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There is no memorable construct with which to anchor Joy Ride, no thematic development, and no minor motif that repeats for a period of time longer than a single cue. There is no consistency, no harmony, and no synthetic creativity. For a score with so much electronic clanging and thumping, one would think that Beltrami would utilize samples of automotive effects to match the story. But no, and as a matter of fact, the dull effects are mixed so that they sound as though they're echoing underwater. Once again, it doesn't make sense for the context. Some of the slight electrical zapping sounds place this work in the science fiction genre. The meandering combination of these mundane atmospheric tones is not intolerable in all of the cues, with the exception of the laughable duo of trashy tracks that concludes the album. The moments of unbearable noise are held to a minimum, but the score attempts to fill space with simply nothing more than a series of wandering orchestral hits (like the one that shatters the conclusion of "Sitchiation") and slowly alternating minor key chords. If you quietly shift between minor third progressions enough times, yes, people will get the idea that something creepy is supposed to be happening on the screen. Choppy strings, brass blasts, and pounding timpani make the orchestral passages of this stylistically low budget score even more cliched than it needed to be. Beltrami goes further and does a few things with the score that make the product practically laughable. His employment of twitching strings in "Charlotte's Web," as mentioned above, is a meager imitation of Bernard Herrmann's classic style of Psycho and Cape Fear. The insufferable "Mole Asses" is not only synthetically obnoxious, but bursts into an awkward steal of the Mongolian music from Jerry Goldsmith's The Shadow. The final track on the album, "Refreshify," complete with nonsensical dialogue and cute synthesizer effects, is a neat method of poking at the listener with a sharp object after subjecting him or her to a full half hour of mind-numbing slop. It's hard not to have extreme disdain for this music when you've heard so many cheap variations on the same idea, and especially when considering that Beltrami had shown signs of greater talent in the past and was wasting his time with assignments such as Joy Ride. There is absolutely no reason to recommend this album to any film score collector; it is arguably the most boring, underdeveloped, and unoriginal score of 2001. Only by the grace of a new musicians' union agreement in Los Angeles regarding re-use fees did trash like this exist on album.  *   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Marco Beltrami reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.75 (in 28 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.8 (in 19,011 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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