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In Abels' efforts to address so many genre sounds ranging from fantasy to science fiction, Western to horror, he never manages to make the score for Nope truly comfortable in any of them aside from the horror. The first 40 to 50 minutes of the score, when not expressing tepid thematic establishment or Western-themed, source-like outbursts, is a prolonged exercise in suspenseful sustains from strings and jabbing textures from brass. Even when Abels shifts to more dramatic fantasy and action in the final third, he's not able to shake the horror, leaving very few tonally satisfying moments. The human story of the leads in Nope is compelling, but Abels doesn't provide any sincere depth for those characters, either before or after their hardships with the creature and their coming together as siblings. The tone of the score simply never helps you care about anything remotely positive on screen, content only to supply frightful, less-than-totally-frightful, and otherwise mundane moments throughout. The fantasy element is completely nil, a rare choral accompaniment largely wasted late in the score. The wonderment factor here is zero, too. The increasingly fluid and accessible action portions are a bit more engaging, but they too fall flat. Some of these issues are related to an extremely sparse recording quality to this ensemble. The spread of the instruments is so poor in some cues that the presentation may as well be in monoaural sound. The performances themselves also suffer from a lack of enthusiasm, even in the outright Western parody passages, the conducting eliciting very little passion from the group. The final mix is thus functional but devoid of the kind of spirit necessary for the fantastic scope of the tale. Part of the anonymity problem with the score comes from Abels' surprising choice to devalue thematic enunciation, his themes barely registering and therefore mostly pointless. The central family receives the only dramatically inclined theme of the work, but its performances are typically so tepid that you may not even notice the melody while it plays. This character theme peaks through at the outset of "Haywood Ranch" in only two-note fragments but consolidates at 1:09 on woodwinds for the whole theme. It's sensitive on horn and woodwinds in "Brother Sister Walk" and tentative and nervous at 0:14 into "Growing Up Haywood," losing its dramatic reach thereafter. Fragments of the idea are teased throughout "The Unaccounted For" and "Preparing the Trap," but casual listeners may not notice them.

It takes until 0:22 into "Abduction" before the main Haywood theme in Nope fully returns, this time in faux-Jerry Goldsmith action suspense but far sparser in depth. This theme offers light drama in the middle of "A Hero Falls" and turns to solemn brass at 0:23 into "Wishing Well" before shifting to agonized strings at 0:46. On the other side of the emotional spectrum is an appropriately elusive theme for the "Jean Jacket" creature that does better reveal itself by the end of the score, though still not convincingly. This mysterious or menacing series of three note phrases emerges on woodwinds late in "What's a Bad Miracle" and early in "Holy Shit It's Real." Eventually, it vaguely guides the rhythmic crescendo late in "Abduction" before stating its progressions fully in the second half action of "Pursuit" and the closing suspense of "Wishing Well." Abels' insertion of parody Western styling into the score may be an amusing attraction for film score enthusiasts, and it certainly shows the composer's chops in this arena, but it doesn't fit well with the remainder of the work. Even within these three cues, Abels doesn't retain consistent melodic measures. The Western applications start as the source material heard with Elmer Bernstein optimism during all of "Jupiter's Claim," and shades of this material are reprised in "The Star Lasso Expeeerrriii" before a manipulated ending lends comedy to the impending mass death. Abels doesn't return to the melody in this material for his end credits opener, "Nope," but instead devises a new Western theme, which opens that cue and returns at 1:34 and 2:12. Inspired more blatantly by Ennio Morricone, this theme rising from key and then falling with style also features a lengthy interlude sequence. As a standalone Western parody cue, "Nope" is more than proficient, but its presence in the credits sequence makes absolutely no sense after the preceding action. The entirety of Abels' narrative arc for Nope is haphazard and unsatisfactory, leaving the score as one that relies on suspenseful execution from moment to moment to appeal. Sadly, while the horror material may suit the film adequately, it makes for an aggravating listening experience on the long album, which also litters source songs ("Sunglasses at Night" is horrid) and a little dialogue throughout. Don't expect to receive salvation in the fantasy and action portions at the end, for they don't provide the depth or tonality of excitement that this concept could have used. In the end, it's a score focused squarely on discomforting suspense and horror techniques that are merely average in quality. This film deserved a far more compelling and well-coordinated score than it received. Let it get sucked up into the sky.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Total Time: 82:39