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In some cases, an argument could be made that the style of the vocals is too polished in a contemporary sense to really bring out the historically accurate qualities of the traditional tunes, and bluegrass collectors should be aware of this flaw before diving into this album without hearing its application in the film. Returning for T-Bone Burnett is the voice of Alison Krauss, but this time her performances are so tentative that they lose their appeal. Likewise, the songs performed by Jack White are lackluster in energy and genuine bluegrass spirit. Only in the latter half of the album does a more heartening sound take effect; Cassie Franklin finally puts some defiance into the female vocals, and the two tracks by the Sacred Harp Singers (recorded with fantastic authenticity in an old wooden-framed church) are easily the highlight of the album. All of the bluegrass music will likely seem like a foreign world to score collectors interested in Gabriel Yared's work for the film. There can't be any greater difference between the fiddle, banjo, and mandolin performances by the ensembles for the songs and the orchestral composition for the score. This difference alone causes the album serious trouble, because bluegrass listeners will be bored to death by Yared's typical, meandering string writing. Even for score collectors, the album won't be worth the price for the fifteen minutes (in four tracks) of score material, because it is music that owners of Yared's albums have heard again and again. Having collaborated with the same director for The English Patient (and winning the Oscar for that effort), some might have expected something more than a repetition of his sullen, uninteresting string writing for Sylvia just a few months earlier. But even his title theme, performed in extended sequences by piano and strings, is dragged on and on, taking forever to complete its own statements and giving the whole chamber score a wishy-washy effect on the listener. There is nothing here to indicate that there are chases, battles, or even anything historical about the score. Yared failed to incorporate anything related to the genre of the film, or the bluegrass soundtrack, and he was thus a predictably curious choice to compose music for this film despite his collaboration with the director. Overall, everything seems out of place, and for the package to have worked to any listenable degree, the songs and score needed to be separated into two distinct albums. Yared did release a promotional CD of his score that helped him earn Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for his work, but this recognition likely came via reputation only, and even score collectors may not be impressed by Yared's promo. For both Yared and Burnett, the lesson was that you sometimes just can't recapture the same magic a second time.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Gabriel Yared reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.11 (in 10 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.17 (in 18,487 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 63:07