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Generally, there is absolutely nothing memorable about the instrumental soundscape in Obsession. The synth employment is about as standard and low-tech as one can get in this era. The demeanor and performance vaguely groan without any distinction for almost its entire length. Even as atmospheric music, it doesn't find any new techniques to distinguish itself. Significant soundscape distortion is a very tired method of disillusionment. Horror cues are just louder, more dissonant versions of the same mode as the rest, with a cue like "Why Don't You Love Me?" more obnoxiously distracting than it is effective. Lighter synth shades on the keyboarding are rare and dull, not convincing as red herrings. Perhaps the brightest moment is the sickly victorious "Billionaire." Musical structures are almost non-existent in terms of melody and counterpoint, their execution resembling hundreds of other nondescript synthetic scores of little memorability. The composer says that "R U OK" was the toughest cue to fashion, but its methodology of quiet pulsating stingers is mundane. Absolutely no substantial narrative flow exists to the overall work, gloomy at the start and ending in much the same way. Nothing "goes wrong" in the score, with no journey from normalcy to nightmare reflected in the music, and this ambiguity is clearly a sign of an inexperienced composer. One vague set of melodic progressions could be considered a character or love theme, using very basic, marginally tonal ascending lines on keyboard. Some semblance of a melody tries to form in "Obsession" but it lacks performance clarity, and the same mode attempts to develop unsuccessfully in "Nikki," which gives the character no warmth up front. Disturbed as a meandering light rock melody in "Love is in the Air, Pt. 1," this material is reduced to near nothingness on the keyboarded lines in "Into Darkness." It again strives to establish some warmth in the more tonal "I Can't Be Nikki" but fails badly, and it further attempts to straighten its melodic inclinations in "Bear." Finally, "Love is in the Air, Pt. 2" offers no actual reprise, just dissolving to ambient muck before some slight tonality denotes closure without any redemption. Ultimately, this music might function on some very basic level in context, but it's boring and dull alone, telling no story in and of itself. On its 44-minute album, several tracks cut off unnaturally in places, suddenly reduced to silence despite preceding action, but usually at the track's end. Given the quality of the score, whether those cut-outs are intentional or not doesn't really matter.  *   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Total Time: 43:51