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There is no readily impressive theme in Simone, but Burwell represents the digital persona, as well as the general attitude of Hollywood, with appropriate pizzazz and jaunty rhythmic style. The Hollywood setting is well represented by the frantic electric rhythms of guitars and keyboards heard at the very beginning of the album and film, as the real actress in Pacino's film quits. The rest of the score is sustained by a slight futuristic atmosphere created with airy keyboards and electronic samples of an intentionally synthetic nature. Even as Burwell maintains the dreamy curve in the music, he manages to insert a few classic moments of old Hollywood glamour (to an almost comical degree of melodrama in parts) and this plays to the all-important finale cue of the film and album. The highlights of the score are the outbursts of arguably clunky, yet awkwardly attractive moments of rhythmic prancing for the artificial Simone. As her false fame takes flight, the Simone score features more of her choppy, but satisfyingly flowing electric guitar and keyboarding motifs, complete with the nearly constant tinkling of light percussion. The more sensitive one-on-one moments between the director and his digital actress are poignantly performed by a single piano and occasional solo woodwinds. That sensitivity grows until its height in the "Virtually Forever" cue, which concludes with a lovely duet between the small orchestra and an electronic chorus. Unfortunately, that climactic cue also suffers from the album's only instance of sound distortion (perhaps it was mixed at too high a gain at some point in the post-processing for the album). The small size of the orchestra, while restraining the music when Simone's theme isn't prevailing with the guitars and keyboards, keeps this score from flourishing in a parody of Hollywood's glamour that the film could have used. The electronic samplings during the more introverted parts of the film (represented mostly in "Splendid Decay") can occasionally become tiresome in their dissonant state, but their duration is typically minimal. Overall, Simone is an intimate and mostly low-key effort. For collectors of Burwell's often unconventional works, there may be just enough quirkiness here to sustain repeat listens on album. For the general masses, though, the album doesn't contain the film's lovely choral piece (by Samuel Barber) and the score's functionality won't likely translate into a successful presentation out of context.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Carter Burwell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.84 (in 19 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.82 (in 11,702 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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