To appreciate a score like Criminal Law out of context, especially if you're a die-hard enthusiast of Goldsmith's typically resounding combination of orchestra and electronics, you have to accept the work at face value. Even as prevalent as the electronics are in a concurrent score like Extreme Prejudice, there is little that will prepare you for the stark landscape of Criminal Law. Synthesizers back in the 1980's had a distinctly fake sound to their imitations of real instruments, and scores like that utilized such samples showed their age very quickly. Goldsmith didn't often employ this kind of sampling, but when he did, the tones were harsh, mechanical, and dissonant, leaving practically nothing for the listener to latch onto and remember later. From start to finish, Criminal Law is an exercise in ambient texture devoid of thematic or rhythmic development beyond brief ideas introduced in nearly every cue. Stylistically, the music is probably appropriate for the age and attitude of the film itself, sweeping aside any sense of harmony or genuine sensibility in the same way the film disregards logic and reality. It broods with unsatisfying monotony similar to James Horner's The Name of the Rose from the same era, even developing a token thematic inclusion at the end. For Goldsmith, the resolution is a synthetic trumpet and piano theme of slightly contemporary tones vaguely similar, as usual for the period, to The Russia House. Whether the composer's reason for producing an all-electronic score for Criminal Law was budgetary or purposefully for the texture, one thing is for certain: the learned Goldsmith collector will be able to translate the rhythms and motifs to their orchestral counterparts if they listen closely enough. This may be difficult, given the propensity this score has towards boring the listener, but there are certain sections in Criminal Law that could easily make for a very strong result if only performed by orchestral instrumentation. The choice of the samples utilized is also somewhat curious, though, because Goldsmith refrains from using his more popular synthetic sounds (pan pipes, bouncing basketball, wet street swishes, etc) in favor of very dull and unmemorable keyboarding and generic background tones. Overall, Criminal Law is definitely one of the weakest Goldsmith efforts of the digital era, combining a lack of diverse instrumentation with a stylistic intent to only add to the film's dissolution through dark textures.  *   @Amazon.com: CD or Download