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•	2024 Album

Outside of these accessible highlights, the remainder of the score for Species exposes itself as a somewhat regular endeavor for Young, with the expected, jarring chase cues of high horror merging Young's usual output of occasional synthetic slashing with perhaps some influence from James Horner's Aliens at times. Several distinct instrumental elements are consistent throughout Young's work for Species, the first being the use of single lengthy, atonal notes extending on brass or strings in the background of nearly every cue, sounding like counterpoint intentionally set at a misaligned measure or pitch. Secondly, Young employs brass in its very lowest ranges to push the broad and sinister, deep scope of the horror atmosphere. The latter technique is often how Young adds the scariness into his music, and it functions well here. Balancing this effect is an excess of precise and deceptively feminine elements in the highest treble region, led by piano and an enhanced role for flutes that carries a pulsating motif to accompany the hybrid creature's desire to procreate. Still, despite its occasional beauty, the majority of Species exhibits crashing, high-strung cues of straight-forward terror. The string section is often let loose, seemingly performing several different avenues of quivering dissonance at maximum volume within their own ranks. A meandering piano occasionally pounds on extremely low notes to coincide with Young's normal employment of a drum array and broad cymbal crescendos to set abrasive rhythms to the action. Higher percussion often tingles at the spine in its lighter, metallic forms. Young's ability to establish a motif and then yank it around in these moments of fright is effective; he starts the idea and then cuts it off dramatically, repeating this process and eventually forcing the listener or audience to expect the unexpected. The script's proud series of false scares forced this format upon Young, and he goes so far as provide brazen synthetic stingers to define Sil's dream sequences in several disruptive iterations. Pulling the whole ensemble down in a single, descending note is a technique that the composer applies to almost resemble a failing machine, and it gives the listener an equally effective sinking feeling.

All the expected dissonance for the killing scenes aside, however, Species is best known for its handful of fantastically beautiful performances of its surprisingly solemn title theme and related ideas. The awe and beauty of space is captured by Young in a very slow, mellow, and elegant main theme for plucked bass strings, swirling violins, soothing choir, and, once again, broad brass in the lowest registers. A marimba seems to stew in the background, all its warmth drained. The use of a wood block to keep the rhythm of this theme adds to its chilling effect; the performance has been described as "cold," which is indeed a very accurate description. The composer maximizes the mystique of the concept in the score's one true moment of lovely wonderment in "Protostar" (or "Sil Escapes Part 1"), a cue that adjoins the opening cue in the film to establish the fantasy element with extreme appeal. As gorgeous as these fantasy portions are, the musical identity of Species remains distant and alienating. Because Young re-wrote his main theme for Species partway through the recording, both his ideas graced his preferred album presentation in various guises. In "Fever," the original opening titles cue, Young's alternate theme is at its most thrilling, moving at a heightened pace of swirling orchestral activity that better engages the audience. Because so much of the score was rearranged or replaced, Young assembled a highly unique promotional album containing a blend of used and unused material in the film. On that long-available presentation, if you strike the redundant "Species" cue and combine the extended title theme performance in "Star Bright" with "Fever" and "Protostar," you have ten minutes of the most enticing Young horror material to exist. If you merge in all the alternate recordings of these various cues, as well as the sensitive cello solos of "Dan the Psychic" (the cello was deemed too intrusive and was thus removed from the final version of the cue), you can push that experience closer to twenty minutes. Unfortunately, the remainder of the score, even on Young's streamlined edit to strip away the most abrasive dream sequences and other fright, is more functional than memorable, serving its purpose without really crossing back into the realm of these other cues.

On album, the score has been a favorite of Intrada Records for decades. It was pressed promotionally by Young and Intrada in 1997 as part of a five-CD promotional set of which Species and Virtuosity were the most popular inclusions. Long after the price of that album skyrocketed on the secondary market, Intrada revisited Species officially in 2008, pressing 3,000 copies of an expanded presentation that itself sold out before long. This version was rearranged and actually remixed in some cues by Young himself, reducing percussion in soundscape; like the promotional album for In Too Deep, this offering represented the score as Young wanted it to best be heard. Of the over twenty minutes of additional material, half is solely synthetic, and only the cue "Fever's Fever" hints at the highlights that already existed on the previous promo, expanding upon the rejected main theme. The remaining orchestral cues represent minimalistic filler material and the three synthetic bonus cues from the middle portion of the film tacked onto the end of product that are a curiosity but understandably lack the whimsical precision that the symphonic players provide to the rest of the composition. In 2024, Intrada expanded the presentation again to include the full breadth of Young's initial and replacement themes, adding the film presentation with more of the synthetic stingers and other horror leftovers. This album especially illuminates the contemporary influences for Los Angeles as Sil adapts to life there, a far different tone from the initial fantasy of the laboratory. The alternate takes on major cues at the start of the second CD are another new attraction, and listeners now have all the necessary performances of the original and final main themes to compile into a longer culling of highlights. Additionally, a gorgeous suite from this score was recorded for Silva Screen's "Space and Beyond" compilation near the time of the score's release as well. With all these sources at hand, Species remains a work best represented by a 10 to 20-minute suite on a compilation of Young's more alluring horror works. Ultimately, those who only revisit the score infrequently on the promo need not tear the spine out of a person to get a hold of the expanded versions, though anyone starting fresh will be best served by the 2024 product. None of Young's material survived into Edward Shearmur's inferior sequel score a few years later.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Christopher Young reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.48 (in 27 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.17 (in 10,914 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.