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Review of While You Were Sleeping (Randy Edelman)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you have always appreciated Randy Edelman's easily digestible romantic comedy sound and want to hear that simple and endearing orchestral and pop blend presented in one of its best forms.

Avoid it... if you are among the hoards of movie-goers seeking the songs from the film or look upon Edelman's characteristically simplistic themes and instrumentation for this genre with disdain.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

While You Were Sleeping: (Randy Edelman) The smash hit romantic comedy of early 1995 and confirmation of rising actress Sandra Bullock as a genuine mainstream heartthrob, While You Were Sleeping was almost universally liked by critics and audiences. It contains one of those heart-warming premises that is difficult to disparage, partly because of the realistic loneliness and awkward introversion of Bullock in the lead role. She plays a dispirited token collector for the "L" trains in Chicago and maintains a crush on a handsome lawyer who regularly passes through her station. When that lawyer is mugged one day and pushed onto the tracks in front of a train, she saves his life. After accompanying the comatose man to the hospital, she is mistaken to be his fiancee and plays along with the charade in part to save the family some grief and also because she loves how that family adopts her without reservation. During this time, she falls in love with the man's younger brother (Hollywood nice guy Bill Pullman) and after some awkward misunderstandings and separations, the situation resolves itself in the only way it really can. Bullock earned a Golden Globe nomination for her performance. Pure escapism in the genre rarely comes as effective as While You Were Sleeping, and unreservedly enhancing its brightly optimistic sentiments is Randy Edelman's score. The movie contains a fair number of song placements, including numerous Christmas-related standards, which steal the show regarding the soundtrack as a whole, but Edelman's contribution is a fairly constant force for good in context. The composer has never been known for writing particularly complex film scores, his pop background tending to push him towards contemporary styles even when employing a full orchestra. This trademark methodology serves While You Were Sleeping perfectly, allowing Edelman to balance his work with the right formula of cool pop atmosphere and sappy orchestral drama that breaks absolutely no new ground. Employed are extremely easy and repetitive structures and an abandonment of the electronic embellishments that the composer often uses to stock some depth into his scores. It's extremely familiar music in Edelman's career, and its consistency in this particular package makes While You Were Sleeping one of the easiest works in the genre to represent Edelman's larger overall canvas.

Creativity in the instrumental applications in While You Were Sleeping may be lacking, but that matters very little in this context. The orchestra is supplemented with the contemporary elements of keyboard, organ, and percussion that lend a slight atmosphere of funk in an otherwise pop approach. Swinging rhythmic enthusiasm, bouncing its way through several cues of irresistible cuteness, wouldn't seem completely foreign to a Randy Newman score. In fact, many of the techniques utilized by Newman to achieve the same ends are heard in While You Were Sleeping, including the inability to resist breaking out into spirited rhythmic explorations of the pop theme in the score whenever possible. There are three identities at work in the score, the first the modern, hip, and humorous phrases with the soloists heard during roughly half of the cues. This is where the Newman fans will feast. The second is a lightly dramatic theme introduced in "Peter's Family" to represent the personalities thrust upon Bullock's character and their slightly overwhelming presence. There's an appropriately carnival-like demeanor to this theme that accesses some of Edelman's faux Western-related structures at times. Extending out of this material is the primary identity of romance in While You Were Sleeping, summarized in "Love Theme" and progressively dominating the score as it reaches its romantic crescendo. Delicate piano and woodwinds over swaying strings highlight this theme's fuller presentation in "Jack and Lucy," and collectors of the composer's music will note similarities in progression to several other Edelman themes (and the forthcoming Dragonheart in particular). The pop and romance themes are summarized in "A Happy Ending," which contains the obligatory culmination of the latter one, complete with cymbal crashes and trumpet accompaniment. Ultimately, what you come away from this score with is an effortless series of piano-centered ideas, the instrument that remains Edelman's stalwart and one malleable enough to cross into every facet of this work. The 38-minute score-only album is one of those products that has remained readily available because it failed to include any of the film's prominent songs and therefore flooded the used-CD market. The only substantial omission by Varèse Sarabande is Diane Warren's "Wherever I Would Be," performed by Dusty Springfield and Daryl Hall for the film's end credits. A few problematic transitions in the album's presentation of the score result from volume inconsistencies, but Edelman's smoothly relaxing and endearing score survives with few other detriments.  ****

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 37:44

• 1. Opening (2:21) • 2. Peter's Family (2:07) • 3. Love Theme (1:45) • 4. An Untimely Accident (2:40) • 5. Phone Tag (1:45) • 6. Dreaming of Florence (3:06) • 7. He's Alive (2:30) • 8. Riverside Walk (5:21)

• 9. A Testacular Situation (1:48) • 10. Jack and Lucy (2:57) • 11. Leave It to Sol (2:06) • 12. The Dream is Over (0:48) • 13. Sound Advice (1:43) • 14. Tear Jerking Tale (1:31) • 15. Bumpy Encounter (2:36) • 16. A Happy Ending (2:21)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.

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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from While You Were Sleeping are Copyright © 1995, Varèse Sarabande and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 1/4/12 (and not updated significantly since).