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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you seek a transitional score that leads you from the early days of atmospheric suspense music in the series to the later years of harmonic romanticism. Avoid it... if you expect a score that truly embodies the electronic spirit and soul of the episodic scores that Mark Snow provided for the series on television. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
As expected, the electronically whistled title theme for the show is translated to Fight the Future, and its incarnations are among the highlights of the score. In "Threnody in X," Snow provides the theme over masculine, synthetic rhythms reminiscent of the Terminator films. In its favor are those rhythms and harmonic bass accompaniment, though fans will immediately note the absence of some of the elements of the theme in the show that truly make it what it is. Gone from the theme (and the entire album) is the trademark echoing effect that is almost as famous at the whistling... a serious omission. This performance would be heard during a helicopter-shot driving scene in the middle of the film, curiously. The theme rarely makes subsequent appearances, with its fragments finally put together once again for the finale's "Crater Hug" cue. The action and suspense cues seem like an odd combination of Snow's non-X-Files efforts and the dissonant experimentation of Elliot Goldenthal. The Goldenthal influence is clear in several places where Snow plants incongruous layers of shrieking strings and brass, in some cases mirroring what Goldenthal did the same year in Sphere. The resemblance to some of Snow's superior feature efforts is best heard in the back-to-back "Crossroads" and "Corn Hives" cues, which introduce the composer's trademark synthetic choir from the era. The driving orchestral rhythms in "Crossroads," led by timpani and largely absent of the murky electronics, produce the single best cue of the score. A few pieces later in the score will remind of other composers, including James Horner's Aliens in "Corn Copters" and an adaptation of the title theme into James Bond fashion in "Cargo Hold." The more ambient cues are highlighted by the translation of the solo piano into the film. Many of the motifs heard regularly in the show are not featured in the film, however. Fans of the show will find considerable merit in the score, though coming on the heals of his simply spectacular score for the television production of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea only months earlier, Snow is capable of better. Traditional orchestral film score fans will find parts of it tedious, with only ten of the 67 minutes on album worthy of compilation. Snow has, quite sadly, slipped from mainstream view in the years since The X-Files concluded on television. ***
(total and track times not listed on the packaging)
The insert contains notes about Snow and the score. The wacky-colored font used for the notes and credits is very difficult to read. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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