The result of Wallfisch's strategic sessions with Howard and his own research into the region is a score for Thirteen Lives that is highly compartmentalized. In its three parts, the music addresses the somber dramatic element, the largely synthetic suspense, and the minimally present ethnic influences in between. Those Thai-centric instruments include contributions by a trio of Bangkok performers on a two-stringed saw duang, a bamboo flute, a lute, and a mouth organ. Wallfisch goes further by referencing a traditional regional tune contributed by Thai music expert Natt Buntita, who provided vocals to the song adaptation of that piece, "Soh Long Nan," featured over the end credits. As a whole, however, the score is never comfortable in any of its three facets, a tepid thematic adaptation of that traditional tune's progressions not able to hold the narrative together. Performed most frequently by sparse piano and cello with minimal string backing, the main theme is established in "Thirteen Lives" but disappears outside of brief glimpses in "Navy SEALs" until the first boy is rescued in "White Umbrella" and in the closing duo of "All But One" and "Reunion." Only by the later cue does Wallfisch afford some warmth in the depth of the accompaniment to this melody, "Reunion" a promising but still restrained expression of tonal relief. Echoes of the composer's 2017 success, Bitter Harvest, struggle to shine through in this cue. Otherwise, Thirteen Lives is a mostly cold and unfriendly work, even when the main melody is provided. The Thai performers do provide nice coloration to the recording at times, but their contributions seem undermixed. (Some listeners may note that the mix of the entire score in the film is rather muted, but the stance of the original recording is extremely restrained to begin with.) A greater presence for the saw duang and flute in the pretty "Tham Luang" setting cue would have been merited, if only to accentuate the beauty of a landscape that could so quickly take lives with a simple shift of the weather. (He does emphasize it well in "Navy SEALs.") The same could be said of the slight dread in the atmosphere of "Rain" and "Flood," which exhibits similarities to minimalistic James Horner electronics. As these tones get progressively more ominous in the score, the deeply troubling passages of Wallfisch's The Invisible Man begin to emerge, with electronic manipulation of deep pulses and sudden ceasing of sound causing much of the same consternation.

For the lengthy suspense passages that make up most of the middle portions of Thirteen Lives, the composer explicitly experiments with the manipulation of the Thai instruments and vocals to plunge them into the perception of an underwater setting, particularly in "First Customer." Joining them are those extremely deep pulses from The Invisible Man that will still test the quality of your subwoofers, along with a number of sound effects that Wallfisch created using oxygen canisters, emulating their banging, scraping, and hissing effects through extreme digital manipulation. These applications in "Oxygen" are totally unlistenable on album, applied aggressively and outside of any accessible rhythmic sensibility. The suspense material during the actual rescue is somewhat mindless, "Everyone Leaves Today" setting a pace and applying swishing electronic stingers but failing to build any sense of momentum or anticipation. In the really unpleasant "Dive," the composer applies ultra-high tones along with his low pulses, making one wonder if this cue is a hearing test. Howard praised Wallfisch's endurance during the creation of these cues, but the end result is a slight and marginally effective score that has all the hallmarks of directorial dreams of experimentation gone wrong. Howard is so far removed from his days collaborating with James Horner that he seems to have forgotten how film scores can truly enhance a picture by being more active in the narrative. By taking a highly dramatic rescue story about human perseverance and demanding that Wallfisch address it atmospherically and with dissonant indifference, Howard eliminates the score's potential to involve the audience at a deeper level and provide satisfaction via the music alone. He has spoken of wanting to address the beauty of the region, and yet there is only solemn survival, marginal relief, and a near constant sense of dread in this music that does nothing to further that interest. In the end, Wallfisch's score is only minimally effective for its context and makes for a short, unsettling, and distant listening experience on album. Film score collectors wishing to hear the composer provide a more engaging and relatable score along the same lines should explore Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain instead. Both works even feature a similarly toned, in-language song for female vocalist, and yet "Soh Long Nan" simply cannot escape ruin by the electronic manipulation that defines much of Thirteen Lives. Aside from portions of "Rescue," expect this score to underwhelm you with the sour demeanor demanded of it by the director in a disappointing strategic blunder.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download