Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,814
Written 1/26/12
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Buy it... on only the European album containing more score, fewer
songs, and no dialogue if you seek a solid taste of an entertainingly
eclectic Trevor Jones score that contains one of his most infectious
title themes.
Avoid it... on the American album if you have no interest in
beholding one of the most misguided and irritating soundtrack products
in the history of the genre.
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| Jones |
Arachnophobia: (Trevor Jones) With the guidance of
Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and his usual set of
collaborators, Arachnophobia became the first release of the
Hollywood Pictures studio. The famed director's usual production
partner, Frank Marshall, used the opportunity to helm a movie for the
first time, receiving more acclaim for this project than his subsequent
directorial efforts. The 1990 movie was a marketing conundrum for the
fledgling studio, striking chords in both the horror and comedy genres,
but critics and audiences responded positively to its throwback
monster-movie style and cast of likeable comic actors. The fear of
spiders is obviously the hook in Arachnophobia, which makes fun
of the chaos caused by a deadly new species of spider from the Amazon
that is accidentally transported to a sleepy Northern California town.
Once there, it spawns an army of little killers that indiscriminately
wipes out portions of the population all the while ineptitude and
character conflicts harm the efforts to identify and exterminate the
problem. By the film's end, a family transplanted from San Francisco has
to save itself by finding creative methods of dispatching the naughty
creatures, succeeding but ultimately preferring the earthquakes of the
big city over the environment of the wild. In an effort to appeal to the
mainstream, Arachnophobia employs a soundtrack that includes
several prominent song placements meant to add humor to certain scenes.
In between these generally badly dated entries is an energetic score by
Trevor Jones, who was already a veteran of the fantasy genre but who had
not yet struck gold with Last of the Mohicans. This assignment
represented a rare collaboration between Jones and a Spielberg crowd
more content utilizing the services of the highest A-list composers.
Although eventually known for his grandiose themes, Jones tackled
Arachnophobia with a more eclectic and stylish balancing of the
film's many emotional needs, successfully navigating a fair amount of
parody territory without becoming trite. The exotic origins of the
arachnids provide unconventional tones to the orchestral palette while a
collection of guitar, saxophone, and harmonica address the folksy
atmosphere of the town invaded by the menace. Synthesizers assist in
creating design elements in the music that accentuate the horror
element. It's quite a diverse score overall, and it does memorably
feature one of the composer's most rowdy and entertaining primary themes
(even if it never attempts to achieve the grand scope of the composer's
best known works).
While the score for
Arachnophobia has long been
denigrated to an extent because of its unsavory album situation, Jones'
actual composition and rendering is impressively intelligent. The wide
range of instrumental colors keeps the score interesting in all its
parts, highlighted by the impressive layers of all three of Jones'
emphasized groups of contributors for the major performances of the main
theme. In "Main Title" and "End Title," the composer unleashes this
identity with dynamic exuberance, highlighted by exotic percussive
rhythms under the orchestra while each section takes faithful turns
whipping through the theme. Particularly impressive in these passages is
Jones' tonally pleasing use of counterpoint, trumpets and woodwinds
flailing about in complimentary lines. Breathy winds and acoustic guitar
bridge the score's disparate parts in this theme, the latter's rambling
base for the trumpet renditions of the theme especially appealing. Jones
shows the range of capabilities that this theme can express during his
several expressions of the idea in other circumstances, including the
downright gorgeous tones of "The Casket Arrives" (with a vintage Jerry
Goldsmith style from flute and harmonica) and the opening portion of
"End Credits," which puts Jones' standard high string drama methods into
effect. Reminders of the theme are present throughout the score and are
far more memorable than the secondary suspense motifs that bury
themselves in less consequential cues. The most notable other theme in
Arachnophobia is the jazzy saxophone, piano, and harmonica
identity for John Goodman's character, summarized nicely in "Delbert's
Theme." A retro monster-movie motif with blaring brass for the final
cellar sequence is almost laughably immense. The atmospheric suspense
music in the score isn't as impressive, though Jones does sprinkle some
interesting sound effects into these passages to keep the listener on
edge. When stepping back from the score, the five minutes of
full-fledged performances of the primary theme are the easy highlights,
worthy of any compilation of Jones' best work. When the new studio's
record branch released
Arachnophobia on album, it did so in
disastrous fashion, producing one of the worst soundtrack products of
all time. Irrelevant song additions combat 27-minutes of score, all of
which layered with quotes from the film in mono sound. While this
American product covers all the basic highlights, the presentation is
extremely annoying, and thankfully the label's European branch dropped
most of the songs and dialogue for its own release, which ads 14 minutes
of score that expands upon previously released ideas (but still in
rather poor sound quality). Seek the European album for
Arachnophobia if you have interest in appreciating Jones'
intelligently rendered and accessible score.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- Music as Written for the Film: ****
- Music as Heard on the American Album: **
- Music as Heard on the European Album: ***
- Overall: ***
Bias Check:
For Trevor Jones reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.78
(in 18 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.44
(in 26,105 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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