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The base sound for the music in Weapons reverts to atmospheric muck, a cue like "Newspaper" remaining anonymously minimal until a stinger at the end. The tandem of the very long "Where Are You?" and "The Flight" offer little musical value whatsoever. Around these cues are the attention-getting splashes of dissonant despair, led by highly abrasive string-scratching techniques heard in "What Could've Happened," "Snip," "Room to Room," "Drag," and "Locked." These performances are outrageously awful in "Are You Watching?" and "One Shot." Likewise, metallic shrieking and grinding are highly unpleasant, as in "Nightmares" and "Gasoline." Pervasive rhythmic noodling on percussion accomplishes little in "Troubled Person," "Map," "Waiting Game," "Stop Right There," and "Serious Hot Water," such tones getting angrier in the manipulated "Gasoline II" and "Into the Lair." Synthetic loops are highly annoying and simplistic in "Donna," "James," and "What Did I Tell You?" There are two related themes of a sort in Weapons, one for Maddie (presumably the narrator) utilizing an ascending series of six-note phrases in a somewhat chromatic atmosphere. There's no consistently clear harmonic progression that the listener can latch onto in this idea; it's not unpleasant but also lacks substance. The idea opens "Maddie" with watery keyboarding and moves to plucked harp later, and it struggles to complete that same keyboarded phrasing in "Following" against invasive thumping. This theme is manipulated into a more frantic plucked variant in "Don't You Find It Odd?," supplies underlying chords that barely emote in "Daybreak," and then strangely disappears in the score from there. The main theme of the film is technically different, using ascending figures distinct from those of the Maddie theme but following a similar stylistic strategy. Expect little from this melody as it simply repeats the same phrases with only one notable chord shift before meandering into secondary confusion. Opening "Main Theme (From Weapons)" on plucked harp over celeste and piano waltz rhythms, this identity loses focus as it navigates suspenseful shifts later in the cue. It barely enunciates itself during the quiet stewing late in "I Think She Cut My Hair" and occupies low, keyboarded synth tones throughout "Homesickness" with nothing to support it. That mode continues with the same bleak demeanor in "Soup," but the composers provide a little more warmth to it in the plucked, childlike tones during "If I Got Better." There is absolutely no closure for these themes during the marginally melodic conclusion in "I Found You." Listeners do receive distinctly rambling tonalities from harp and synths in "Swarm," which stands apart from the rest of the music. In the end, Weapons is a dismal score with no highlights.  *   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Total Time: 50:45