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The ensemble for Play Dirty starts with a robust orchestral presence that commands the room with significant power in the action portions. The full group is joined by a jazz ensemble of upright bass, muted trumpet, and percussion, with synthetics joining the party at regular intervals for looped reinforcements. On the retro side, the trumpet and bass string are the melodic helmsmen, though more subtle accents like a vibraphone contribute to that feel of yesteryear as well. An ascending bass string motif often accompanies various other motifs as a general jazz device, and an electric guitar tastefully joins in the same duties. But the percussion is the true star of this score, following wailing vintage brass in its flamboyant expression of larger-than-life criminal activity. While tapped cymbals and thunderous drum hits unleash the "it" factor on certain cues, including the composer's famed double hits on snare, piano offers snazzy little riffs regularly. More unique accents like a seeming Guiro scratcher join an almost jungle-inspired tone to the struck instruments at times. Not all is glitzy, though; there are passages of mundane synthetic ambience in the middle of the score, sometimes dragging down the overall experience, but thankfully none of these is as obnoxious as what Silvestri cranked out for Red 2. Several of the action cues, highlighted by the explosions late in "What Have You Done?" and "The Train, Part 3," are pure 1980's Silvestri in their symphonic bombast, raising Predator-level force. Thematically, the composer has a huge number of motific ideas weaving throughout this score, though only two of them really catch your attention. The main theme comes in three sections, the main one a highly adaptable, repeating single phrase that informs action and jazz, espousing a significant touch of Goldsmith to it. The drama of the tale is saved for the lushly romantic, old-school secondary sequence of the theme while an interlude uses descending three-note phrases that eventually blend back into the main melody. (That interlude informs the main caper device described below as well.) The primary melody is revealed in large-scale brass melodrama at 0:15 into "Main Title" before the secondary sequence sways on strings at 0:40 and piano at 1:46. The main melody returns on muted trumpet over jazz ensemble at 0:55 and a worried orchestra at 1:58, and Silvestri introduces the interlude at 1:20 as a tool harkening back to 1960's espionage scores.

Silvestri integrates his main theme for Play Dirty into the explosion of action at 0:37 into "What Have You Done?" and uses it to lend some fleeting elegance to the cue's end. Defeated on muted trumpet for a moment early in "Life Goes On," this main idea succumbs to the secondary romantic phrasing in the form of restrained hope on strings and harp. The main theme then mingles liberally with the score's cool action motif in "What a Surprise," emerges in pieces during the late action of "The Train, Part 1," and becomes flamboyant on brass at 1:41 into "The Train, Part 2." The secondary phrase affords some sensitivity in the first half of "Plan B" before the main melody contributes to the anticipation in the middle of "Parker at Work." In the score's understated closing moments, the theme is reduced to lament for woodwinds at the start of "Aftermath" and piano later on. The secondary phrase swells at 0:25 for another full performance, and it finally guides a super-sensitive oboe performance at the close of the work. The most frequently accessed thematic device in Play Dirty is Silvestri's simple suspense and job motif, essentially a representation of Parker's line of work. A simple descending pair of notes left harmoniously hanging, this caper idea is an appropriate abbreviation of the main theme's interlude sequence. It defines the suspense at 0:35 and thereafter in "My Real Name's Parker," opens "Robbing the Robbers" briefly on Silvestri's typical electronic chimes, and takes on heightened, Predator-like orchestral power in "What Have You Done?," where it stabs more frequently in the second half of the cue. Slowed to contemplation in the first half of "Room 12," this idea builds intensity against rumbling low string rhythms in "A Bit of a Problem" (along with a touch of The Witches), elongates slightly towards the main theme's interlude in "Shootout," charms its way into the second half of "Rob an Entire Country," and hits early in "Welcome to New York" on brass. It's a highly malleable tool, quietly guiding "Bosco's Plan" amongst jazzy counterpoint phrases and interjecting a few times up front and at the end of "The Train, Part 2." A bit more frantic in "The Train, Part 3" and really driving that cue's excellent action, the suspense and job motif returns with some snazzy, percussive intent in the latter half of "Plan B" and earns cooler stripes in "Parker at Work." Choppier in the uncertainty from the ensemble throughout the ambitious "A Christmas Chase," it's reduced to sneaking mode on electronic chimes again in "A Real Lady."

Among the secondary themes in Play Dirty is an ultra-cool action motif that is a powerful rhythm with resounding percussion and synthetic propulsion. These are the moments in the score you'll wish run longer, because they are fun as hell and exude all the confidence in the world. Blowing up at the end of "Robbing the Robbers," this rhythmic material bursts at the start of "What a Surprise" against fragments of the main theme and explodes in David Arnold's Die Another Die form at the end of "The Train, Part 1," including similarly abrasive synthetic tones. The action motif then lets loose at the outset of "Parker at Work" against the job motif and becomes even more synthetically tinted at 0:45 into "The Vault." A somewhat elusive theme seems to represent the Outfit crime syndicate and the foreign government that together operate their own heist and criminally-oriented activities with equal measures of heightened importance. This theme is developed at 0:20 into "Rob an Entire Country" and thereafter, a sleazy but slick idea that fits in nicely with Parker's like-minded material. After rolling quickly through the middle of "Welcome to New York," this theme guides the crouching tones early in "The Train, Part 1" and dissolves during the restrained rhythmic drive of "The Vault." More interesting is the theme representing the shipwreck figurehead that everyone is after in the story. This rare but important idea informs the score's only (likely synthetic) choral section at 1:20 into "Rob an Entire Country" that provides depth to the mystique of the job, and this motif returns on strings at 2:51 for more tempered wonder. Vitally, the figurehead theme wraps back to form a moment of grand string resolution at 1:37 into "A Real Lady." While this thematic tapestry suffices to keep the narrative moving, some listeners will be disappointed by the relative lack of full-throated main theme statements throughout the work and especially at the end. The pleasant but muted exploration of the idea and secondary phrasing in "Aftermath" is narratively understandable for the story but doesn't end the album in a satisfying fashion. One more major rendition of the primary melody is really needed here. Additionally, the score mixes some wet and dry elements together awkwardly at times, the metallic percussion and some drums often reverberating while other struck elements and the jazz elements often too dry by comparison. Still, these are minor quibbles in a score that breathes far more life into the story than it deserved. Silvestri must be commended for unleashing such vibrance for this film, because it's everything you always hope to hear (but rarely do) from the heist genre.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Alan Silvestri reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.37 (in 51 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.25 (in 40,804 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 62:03