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There is reason for both hope and disappointment upon a casual listen to The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, and both sides of the equation can be attributed to Howard. The most obvious and glaring aspect of this score is the absence of any interplay between the "Horn of Plenty" melody and that of "The Hanging Tree," a clear musical dichotomy that needed to be explored in the soundtrack to further distinguish the rebels from the politicians. Don't expect to hear "Horn of Plenty" integrated anywhere in the score, and usage in the film seems tracked in to such a degree that it wasn't even deemed necessary to include it on the album for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1. Meanwhile, "The Hanging Tree" is the single most important counterpoint to that theme in this film, performed by actress Jennifer Lawrence (apparently with some difficulty from shyness, though her singing is perfectly fine) to represent the on-screen rally call for the rebels. So popular was her performance of this melody that the label for the soundtrack albums belatedly copied it over from the score offering so that it could also be downloaded with the standard song compilation. While the melody of this song, adapted stunningly by Howard and his crew in the latter half of that song's duration, should really represent the score as well, Howard only slightly alludes to it in "District 12 Ruins" and, more clearly, "Taunting the Cat." The folksy instrumentation and progressions of this theme do, however, coincide well with Howard's original approach to the lead character's heritage. Outside of this oddly missed opportunity for explicit thematic battle, Howard is intensely loyal to his own themes from the prior two scores, really picking up especially on his identities for Catching Fire. Enthusiasts of the franchise will enjoy hearing nearly everything from before, including the softly restrained love theme, the churning games identity, and the Rue material that has morphed into a larger purpose. That last point of interest is something a problem in this score, because it's sometimes difficult to determine exactly what Howard is trying to denote with the application of a theme. You have to love the usage of these existing themes in "The Mockingjay" and late in "Air Raid Drill," sometimes stated with full ensemble authority. But there are more questions than answers in how some of these conflicting identities are applied to the narrative. Whether that bothers you to any great extent will probably determine your opinion of the score as a whole.

Despite the issue with muddy thematic attributions in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, this score is clearly the most mature of the franchise in terms of overall symphonic strength. The reason for this praise is simple: Howard has finally managed to refine the suspense and action material into a better package in this work. Building off of "Monkey Mutts" and other glimpses of the Howard excellence that prevails in his better scores, the action cues in particular are the highlight here. The trio of "The Arsenal," "Incoming Bombers," and especially "Air Raid Drill" are worth your investigation, and the first half the score in particular excels in its suspenseful underscore as well. There's nothing as sustained in the action cues as the music in Howard's Maleficent, but it's still entertaining. The score does suffer from some disjointed misadventures in its later cues, led by the intentional electronic distortions of "Jamming the Capitol." Even in this cue, however, fans of Salt will find some merit once the electronics define a cohesive rhythm instead of disrupting it. By "Put Me On the Air," however, Howard is back to his choral and orchestral grandeur mode, and there are more such interludes in this work. The concluding "Victory" is clearly a cliffhanger, and a solid one at that. Overall, this franchise's music is, despite its continuing melodic haziness, achieving greater potential for enjoyment with each entry. You can get a sense from the scope of Howard's movement through these scores that he is shifting away from the folksy origins of the franchise and approaching truly a militaristic end, a transition explicitly heard in the snare rhythms of "Snow's Speech." Even as he does so, he has increased the role for cooing choirs and romping orchestral rhythms, parts of this score reminiscent finally of The Last Airbender. The composer's inability to really work the contributed themes into his own and manipulate them into battle against each other remains a disappointment. The score-only album presentation is too long for its own good, too. There are a number of filler cues, including a continuation of the electronic contributions in "Inside the Tribute Center," that really slow this listening experience to a crawl. A very solid 40-minute rearrangement awaits a Howard fan. Also note that the awards-nominated pop song, which has absolutely nothing to do structurally or stylistically with Howard's score, does not appear on the score's album. You will find yourself returning to "The Hanging Tree," though, as you parse through the best soundtrack moments of 2014. This track alone makes this entire soundtrack the best of the three so far.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For James Newton Howard reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.4 (in 62 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.26 (in 71,451 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 69:36