It is with an active sense of humor that you have to appreciate Gremlins, despite the fact that most of what you hear in its contents would be executed better by Goldsmith in subsequent efforts. In this case, it's the idea that counts, and the composer hits the nail on the head with his concepts. The catchy main theme for Gremlins became a staple of the composer's concert rounds for many years, and whether you can tolerate it or not, there's no getting around the fact that it's memorable. Its lone full performance in Gremlins comes in the end credits and is performed entirely by the composer's electronics. Its appearances throughout the film take a while to reveal themselves (previewed in "The Lab" and really only blossoming in the main attack sequence) coinciding with the rise of the evil side of the creatures, the pace of the film never allowing it much cohesiveness for lengthy periods of time. More enjoyable are the two subthemes that become more evident outside of context. First, Gizmo's theme, heard in "The Gift" and extensively the final two cues, is the expected tender and loving representation of the lead gremlin's cute personality. Second, a rollicking theme for the main human character is introduced in "Late for Work" and features Goldsmith in perhaps the most humorous township spirit since The Film-Flam Man (but without the Western styling, of course). Both of these themes would be exploited by the sequel's score, arguably to an equal or greater effect. A less tolerable theme for "Mrs. Deagle" takes some of the more obnoxious, slurred low-range electronics (sounding like a badly mutated tuba) from the upcoming Legend and arranges them into an insufferably bizarre march. One of the better qualities of both Gremlins scores is Goldsmith's knack for extra touches of creativity that define the music's character. In the original, these range from a straight forward presentation of the Christmas carol "Silent Night" to several skittish viola solos and a single sound effect that dominates the score. That sound is a merging of a yowling cat and a police siren, usually offered in tones closer to the former than the latter. Goldsmith uses the cat howl as an ominous, animalistic warning that things are awry, and the technique (among a few others) works like a charm as it becomes more aggressive in later applications. When separated from the film, though, some of these wacky sound effects are a tad difficult to enjoy at times, especially when mixed harshly at the forefront of the soundscape, as the howling cat sound is eventually treated.

Surprisingly, the layering of electronic and orchestral tones aren't integrated as well as they could be in Gremlins, with the two ironically existing best in several sequences when largely separated. A straight forward, triumphant action rhythm in "The Fountain/Stripe's Death" is a Prokofiev-style, militaristic tone for the orchestra alone that, in its era, was likely to remind film music listeners of James Horner's popular Star Trek scores. A slight thumping echo in "Spilt Water" could be a nod to Ennio Morricone's The Thing. Overall, Gremlins is a score that is difficult not to love, but one that doesn't necessarily offer its own material at its best capabilities. Both the sequel score and a number of recordings by various performing groups in the years since have proven that an orchestra alone can have a riot with the "Gremlin Rag," achieving better results than even Goldsmith's original synthetics could accomplish (the City of Prague Philharmonic in particular tackled it with one of their best performances ever, complete with the necessary quirky personality). With that circumstance in mind, Gremlins 2: The New Batch may be a better listening experience on album for some collectors. The situation involving the original Gremlins score on album was long a source of major frustration for Goldsmith enthusiasts. The commercial Geffen CD, a very early product on that medium, featured only 16 minutes of Goldsmith's score along with the usual assortment of pop songs (Geffen provided the same format of presentation to Goldsmith's Innerspace a few years later), and this product eventually went hopelessly out of print and sold for upwards of $100. Unsatisfied fans inevitably sought a variety of bootlegs (usually of 51 minutes from Gremlins) that became available at the end of the 1990's. These bootlegs typically featured poor sound and tacked a few tracks from The Twilight Zone onto the end. Subsequent variants of the bootleg only offered the same Gremlins material alone with vastly improved sound quality that is largely indistinguishable from other Goldsmith scores of the era. Finally, a 2011 double-CD set from Film Score Monthly's Retrograde Records officially released 62 minutes of the score alongside many bonus cues and the original Geffen presentation. This definitive presentation of Gremlins is outstanding in all regards, though if you're just getting your feet wet in the franchise's music, then the readily available album for the sequel score may be a safer bet. Still, despite the score's incessantly alien, playful personality, few would deny that Gremlins is an endearing classic from the height of Goldsmith's electronically-dominated phase of immense creativity in the 1980's.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download