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•	1999 Album

•	2024 Album

•	1999 Album

Despite the acclaim for this soundtrack, Yared's music for the film is far more subtle and embroiled in somber, creepy suspense, the orchestral interjections amongst the far flashier songs creating problems on album. While Yared ultimately saw over 50 minutes of his music utilized in the picture, only about 25 minutes represented it out of sequence on the long-standing album that was otherwise dominated by the jazz, the two personalities wrestling the album back and forth between them with several awkward transitions in the process. Yared's score represents the turbulent and unsettling mood of Ripley's psychotic but oddly affable character as he disintegrates with fast and furious high points and shrouded, sinister lows. So chilly is its tone that it could not be any more different than the impressively engaging, romantic music that Yared had just provided in 1999 for Message in a Bottle. Despite Minghella's usual raves about Yared's part in the production (the two, in fact, collaborated on one of the score's main themes), the composer's contribution is ultimately hamstrung by its own indecision about how to balance the various facets of the location's beauty, the demented humor of the killings, the child-like innocence bestowed upon Ripley's persona at times, the occasional tangential references to the jazz, and the plethora of suspense in between all of the other styles. The score is introverted and reflective, making use of a full orchestra while lacing portions with celesta, glockenspiel, vibraphone, and marimba for the lead character's various facets, saxophone for the pertinent secondary character, and accordion and mandolin for the Italian setting. Vocals are also integral, ranging from an outright operatic presence for one pivotal theme and moment to a range of eerie, breathy performances meant mainly to accentuate the suspense with shades of dissonance. Yared isn't shy about applying his instrumentation in unpleasant ways in this work, the romanticism teased by both primary themes in their most pleasant renditions often tortured into unsettling tones throughout, especially after the introductory third. To casual listeners, the themes may not state themselves with enough outward and obvious melodicism to stick in memory, but Yared spends nearly every cue in the score developing these ideas to their wicked ends.

The main theme of The Talented Mr. Ripley represents Ripley's somewhat aimless character. It exists in two extremely different variants, one of which comprising the slightly curious, prickly, frantic, nearly Arabic-tilted personality that is explored in "Crazy Tom" and "Ripley." Yared clearly meant this version of the identity to reflect the sanity lost in the character, and it threatens to define the score in context with its Bernard Herrmann resemblance. The default version of that theme has its origins in the child-like lullaby heard on cello and celesta in the "Syncopes" cues and informing both the opera performance and the score's default original song performed vocally by Sinead O'Connor in the lovely and gripping "Lullaby for Cain." Representing the turmoil within Ripley and his dissatisfaction with his identity, O'Connor's voice is both innocent enough to capture his childhood fantasies and rough enough at the corners to adequately portray his darker inclinations. The second theme of the score is equally engrained throughout, coloring the location and the success associated with the jazz-performing character that Ripley kills. Heard in its most romantic form for "Italia," this idea permeates the work just as impressively and provides the only representation of Yared's ethnic-associated tendencies for the region. Its whimsical, descending figures lead directly into the suspense material, as in "Cain & Abel." More impressive is the occasional incorporation of the saxophone to lace this material with connections to the source songs. A third idea for the humor of the killings is introduced in "I Hate You" and summarized in "Mischief" and was a late addition by Yared to supply some jilted, off-kilter caper element seemingly inspired around the margins by Henry Mancini, and the technique simply sounds out of place in this context. These ideas are often conveyed in the slew of contemplative cues in which Yared barely advances them, requiring close attention for full appreciation. The outright killing and corpse-related moments are unpleasant washes of dissonance using the same instrumentation but straying into the composer's horror element. The full score exposes just how troubling the darker half can be; much of this material simply compounds the bleak suspense of the whole affair, especially in the greater role for the dissonant vocalizations.

On the original 1999 album, the jazz songs dominate. The monaural bounciness of many of these classic pieces is so contrary in style to Yared's material that the sum is nearly intolerable in conjunction. Had the lengthy tracks by the Guy Barker International Quintet and others been condensed into one section of the album, perhaps the score half could have been more easily appreciated for its subtleties. The most unfortunate turn in the 1999 album comes between "Crazy Tom" and Charlie Parker's "Ko-Ko," the first of which Yared's strongly vibrant twist of the string section for the Ripley theme and the latter perhaps the most upbeat jazz piece on the product. In 2024, Music Box Records tackled Yared's score alone for expansion, supplying the full 53-minute film presentation of the film recordings alone on one CD and a combination of the album's suite arrangements, the opera performance of "Lullaby for Cain," and a variety of alternate and demo takes on a second CD. The opera recording is the key addition on the latter CD, as it is yet another version of the work's highlight in vocalized form. The alternate and demo takes aren't particularly attractive enough to merit much interest aside from the intellectual curiosity of hearing Yared adjust this score, sometimes significantly, to meet satisfaction. The changes are especially noticeable as the composer added the Mancini-inspired caper material for the third theme relatively late in the process. He also toned back the Italian element by the final product. The additional cues available from the score proper don't always match up with what ended up tracked around in the film, but the presentation definitely does better justice to the composer's strategy with his themes. Listeners seeking additional performances of the Ripley and location themes will be pleased by the newly revealed cues, but don't expect any of them to present the lighter and voluminous renditions that occupy the highlights. In the end, most casual listeners will want the 1999 album with half of this score and the bulk of the songs. Even if you enjoy the swinging jazz that played such a crucial role in the film, the disjointed placement of tracks on the album causes those performances to swallow up Yared's tightly-wound and internally focused score. On either product, the main lullaby is hauntingly effective, and its manifestations throughout the products are easily the highlight of the listening experience. Despite some promise from the location's theme as well, though, Yared's overarching ideas aren't really coherent enough to really appeal.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Gabriel Yared reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.11 (in 10 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.17 (in 19,125 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.