The composer's style and methods in the suspenseful chase genre during the late 1970's was predictable, and listeners will hear pieces of Capricorn One, The Cassandra Crossing, and even The Salamander at work in Damnation Alley. The orchestra is well stacked with the usual pieces, and Goldsmith supplemented them with a variety of his early synthetic rhythm-setters and other accents that are recognizable precursors to more refined descendants in the 1980's and 1990's. The synthesizers are actually nicely handled here at a conceptual level, providing an otherworldliness that the photography struggles to capture. The tone of the ensemble's performance isn't as whimsical or angry as in some of Goldsmith's equivalent scores, the action sufficiently abrasive and even accomplished but never achieving the kind of raw tone of fear that this movie could have used. Two themes dominate the score, one especially prevalent in the first half while the other largely replacing it by the bizarre end. The first theme is one for suspense and, in a variant, the military. Its rising figures of four and five notes will sound similar to John Williams' The Towering Inferno and are fairly easy to distinguish. This theme initially presents itself as the primary one for the film, conveyed with subdued suspense at 0:21 into "Main Titles" and building in drama with the full ensemble after the actual title appears. A military motif that extends out of that ascendant foundation actually opens "Main Titles" and explodes at 1:15. The proper theme is carried by woodwinds with mystery early in "A Different World" but defines the action in "Valley of Death" in its militaristic variant. This material turns vaguely heroic late in "The Landmasters," opens "The Voyage Begins" on harsh brass and carries the ensemble impressively later in that cue, and begins "Signals" in staggered force before guiding the rhythms in the latter half. The suspense theme stews with the fantasy tone of the electronics in "The Desert" and then launches into straight action. It vaguely contributes to the first half of the rambunctious "Don't Bug Me" and adopts its military version of the progressions at the cue's end. A cyclical form of the military variant opens "The Wrong Order" ominously, and only fragmented notes from the motif survive in the brass slurs of "A Storm Brewing," by which time Goldsmith had largely abandoned the idea. The composer's decision not to clearly adapt this theme to become its representation of positive character perseverance at the end is a significant missed opportunity, as a score this short could have used just one overarching theme in different guises.

More palatable for Goldsmith collectors will be the composer's theme for humanity in Damnation Alley, one barely evident in the first half of the score but eventually coming to define the entire affair by the end. This theme is defocused in fragments during the middle of "A Different World" against the suspense theme, the only really good juxtaposition of the two ideas. It reflects a brief, related idea of hope in "The Landmasters" and continues the optimism from that cue in "Refueling Stop" before conveying full theme; the latter cue is likely the score's best moment in combining tonal melody with the synthetics. Redemption finally arrives for the theme's pleasant reveal in full during "A New Day," and Goldsmith extends that cue's demeanor in "End Title." This tandem at the end of the score has never really sat well with the rest of the work. It's just too pleasant all of a sudden, an obvious problem with the narrative that extends into Goldsmith's literal translation of that glorious and illogical conclusion into his music. The third element at work in the score are action rhythms that use extensive minor third progressions, both up and down. These moments strike in "Valley of Death" and continue in "The Voyage Begins," turning more menacing on deep strings with clanging percussion in "A New Passenger." Overall, Damnation Alley is a basically decent score, but it's a head-scratcher at times as well. Goldsmith didn't really write music so powerful that it could save the picture, instead focusing the intensity into just two or three cues. The score's release on album has always been problematic because although the orchestral performances were located and restored, the masters for the synthesizer lines are lost. Varèse Sarabande released just under 20 minutes from the score on its 2004 "Jerry Goldsmith at 20th Century Fox" compilation, but this material did not include the synthetics and was missing the highlight "Refueling Stop" cue. In 2017, Intrada Records released the full score with Goldsmith expert Leigh Phillips (who also impressively reconstructed The Salamander) providing close emulations of the electronics as a newly recorded layer to the original orchestral performances. Phillips' work must be applauded, though his contributions in "The Voyage Begins" and "Signals" sound distractingly good compared to the orchestra even though the latter is in stereo. No effort was made to make the crisp and vibrant synthetic lines sound archival like the rest of the ensemble, which might seem strange to some. Alternate cues on this 2017 album include a more suspenseful version of "The Voyage Begins" and an only slightly different "A New Day." The 2017 album is as good as it gets for this score, but it's clear that the movie didn't inspire the composer to journey towards his best.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download