Ever since The Rock Harry Gregson-Williams has been climbing up among the ranks of Media Ventures and such style like artists. He has shown a great deal of talent in all his scores, particularly his latest, Sinbad Legend of The Seven Seas in which he managed to write a massive and fun score with seemingly complete control over the orchestra making every track very rich and deep.
His other scores, such as this one present a different style of his music. Whilst Media Ventures synthetic scores are not that popular with traditional film score collectors who tend to moan about the fairly simplstic action music and the rather samey themes i tend to like them but this time Harry Gregson-Williams more orchestral score does not mix with those heavy moments of synthetic drum pounding action music.
That in a few words is the main problem with this score. There is little or no coherency between the orchestral elements of the score and the electronic which is a great shame as the action music is good (Apart from "All Hell Breaks Loose" which lacks any driving rythmns and is just noise), it just feels misplaced by the rest of the score.
Spy Game is a very diverse score. Gregson-Williams has used many ethnic sounds for this score in between his orchestral flourishes and pounding action music. Much of this ethnicity is accenuated with a middle eastern solo vocalist the erhu and a few other speciality instruments. The first two however give the most noteworthy performances on album. The vocals in fact have a whole theme to themselves and is one of the highlights of the score. the performances of this theme are thankfully lengthy and the recordings give really crisp resonance. This theme is performed fully several times, most notably in "Beruit, A War Zone" and "Explosion and Aftermath".
Throughout Spy Game there is also a lot of very dramatic underscore. The music through all of Spy Game is quite bleak and lamenting so rather than there being highly enjoyable heroic music we are presented with highly enjoyable emotive and moody cues with only short moments of "happier" music (the beginning of "Explosion and Aftermath"). All of these pieces, dark or relieving have been sensitively scored going for softer melodies inbetween the quieter themematic sequences. Rather than the glorious but in your face approach of Jerry Goldsmith or James Horner with large and loud fanfares Harry Gregson-Williams has used a much more subtle and understated approach to scoring the heart of Spy Game which not only makes the score interesting but it also distinguishes it from most other Media Venture-esque scores. The underscore plays a very prominent part of the album giving the score far more personality and identity than the action music which isn't much different from many other scores.
The dramatic underscore makes up a significant section of Spy Game with a varied mixture of good and not nearly so good action music making up the rest of the score. Although the two types of music don't complement each other much they don't destroy each other either. The action music is good not great and when compared with other scores, pretty unremarkable. The action music won't carry the CD that well for action fans but it'll still reasonably satisfy listeners. In the end its the dramatic ethnic themes and melodies that give good reasons to buy the CD.
***
2. Muir Races to Work (3:32)
3. '...He's Been Arrested for Espionage.' (1:23)
4. Red Shirt (5:07)
5. Training Montage (2:34)
6. Berlin (2:18)
7. 'It's Not a Game' (2:34)
8. 'You're Going to Miss It' (9:15)
9. Beirut, A War Zone (3:20)
10. 'My Name is Tom' (2:41)
11. All Hell Breaks Loose (6:19)
12. Explosion & Aftermath (2:50)
13. Parting Company (2:08)
14. Harker Tracks Muir (3:28)
15. The Long Night (1:46)
16. Muir's in the Hot Seat (5:08)
17. Back at Su-Chou Prison (2:18)
18. Operation Dinner Out (4:50)
19. Spies (Ryebot Remix) (2:16)
20. Dinner Out (Rothrock Remix) (2:38)
Release Label: Decca Records
Date Released: November 2001
