• Composed by Alan Silvestri
• Hollywood Records / 72m

Ten years after Iron Man started it all, the Marvel Cinematic Universe hurtles towards the end of the road for some of this batch of characters in Avengers: Infinity War.  Because they release these films more frequently than most people change their socks, it can be hard to keep up with what’s happening.  This one distinguishes itself from the others by having lots of people fight each other, loads of explosions, self-referential wit – and of course, everyone dies.  Or do they?

After getting off to the worst possible start with Ramin Djawadi, the series has built up some fine scores over the years.  When Alan Silvestri scored Captain America and then The Avengers in quick succession, lots of people (including me) assumed that finally the studio had recognised what a benefit it could be to them if they were to build up some musical continuity.  But, of course, Silvestri wasn’t to be seen again – until now.

Alan Silvestri

Lots has been said about the music in these films – and my view is, like I said, there have been some impressive musical entries (despite what that viral video would have you believe, they’re not all generic) and some excellent themes.  The problem is that those themes have tended to be self-contained within their movies.  Alan Silvestri wrote an exceptional theme for Captain America which has barely been heard again, despite there having been 6,482 films featuring Captain America since that one.  Patrick Doyle wrote a wonderfully heroic theme for Thor – then Brian Tyler wrote a completely different, but also excellent theme for him – then Mark Mothersbaugh wrote yet another.  OK, so obviously Ramin Djawadi’s music for Iron Man was an absolute load of rubbish, but then John Debney provided him with an excellent theme in his second film – and then Brian Tyler provided him with another one in his third – and even though the character’s been all over a load more movies, his themes are nowhere to be heard.

This is such a pity – just think how spine-tingling it was in The Phantom Menace when John Williams hinted at Darth Vader’s theme at the end of Anakin’s – this series just can’t do anything like that because it keeps dumping the themes.  The problem, I guess, is that they keep recycling the composers – it’s perfectly understandable if a composer of Alan Silvestri’s stature just doesn’t want to have to build themes by Brian Tyler and Michael Giacchino into his own score.  I guess this would always be a problem, unless they had thought of trying for a “house composer” from the start (maybe not on all the films – perhaps there are too many – but at least in the central series of them).  Someone like Christopher Young would probably have jumped at the chance (and done a brilliant job).

How cool could Infinity War be if that singular musical vision could reach its pinnacle here – all these characters with the iconic themes their characters should have (but don’t).  Instead, Silvestri was under instruction that he only needed to bring back his main Avengers theme – which is a great theme, don’t get me wrong – it’s just a pity that it’s the only real musical continuity here.  (The theme for Black Panther is tracked into the film from that score but that’s about the only other one here – and wasn’t incorporated into Silvestri’s music apart from by a music editor.  He doesn’t even use his own theme for Captain America, despite there being one place in particular when it would have been brilliant.)  I know the view expressed by some people that there are just too many characters in these things and it could end up a mess, trying to offer them all their own musical identity – but for a composer as skilled as Alan Silvestri I’m sure it would be more than possible.

(A little aside – when I’m reviewing the scores for the new Star Wars films, I have to be very careful to avoid giving away spoilers for the film by being too descriptive of the music, such is the strength of the thematic base and the crystal-clear dramatic architecture of John Williams’s unique brand of musical storytelling; it’s safe to say there’s nothing I could say about this score that would serve as any kind of spoiler.  You can tell from what Silvestri’s said in interviews, if you read between the lines, that that’s precisely what he was asked to bring – he would obviously be more than capable of the other way, too.)

One thing about Silvestri is that he really is a great composer of themes.  In terms of American film composers, there’s probably only one man alive who could top him (I clearly don’t need to say who) – and both of his prior Marvel scores had absolutely killer main themes.  So, for Infinity War… well, taking all the above about thematic continuity as a given (and not in any way Alan Silvestri’s fault), the new thematic material (or lack thereof) is probably the one real disappointment of this score.  There’s a theme for Thanos, the villain of the piece – it does what it needs to, but if you can remember anything about it after listening to it, well you’re doing better than I am.  It’s there right at the start of the score, in “Travel Delays” (actually the second cue on the album – there’s a very brief take on the Avengers theme to open it up) – ominous foreboding, admittedly the theme is only present very subtly.

Indeed, the first half of the album is something of a mixed bag.  There’s much suspense, not all of it very interesting but peppered through this are some moments of class.  A little violin solo in “Undying Fidelity”, some very dramatic writing for the whole orchestra in the same cue – fine music, but even there they are surrounded by some fairly generic string sustains and brass hits.  “He Won’t Come Out” offers the first glimpse of the trademark Silvestri action style – fast-paced string runs, occasional explosions of brass and percussion – he’s not quite fully getting going yet but it’s a start.  The melody that ends the cue is vintage Silvestri.

“We Both Made Promises” is quite tender – it feels like we’re taking a breather but there’s not really anything to take a breather from, yet.  (In the old days the cue would probably have been sequenced to sit between some big action moments.)  There is a nice variant on the Thanos theme to end the cue.  Then “Help Arrives” – and our heroes’ theme gets its first airing in the body of the score, a pretty full-on arrangement of it in fact, and the little fanfare from it is then extracted and used as a suspense motif through the less interesting remainder of the piece, along with a brooding take on the Thanos theme.

The opening of “Hand Means Stop” is an exciting little passage – the juxtaposition between the classy flute solos and the comic book villain material is done well.  “You Go Right” has some shrill moments of excitement appearing staccato-like in between more brooding strings – and guess what, the brooding continues into “Family Affairs”, in which frankly not a great deal happens.  “What More Could I Lose?” is better – again it’s suspenseful, but it picks up some momentum, seems to be leading somewhere now.  The tension ratchets up further in the excellent “A Small Price”, starting with a dynamic little rhythmic figure, a choir enters and the drama just builds and builds.

And then… we come to “Even For You” and Silvestri hits 88 miles per hour.  Everyone knows what happens when Alan Silvestri reaches 88 miles per hour… a full 1.21 gigawatts of awesome is released.  Suddenly there’s a genuine epic sweep to the music, the score’s finest take on the Thanos theme, the orchestra swelling, the choir joining – this is what we’ve been waiting for.  And from that moment on, the composer lets rip and all bets are off.  Straight from there we’re into exciting action in “More Power”, a thunderous take on the Avengers theme and a B-variant on it, heroic flourishes coming thick and fast.  You have to remember to breathe.

“Charge!” is what you might expect a cue by Alan Silvestri called “Charge!” to sound like – lots of frenetic action, comic book heroism and villainy, it’s just great.  When it really gets going in its final minute, you think you’re hearing what will surely turn out to be the action music highlight of 2018.  But it’s a gentle stroll in the park compared with what follows – the balls-to-the-wall “Forge” – breathlessly exciting, epic action – it’s Silvestri at his best and the score’s best cue.  We get chance to catch breath in the first half of the lengthy “Catch”, which has a sense of tragedy in some of its string writing – and all of a sudden, boom!, we’re off again and everything explodes once more.

The action continues in frenetic fashion in “Haircut and Beard”, some quite brilliant string figures playing underneath brilliantly boisterous brass.  “A Lot to Figure Out” slows things down and offers an emotional release for the briefest moment before some abrasive suspense leads into yet more brilliant action material.  That wonderful epic sweep which has been the highlight of the second half of the album is again in evidence in “The End Game”, with larger-than-life action the order of the day once more.

The score’s biggest emotional moment comes in “I Feel You”, strained strings tugging away very effectively, with an elegiac feel.  In “What Did It Cost”, things turn darker – the tragic feel is there still, slightly more oppressive now.  In the brief “Porch”, all those massive forces employed during the score are reduced to just a small ensemble, for a touching little moment – before the album comes to an end with “Infinity War”, written for the first part of the end titles, the highlight of which is the extended take on Thanos’s theme.

The first half of the album is genuinely mixed – parts are quite dull, other parts genuinely excellent.  The second half is consistently brilliant, one show-stopping action set piece following another.  All told there’s probably 50 minutes or so of really great music here and you can’t have many complaints about that.  The album is available in two forms – a long version (available both as CD and download) and an even longer version.  I bought the long one and wish it wasn’t quite so long, but it’s great to have the choice (I have wished since the dawn of digital downloads that this method was used for releasing film scores – to satisfy both those who want a tighter listening experience and those who want everything).  Yes, I wish the series had had more musical continuity (you may have gathered that from the exceptionally boring first few paragraphs of this review) but it is what it is – within the constraints he’s working, Alan Silvestri’s brilliant at these things and Infinity War is an impressive piece of work.  At this stage of his career maybe he wouldn’t want to do it, but Marvel should really drive a truck full of money to his house and try to convince him to be in charge of all of their next phase of movies (even if not personally composing them all, at least doing the most important ones and providing direction to the composers who do the others).  Wishful thinking obviously, so for the moment we can bask in the great year that this veteran composer is having.  All the kids have their favourite avenger – the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor – if only they released an action figure of my favourite avenger, Mr Alan Silvestri.

Rating: ****

See also:
The Avengers Alan Silvestri
Avengers: Age of Ultron Brian Tyler and Danny Elfman

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