Details:
- Film: Dark City
- Soundtrack composer: Trevor Jones
- Original year of release: 1998
- Number of tracks: 14
- Soundtrack duration: 60 mins 19 secs
- Tracks with vocals/distracting aspects: 6 Tracks (23 mins 18 secs) (Tracks 1 – 6)
- Film score duration (with distracting tracks removed): 37 mins 1 sec (Tracks 7 – 14)
- Suggested suitable book genres: Dark thrillers, Dark Sci-Fi, Mounting and Escalating Horrors
DLS Summary:
Essentially what you have with this soundtrack is a CD which comprises of six songs that appeared within the film, and then eight tracks which make up Trevor Jones’ impressive backing film score.
The score is a magnificent piece of often high-adrenaline music, delivered in an elaborate journey of peaks and troughs through this audio experience. The outcome is a powerful score that would feel at home in a ‘Batman’ movie or the like. It’s also an excellent accompanying piece for reading with, especially if you’re primary objective is to block out the hustle and bustle of a busy commute so you can fully immerse yourself in your book without distraction.
DLS Review:
As stated above, the first six tracks on the CD are songs from the film by the likes of Echo & The Bunnymen and Gary Numan. As such, these first six tracks haven’t been included in the below review, or indeed the soundtrack scoring. Furthermore, if you’re putting the soundtrack onto your phone or similar device, I’d recommend you do just what I did, and only include the score tracks.
Trevor Jones’ score starts out with an understated, quietly reserved opening section that’s interspersed with sudden blasts of exciting and energetic deeply set keyboard and the like. From here we have some vaguely atmospheric male choir vocals, along with some typical movie-score music which constantly escalates again and again, as if always building upwards to something. It’s the sort of score style which you’ll generally hear in the ‘Batman’ movies and similar films.
Nevertheless, despite these bursts of energy, the soundtrack remains moderately reserved through much of this first track of the score which is entitled ‘Into The City’ and really does set down the pace and style of the soundtrack as a whole.
The second track of the score is a much more strings heavy piece, with plenty of energy and gusto behind its delivery. There’s a sense of urgency and adrenaline within this second track, which gradually diminishes near the end of the track, to be replaced by haunting, atmospheric keyboards laying down a simplistic but effective outro to it.
The next track is a far quieter and more subtle piece, with whispered flutes and slowly played strings. It almost sounds like something off the ‘Twin Peaks’ (1990) soundtrack. There’s a thick base behind this more reserved track, which helps to smother any background noise (which is good if you’re using this to read with on a busy commute or the like).
The fourth track within the score is a much more dominating piece, with deep brass and horns laying down a strong section of backing music. There’s regular escalating segments to the music, which often culminates into a short section with accompanying snares.
However, even though there’s an underlying strength and dominance to this track, it’s still not really distracting for a reader. Indeed, this is a recurring theme throughout the soundtrack, making these film score tracks an ideal accompaniment for reading.
From here the soundtrack does relax somewhat, edging itself into more ambient and slower territory, without the bursts of audio dominance seen earlier. That is, until the sixth track of the score, entitled ‘The Wall’ jumps in, taking us back to those earlier punchier aspects of the score and bringing up the pace of the piece again.
The score ends with a superb track which pulls upon much of the music from earlier on, delivering an effective and energy-rich final slice of the powerful and impressively evocative audio accompaniment that is this entire film score.
As a soundtrack for reading to:
The soundtrack as a whole:
© DLS Reviews
