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As a musical production, the orchestral underscore breaks into full-fledged song and dance for ten neatly choreographed performances with smaller instrumental ensembles. Only a few times does a sharp edge exist in the transitions between score and song, most notably before "I Won't Dance," but it's likely that these are faults of the album rather than of the music as presented in the film. The classic Golden Age songs of Gershwin, Porter, Kern, and Berlin work remarkably well together on the album; their selection was wise. The classically educated ear will pick up on several adaptations of fragments of these composers' (cited) works throughout Doyle's underscore. In his original work, Doyle's greatest achievement in Love's Labour's Lost is the necessary enthusiasm that he injects into the tone of the music. The musicals of the thirties and forties are always jubilant, smiling, and overwhelming with energy (not to mention the creative camera angles that Branagh imitates during the numbers). Doyle's previous scores for Branagh's films proved that he could well enough produce a believable Shakespearean spirit, but this time he also succeeds in creating the necessary 1930's atmosphere to keep the music and film floating on air. The title overture is a remarkable fanfare of Korngold style, introducing the lush and lavish lifestyles of the era with one of the composer's more infections themes. This idea permeates the score despite the heavy presence of the songs, and the composer even reproduces a very genuine newsreel march for the "Cinetone News" cue that is adapted into several scenes in the film. The album, while a success, still has a few minor problems. The lengthy score cue "Twelve Months and a Day," while necessary in its purpose, breaks the flighty mood considerably, with a far more somber and serious tone than the rest of the bright, fluffy album. The second flaw of the music is the fact that Branagh employed actors to play the lead parts in the musical rather than accomplished singers. In traditional musicals, the voices were always as fine-tuned as their dancing. But in Love's Labour's Lost, the actors don't always perform well, and unlike Moulin Rouge the following year, the ensemble doesn't seem as well coached. Still, their enthusiasm mostly compensates for this problem, and the album remains a unique and entertaining experience, especially if you're into those old MGM musical productions.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Patrick Doyle reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.83 (in 30 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.49 (in 22,582 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 58:10