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The Suicide Squad (John Murphy) (2021)
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Average: 2.98 Stars
***** 24 5 Stars
**** 34 4 Stars
*** 59 3 Stars
** 38 2 Stars
* 23 1 Stars
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Better than boring Price's score
Svarec - October 10, 2021, at 6:37 a.m.
1 comment  (533 views)
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Composed and Co-Produced by:
John Murphy

Co-Orchestrated and Conducted by:
Edward Trybek

Co-Orchestrated by:
Stephen Coleman
Jonathan Beard
Henri Wilkinson
Andrew Kinney
David Deutsch
Michael J. Lloyd
Vincent Oppido

Co-Produced by:
Tyler Barton
Total Time: 50:58
• 1. So This is the Famous Suicide Squad (1:49)
• 2. Approaching the Beach (1:12)
• 3. Mayhem on the Beach (2:13)
• 4. Waller's Deal - Meet the Team (2:19)
• 5. Harley Gets the Javelin (0:58)
• 6. Approaching the Guerrilla Camp (1:46)
• 7. Project Starfish (2:03)
• 8. Red Flag (2:48)
• 9. Interdimensional Virus (2:26)
• 10. Ratcatcher's Story (3:09)
• 11. Harley Sings (1:31)
• 12. Breaking into Jotunheim (1:37)
• 13. Dirty Little Secrets (2:23)
• 14. Peacemaker... What a Joke (1:41)
• 15. King Shark and the Clyrax (2:16)
• 16. Bombs Go Off! (2:57)
• 17. Suicide Squad vs. Starro the Conqueror (3:55)
• 18. The Star-Crossed Wake Up (1:47)
• 19. Panic on the Streets (1:17)
• 20. The Squad Turn Back (1:32)
• 21. The Squad Fight Back (3:30)
• 22. Ratism (3:28)
• 23. Bloodsport's Deal (2:10)

Album Cover Art
WaterTower Music
(August 6th, 2021)
Commercial digital release only.
There exists no official packaging for this album.
Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #2,067
Written 9/3/21
Buy it... if you have a high tolerance for campy panache in your style-over-substance film scores, John Murphy returning from a long break to wreak musical havoc on this concept.

Avoid it... if you didn't much appreciate Steven Price's similar approach to the concept in 2016, this soundtrack's album a simplistic souvenir of discordant flair from the story.

Murphy
Murphy
The Suicide Squad: (John Murphy) Is it a sequel? A reboot? A spin-off? Does it matter? The most important thing about 2021's The Suicide Squad is that it carries over some actors from 2016's Suicide Squad and retains the same irreverent attitude. With characters and a plotline insanely stupid by design, the concept is unashamed in its quest for campy comic book craziness. The gang of misfits that comprises the Squad is brought out of prison to invade a mysterious South American island and annihilate a Nazi-inspired lab that is, not surprisingly, experimenting on people. Along their merry journey, they kick some ass, are betrayed by comrades, and discover that the enemy lab actually consists of Starro the Conqueror, a giant space starfish that wipes people out and uses their bodies for its various world domination schemes. Writer and director James Gunn, having been dispatched from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, attempts to balance gore and humor with interludes containing backstories for some of the more interesting characters. While Steven Price's score for the 2016 telling was certainly adequate, Gunn had always been impressed by composer John Murphy's music for 28 Days Later and Sunshine and approached him for the 2021 project. Murphy was just starting to re-enter the composing scene after a ten-year absence following Kick-Ass to spend more time with his family. While he embraced the challenge given his tendency for rock and experimentation in his music, he also described tackling The Suicide Squad with the following eloquence: "It was fucking terrifying!" (Murphy is known for his colorful language.) Fortunately for him, Gunn is the type of director that does not interfere with the artistic process, and when Murphy provided to him a few alternate options for vital moments in this score, the director invariably encouraged him to go with the most brazenly unintuitive variant. Murphy is not well-versed in the complexities of orchestral music, a reality he freely admits, but his approach to The Suicide Squad did include a sizable traditional ensemble pressed into sectional recording duties as required by the pandemic. The composer wrote the score via guitars rather than keyboard, though, and ultimately used his guitars as a method of boosting the ambient sound of the orchestra when its less-than-desirable size failed to yield enough muscle. Don't expect complicated orchestrations in the work, for like Price's score, it's the style of the individual soloists that wins the day.

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