Review by: Anna Julia
Technical details
Year: 2014
Genre: Soundtrack, country
Length: 49:48 minutes
Country: France
Wait! Don’t click the “close” button yet! This is not a movie review, really! Instead, it’s a review of a brilliant movie soundtrack which I cannot help but save from becoming a dusty old record.
My mother took me to the cinema to watch The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet, the new project of Amélie’s director, a pair of years ago, and I loved the movie. I really liked it, but didn’t pay attention to it again. Until last week, when, talking about USA and its nature with my family (kinda romantics about it, my father and I; European things, I suppose), I remembered the incredible landscapes shown in the movie, and knew I had to watch it again. Now I’m older, so every detail of the film stood out to me and I could marvel at the bright colors of the film, at the actors’ work (Helena Bonham Carter, seriously! and all of the lesser known artists were also fantastic!), at the finely detailed artwork… at all the things I didn’t pay attention to when I watched it for the first time. And, of course, one of those things was the soundtrack. It’s been a long time since I stumbled across a soundtrack as great as this one; in fact, I can’t remember being obsessed with a soundtrack like this one got me. And it’s no wonder! Denis Sanacore, the composer, has created a sweet, humble compilation of beautiful and delightful music, easy for everyone to enjoy and to be remembered.
But let’s move on to the soundtrack in itself.
The 24-song album begins with a few simple, gentle guitar tracks, with reminiscences of country music, which, of course, transport us to the movie’s setting, a western ranch in the middle of nowhere. A violin gives them that touch of Far-West-OST the songs need. There’s also an harmonica coming in the second track, of course, because what would be a western OST without harmonicas? It doesn’t make sense, you know.
These tracks make for a perfect start, and pave the way for the next songs, in which the adventure starts to be a constant fact, whether the listener has watched or not the movie. Since the tracks are not in its movie order, this makes the listen easier and more enjoyable, especially for those who haven’t watched it.
The beat goes similar throughout those first (and not-so-first) songs, until we bump into the seventh track, Chicago Chase, which starts a delicious chaos of melodies, slow and fast depending on the song, with a few leitmotifs thrown here and there and harmonies to melt our ears. From this pack of songs I have to feature Two Clouds, the eighth one, which may be the most different song of all the soundtrack. It’s slow-paced, but not as gentle as the rest, the musical structure is simple but weird, and it’s mysterious but beautiful anyway, just like the character which depicts in the movie (yes, there’s a man named Two Clouds. Do you need more reasons to watch it?). On The Train has my favorite leitmotif melody on the whole soundtrack, and Red Light is also a really great upbeat song to try when listening for the first time to this soundtrack. Plus it’s short so you get a quick taste of the music in the album in a moment!
The last part of the album returns us to the relaxed ambient of the first songs, but now we can appreciate kind of a closing atmosphere, different from the initial melodies. It creates a sensation of everything being alright which is comforting and very pretty when it comes to end the soundtrack.
About the leitmotifs, there’s one which I absolutely love. It is present on the track number 10, On The Train, and reappears in two of the last songs -the second one of which is from the movie’s credits-, View Master and Train Shuffle. Every one of the three arrangements has its own personality, but there still is that catchy melody that reminds me so much of little kids and cowboy-pretending games and the highly romanticized Wild West, but all in a happy, upbeat way.
The length of the songs is usually short -between one and two minutes-, with a few exceptions, such as Tecumseh Elijah Spivet, Red Light or Radio Flyer, and there’s also a song with lyrics: Here Now And Then, sung and co-written by Lea Sanacore (who may be a relative of the composer? I’m just guessing as I didn’t find any reliable data!). It’s the last track in the album, and leaves us with a nice feeling of ease, after the previous song which is upbeat and lively (View Master). Lea Sanacore’s voice is gentle and soft, but tuned and vigorous nonetheless, and the only background instrument besides the light second voice, a simple guitar fits perfectly with her melody.
There’s, nevertheless, a little flaw in the record; the music becomes really similar after hearing it a pair of times. Every song, especially the first ones in the record, becomes the same as the previous and the next. This does not apply to stand-out songs, easy to remember because of their special little traits, but it still sucks. I’ve discovered this can be solved if we try to see the whole soundtrack as kind of a symphony with different movements. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons are long, but if we see them that way they don’t become boring (if you like classical music, of course). So this soundtrack could be the same: a long, long track divided in little pieces, but still the same track so it’s not like hearing 24 songs that sound the same.
I think what the composer achieved here is exactly what the movie tries to show, which is a kid’s vision of the world. Denis Sanacore’s music manages to make us see that, even though the kid we’re talking about is a scientist and a genius, he is still a kid, and leads us through his world with delicacy and kindness. And I think that’s the most beautiful thing about this soundtrack. That way we can listen to the seventeenth track, Smithsonian Institute, and see how even something as serious as the Smithsonian can be idolized with a happiness only a kid could have, and so be turned into something exciting and fun. This is the vision of a kid, and this soundtrack brings us the opportunity to be kids again and get excited with every detail of our daily lives.
A very sweet soundtrack, nice to listen to and definitely a beautiful composition I would never tire of listening to. Not easy to discover, being the soundtrack of a virtually indie firm, but a fresh breeze for the summer.
Tracklist:
1.- Eagle, 2:17
2.- Coppertop, 2:15
3.- Red River, 2:54
4.- Nebraska, 2:51
5.- Goodbye Layton, 1:45
6.- To Each Own His Lucky Star, 1:55
7.- Chicago Chase, 0:47
8.- Two Clouds, 2:18
9.- Buffalo, 1:04
10.- On The Train, 1:45
11.- The Father’s Setting Room, 2:17
12.- Red Light, 0:48
13.- Happiness, 2:51
14.- Guitar Mood, 1:20
15.- Radio Flyer, 3:13
16.- Dr Clair’s Diary, 2:39
17.- Smithsonian Institute, 1:13
18.- End Credits, 2:40
19.- Tecumseh Elijah Spivet, 3:43
20.- The Jack O’Lanterns, 2:12
21.- View Master, 1:05
22.- The Echo of Myself, 0:44
23.- Train Shuffle, 2:20
24.- Here Now and Then (Feat. Lea Sanacore), 2:52
No comments:
Post a Comment