One reason to be thankful for Elfman's take on Silver Linings Playbook is his refusal to give much thought to the serious undertones of the psychology of the story. Instead, he plays it with heart and tongue-in-cheek at most times, occasionally filling time with anonymous pop-like ramblings. His ensemble is small but effective, utilizing light rock band elements and adjoining piano and acoustic guitars as the primary instrumental identity. Rare accompaniment by glassy percussive effects assists a few cues. The composer's own neurotic tendencies are represented by a small choir of dreamy 1960's-like vocals that perform wordlessly in extremely corny tones throughout. Standard electric bass and electric guitar elements, especially when combined with piano (as in "Walking Home"), are briefly reminiscent of Real Steel. Aside from the obnoxious retro vocals (which more than likely feature Elfman himself in a major capacity), the instrumentation is extremely innocuous, consistently affording ambient space with pleasant tones after the opening cue. That one track, "Silver Lining Titles," is a standalone piece in the score, exploring rowdy thematic lines not significantly heard elsewhere in Silver Linings Playbook. The major detraction of this score as a whole, and one that reduces its coherence on the score-only album, is the bizarre irrelevance of "Silver Lining Titles" compared to the remainder of the work. This David Holmes-like cue of emphasized, piano-led pizzazz explores ideas that are both cool and worthy of continued manipulation (despite the troubling vocals), perhaps as a representation of the mash-up happening in the main characters' brains. As the romance initiates in "Running Off," Elfman transitions quickly to the theme that will dominate the rest of the score. As heard at the end of that cue, this identity cleverly pairs rising and falling two-note progressions that appropriately answer each other in resolution, but only when together. It's a neat, subtle choice, and after a few of these performances, the progressions eventually favor the rising half and meander on in upbeat directions thereafter. By "Happy Ending," the full fledged romance theme picks up steam and closes the score with softly satisfying zeal. The score-only album ends with a parody track featuring the vocalists singing about the stars of the movie, the kind of thing a composer might slip to the director just to see if he's paying attention. That album, unfortunately, is too insubstantial to really recommend because of its 20-minute running time and repetitive nature after the first track. More (if not all) of this material should have been appended to the song compilation product to create one complete representation of the film's soundtrack. The style of the vocals and wayward opening track may deter some Elfman collectors as well, despite the easy-going and pleasant personality of the rest of the short work.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download