Ever since Rick Berman and Brannon Braga came into producing Star Trek TV music has become theme less droning. Voyager had for the latter half of its run broken free of the duo's restrictions and composers Jay Chattaway and David Bell wrote some very good music (Bell's Borg battle theme springs to mind). However bring Dennis McCarthy into the picture and things often deteriorate into four minute tracks of hissing strings and droning muffled brass.
Enterprise more or less follows McCarthy tradition. The themes are simplistic, McCarthy composes them and then rarely uses them so y bother with them. His use of the harmonica in Archer's theme and various tracks drives me crazy and makes Enterprise at times sound like a western.
Tension cues are effective for a brief time but you can't have a track of strings performing high long notes. Wheres the imagination in McCarthy. We all know it exists from scores for later Enterprise episodes such as the season cliffhanger and Future Tense which are thematically excellent and very exciting. However in another element of Star Trek tradition episode suites other than from the pilot are almost never released.
"Phaser Fight" and the end of "Temporal Battle" are the best of the action. McCarthy has made some interesting cues within the tracks and they hold both excitment and tension. Phaser Fight in particular makes use of clarinets in an interesting way and in places they drive the music. But even here McCarthy has taken inspiration form Jerry Goldsmith rather than from his own (dare i say it) creativity.
Also despite producing two effective action tracks the producers have then muffled them to make them 2D and flat sounding. Why? When i buy a CD the sound quality should at least be consistent. With Enterprise it is neither good or consistent with each track muffled to a different extent.
The quieter tracks are all clear. Aparently they don't need muffling , that is because on the whole they are completely bland.
"Blood Work" and "New Horizons" are the only really serviceable quiet tracks. "Blood Work" being and effectively brooding and ominous track set on Quo'nos the Klingon Homeworld. "New Horizons" makes one of the few uses of theme and provides a half decent finish to the album.
Berman and Braga should quit imposing restrictions on Star Trek music. The difference in quality is obvious. When the two were off producing Nemesis the composers produced some excellent music for episodes such as "Cold Front" and "Silent Enemy" and continue to do so now (Future Tense, Canamar).
So why not release that music. Why do we always get tasteless music as Star Trek TV releases? Overall you may have guessed i don't think that much of the Enterprise soundtrack. A major dissappointment.
*
2. New Enterprise (1:42)
3. Klingon Chase-Shotgunned (2:05)
4. Enterprise First Flight (2:52)
5. Klang-Napped (2:12)
6. Morpho-O-Mama/Suli-Nabbed (2:47)
7. Phaser Fight (5:54)
8. Breakthrough (2:02)
9. Grappled (4:11)
10. The Rescue (6:41)
11. Temporal Battle (8:07)
12. Blood Work (2:12)
13. New Horizons (1:27)
14. Archers Theme (1:27)
15. Where My Heart Will Take Me - Russell Watson (bonus track, TV version) (1:27)
