Elfman is known for employing some really creative and oddball synthetic sounds in his wackier scores, and The Circle reaches back to terrible analog tones from the 1980's not appropriate for this forward-looking story, causing significant friction with some scenes. Keyboarding dominates, with burping rhythms and edgier electronic scaping sounds joining occasional string-like representations, celeste, guitar, and vocal manipulations to yield a strangely backwards ambience. Elfman's execution of these sounds is not sufficiently creepy in scenes that should be moderately suspenseful, his clunky keyboarding more akin to his humorously terrible Aliens, Clowns & Geeks at times than this film's genre. Straight action scenes like "Fog Attack" and "Finding Mercer" offer grating electronic mayhem with little larger purpose. Almost just as frustrating as the ill-conceived tone of Elfman's synthetics is his barely functional thematic narrative. He conjures a main identity but doesn't apply it in ways that make much sense in the story. Led initially by three pairs of rising notes, this theme seems intentionally difficult to nail down during all of "Into a Circle." It returns in "Conspiracy" with some semblance of organic strings in chopping mode and more tentative in "Chasing Amy" on piano over blurting rhythms. The theme starts to lose cohesion in "Stolen Kayak," however, and it becomes longer identity that receives more development in "Mae Takes Over," suggesting planning for the maturation of the main character that never enunciates itself clearly enough in the score's themes. More impactful is a surveillance rhythm that develops out of minor third alternations throughout the work that become more hypnotic as threats emerge. Its meandering piano line over bubbly rhythmic blurting in "Inner Sanctum" is later barely hinted in the rhythm of "Aftermath" before dominating the first half of "Finding Mercer," interrupting nascent melodic material in "Toilet Talk," and becoming almost exuberant at the outset of "Ascension." An upbeat, somewhat chipper secondary theme bounces through "Wonderland," extends to an ascending thematic alternative in "Intake," and is reprised in "Return to Wonderland." Otherwise, the score wanders through unrelated singular ideas. The digitally prickly "Happy Little Robots" is among the worst cues of Elfman's career, while the slurred tonalities of "Happy Love Theme" make it stand, likely intentionally, among the composer's worst love themes. An odd crescendo at the end of "Mae Takes Over" with voice and guitar doesn't achieve any purpose. The "Simple Gifts" song doesn't fit with the personality of the score, either. In the end, this score is horrible in the film and will induce insanity on its short album. Rarely do composers miss the tone and narrative of a story so badly.  *   @Amazon.com: CD or Download