While one might expect the two distinct styles of music
in
Soul to carry over between realms, they don't. It's an odd and
disappointing tactical choice by the filmmakers. Joe is, after all, the
same person with the same ambitions and passions in both worlds, so if
his soul is the primary focus of the story, then why does the music have
to shift so drastically based solely on locale? The absolute disconnect
between the Reznor/Ross material and Batiste's contributions is jarring
to the extent that it harms the narrative and personality of the film.
It doesn't help that neither half of the score functions particularly
well in and of itself as film music, Batiste providing music with no
clearly evident, cohesive structural development from start to finish,
and Reznor and Ross retreating into their familiar sound design habits
that also fail to really drive a musical narrative from start to finish.
There are individual moments in each half of the score that are
functional and quite enjoyable, but their sums don't sustain themselves
apart. There has been a fair amount of controversy over whether
Batiste's portions can even be considered part of the "score," as they
do serve primarily as source music that bleeds into surrounding scenes.
This debate largely centers around awards eligibility that has been
focused on Reznor and Ross. In all reality, Batiste's music probably
should not be considered "score" material, as it is comprised of a
series of contemporary jazz compositions that don't together form any
kind of thematic bond or other typical film score traits. In
Mank, the main jazz piece is reprised in a series of different
emotional modes throughout, eventually merging with the underscore in
totality. Here, Batiste seems to write self-contained pieces of basic
emotional needs for a scene, and some of them are very good. But they
remind of the vintage James Horner works in which the big band jazz was
completely separate from the remainder of the score. Meanwhile, Reznor
and Ross don't offer a hint of jazz anywhere in their recordings, a
totally inexcusable decision made worse by the fact that they assumed
the afterlife was yet another setting appropriate for the comfort zone
of their droning synthesizers. Their contributions have no organic
element to them whatsoever, falling into the trap of believing that an
otherworldly environment needs unconventional music when, in fact, it
needed a warmer, orchestral touch to better emphasize the importance of
relationships and personal discovery rather than simply the sights and
sounds of a different place.
In retrospect, the score portion of
Soul outside
of the jazz pieces should have been written by Thomas Newman, and it
seems like Reznor and Ross may at times have been trying to emulate his
style. An argument could be made that Newman's score for
Tolkien
would have fit better in
Soul than the underwhelming and often
cold music by Reznor and Ross that strives for the same ethereal
quality. The very basic emotional character of the score's cues is
addressed, but the composers fail to offer any compelling aspects of
their motifs or performances to have an impact on the film. They present
minor identities for two secondary characters, but Joe himself is lost
in this music. As such, in context, Reznor and Ross' music is badly
unengaging and at times distracting. The dated synth analog sound of
1980's arcade games has no place in the first half of this work. Nor do
the tired manipulation effects, including sudden drop-offs and grating
dissonance from distortion. The vaguely happier, wishy-washy cues at the
end, culminating in the pretty keyboarding of "Just Us," is too
insubstantial to affect scenes for the better. The "Earthbound" cue,
despite its pleasant meanderings, is totally insufficient for the
emotional catharsis of the scene. The composers do offer a theme for 22,
one of the characters in that scene, but it doesn't figure in that cue.
Its meandering ascending and descending keyboard lines can instead be
heard at 0:10 into "22 is Ready," 1:17 into "Betrayal," 0:14 into
"Escape" (accelerated for action), and 0:20 into "Flashback." The only
other character with a theme is the soul accountant, whose awkwardly
imposing idea occupies all of "Terry Time" and "Terry Time Too" and the
end of "Terry's World." If Joe does have a theme, it may be the "Just
Us" conclusion, but that alone is not enough. The score enhances very
little in the picture and leaves no impression. It is simply generic,
oddly dated and styled atmosphere for a tale that needed to break your
heart and teach you to live life to the fullest. The lack of mingling
for the score and jazz pieces is fatal as well, "Pursuit/Terry's World"
the only mix of both. On album, the disjointed listening experience is
compounded, especially with a handful of songs thrown in. Some of the
score cues are mixed into each other on album, where the digital product
suffers the most from the score and Batiste materials' presentation. At
some point in the conceptual stages, the merging of Reznor, Ross, and
Batiste for
Soul must have looked great on paper. The end result
is one of the least effective, poorly coordinated soundtracks to a Pixar
film in the studio's history.
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