The Perfect Storm will likely be exciting and inspiring (four stars and no less), but for the experienced Horner collectors, the score will provide ten minutes of new, noteworthy material and the rest might either bore you or seem as unpleasant as swallowing seawater. *** Review #2, by Travis Elrod
The Perfect Storm: (James Horner) James Horner does a fantasic job in this score which is worthy of the name "Perfect". Many of the ideas that Horner uses in this score are some of the same ideas that he has always used. There are even some seconds of the score which stick out and you say to yourself, "That sounds like Apollo 13 or Willow." However fans of Horner (I really like Horner, but I am not an ecstatic fan) know that he will use the same sounds over and over. But this is OK because these sounds are pleasant to listen to. He does this in every score he creates. There are times when I have trouble remembering whether I am listening to Titanic or Braveheart. The thing that seperates The Perfect Storm from his other soundtracks are the themes and repetitive ideas he uses. If you listen carefully, you can hear many similarities throughout all 9 instrumental songs. Not only in themes, which there are many he has in this soundtrack, but in the instrumentation. There are many soft parts in which he uses a single english horn, oboe or clarinet as the main idea. And to hear these instruments come up again and again is surprisingly pleasent. The most surprising and captivating thing in this soundtrack are Horner's utilization of themes. When I carefully listen, I can hear 6 different themes that Horner uses in The Perfect Storm, each one of them pleasent to listen to. However, mainly there are two that really stick out to anyone who listens. One is the theme right at the beginning of the CD by a french horn, which is very nice and great opener for the CD. Later on though, there is a six note theme that made my jaw drop. This theme is what makes The Perfect Storm soundtrack. The first presentation you could sit back and fall asleep listening to it on full volume. It is so peaceful and so breathtakingly inspiring that I kept rewinding the CD to listen to it again. Everytime I think about this theme I am amazed by the fact that it is so charmingly simplistic, but yet Horner still is able to vary this theme to make it fit the mood of the the movie. For instance he was able to make it subtly dark, but the theme didn't is pleasant nature. Another idea that really got me liking this soundtrack is the new sounds. Particulary the guitars that Horner uses. One is a light guitar used at the very beginning to accompany the first theme. Second is an electric guitar which is used to head start the driving french horn and trumpet theme and to accompany the awe-inspiring six-note theme. Also there are some underlying percussion sounds which add to the driving themes. This soundtrack is "Perfect" because it does what every other composer does, but does it better. He takes the ideas which made him famous and added to them with new sounds, themes and familiar instrumentation. The part that sets it ahead from everyone else is the fact that these themes and sounds are so breathtakingly peaceful and gorgeous that it takes Horner's original ideas to a new level. Horner has outdone himself this time. This is one of the best he has ever done, second only to Braveheart. *****
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