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•	2020 Album

A well-rounded work, Goldsmith's The Swarm includes a major disaster theme, a romantic character sub-theme, a rousing military motif, and a frenzied motif usually on the high strings and brass that imitates the buzzing noise required to foreshadow and announce the arrival of the killer bees invading Texas. The main theme, ironically, begins with nearly the identical three note progression that opens Williams' primary fanfare for The Poseidon Adventure before branching off into its own. Some listeners may also find similarities between this phrase and Goldsmith's later "Star Trek: Voyager" theme. The composer's sense of humor is espoused in the three-note, B-E-E progression that opens both the primary theme and the bees' action variant. It's a malleable idea that informs both outright action and the suspense of scenes of abandonment, and easy tool for subtle counterpoint throughout. Some of the best highlights of the idea come in the battle between the heroic and nightmarish versions of the same identity, both offering highlights in the work that accelerate near the end of the narrative. The romance theme applied to several characters is sufficient in its high range string delicacy, almost reminiscent of material twenty years older but not as compelling, perhaps, as what Williams presented in the other genre scores. It's fairly mundane by Goldsmith standards, with the muted sound quality of the recording not allowing its soloists the breadth necessary for these passages to shine. The literally swirling adaptation of the main theme for the bees is brilliantly handled by Goldsmith by various methods of wavering the brass, woodwinds, and strings in a bee-like buzz. Goldsmith varies the intensity of this elusive layering of instruments as an orchestral sound effect in order to elevate or slip into the subconscious the danger posed by the oncoming swarm. In some cases, this reduces the effect down to a single woodwind underneath a romantic string interlude. The only downside to the effect is the dry sound that the lack of resonance causes, which diminishes the sonic size of the swarm to an extent. That, however, is a recording mix issue; the overall sound quality is on par with other scores of the time. The militaristic element of The Swarm is afforded Goldsmith's most muscular and attractive cues, the government's response in "Red Two Reporting" and from "No Effect" onward receiving the composer's more brutal but accessible rhythmic material.

In totality, the score for The Swarm is slowed by the many inconsequential, soft interludes that doomed the picture as a whole (these cues present fifteen to twenty minutes in a 75-minute experience that barely register in volume), the military and bee attack sequences joining the fantastic "End Title" cue as the memorable passages. The main theme is expanded into a somewhat singular identity in "End Title," an exuberant, driving piece of chopping strings and pounding timpani with the composer's more typical meter that merges the propulsion of Capricorn One with horn performances reminiscent of Rudy, Hoosiers, and other later Goldsmith scores that rely on rolling momentum for their appeal. This memorable cue, not surprisingly, is the most common representative from the score on re-recorded compilations. At the time of the film's debut, the score was released on a 40-minute LP record and was received coolly by the public. Just like the film, the music was soon forgotten, explaining why the score never experienced a commercial release on CD. Two widely circulated bootlegged versions of the score existed for many years on the secondary market, but neither was attractive enough to warrant serious attention. With the other major Irwin Allen films' scores already released by Film Score Monthly, the 2002 release of The Swarm on a legitimate album by Prometheus, which was experienced in pressing several other Goldsmith scores of that era, completed the availability of these strong scores on CD. Like the two FSM Williams products, this entry was limited to a pressing of 3,000 copies and eventually joined its predecessors as a moderate collectible when it sold out. In 2020, La-La Land Records offered another 3,000-copy, more definitive 2-CD set for the score, the first CD expanding the film presentation and second CD presenting the different arrangements and takes of the LP album and a pair of alternate takes. The LP album evenly intersperses the character cues in between action explosions, and its beefier romantic passages, as in "Don't Take Him," are sometimes superior to the film versions. The 2020 product is a fantastic album for the score, both CDs offering unique highlights in commonly improved sound quality. On the whole, the score will eclipse The Poseidon Adventure in its thematic diversity but remain a step behind the dynamism of The Towering Inferno. It stands as a worthy Goldsmith action entry with instrumental techniques so effective that you'll swear you're hearing bees swarming in the room with you.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26 (in 124 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.29 (in 153,454 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.