Clearly a score of two distinct halves,
1408 is
a challenging listening experience. The expected melodramatic,
orchestral majesty beginning in "Ship in a Painting" and ending in
"Fire!" will sound familiar to enthusiasts of Yared's often somber,
yearning style of lamentation. The delicate lullabies, while troubled
around the edges, are beautiful and the lush string-based moments of
resolution reach back to
Message in a Bottle. Two outstanding
action sequences in "Ship in a Painting" and "Sinking Ship" present
muscular brass explosions of force to rival
Troy in intensity.
The thematic structures take some time to develop in these cues, from
the very subtle expressions in "Katie's Theme" to the final death of the
room's grasp in "Fire!" The room is also afforded a low, groaning,
rising progression beginning with three notes seemingly conveyed on bass
bassoon, an identity that Yared is sure to leave you with in the final
seconds of the score. The role of the choir in the massive portions of
the work is not revolutionary, nor is it really new in Yared's career,
but it does assist in the fantasy element. The ten to fifteen minutes of
grand, harmonic music representing the Cusack character's personal
struggle is easily digestible as well, a strong accompaniment to Yared's
prior achievements. The suspense half of
1408 is where Yared both
impresses you with his unexpected prowess in the realm of fright and
sacrifices a coherent listening experience as a result. Yared and his
assistant, Kirsty Whalley, programmed a fair amount of effective
electronic samples for application in
1408, often representations
of physical sounds you'd hear in a creepy old room. Among the best of
these is the creaking door effect, transformed into a musical tool
through different pitches and rhythmic uses. The first half of the score
is largely defined by extended performances of basic synthetic
keyboarding and these eerie sounds. Early on, they culminate in "The
Doppelganger," which uses every manipulation effect you could imagine to
scare the wits out of a person. Later, in "Back to 1408," Yared takes a
massive orchestral stinger and extends it out so that he can deconstruct
it in Don Davis'
The Matrix style and artificially slow its tempo
down through distorted manipulation into a void of nothingness. There is
absolutely nothing about any of these techniques that is meant as a
satisfying standalone listening experience; in fact, much of this
score's atmospheric portions would better be described as sound effects.
As such,
1408 is most definitely the kind of music that presents
fatal difficulties when heard for casual enjoyment in chronological
order on album. Together,
1408 is, aside from a refreshing and
certainly impressive change for Yared, an effective but unlistenable
score.
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