Randy Newman's fourth excursion into the Disney/Pixar goldmine produces exactly the score expected: technically astonishing, breathtakingly played, at times exciting, at times very pretty, at times funny - and at times quite frustrating. Newman has spent a massive part of his career in the last decade or so writing music for these animations and he obviously cares about them deeply (not to mention the fact that they will probably keep his kids out of work for their whole lives, should they so desire).

The scores are very similar to each other, really. Only A Bug's Life (for my money, the most entertaining of them as an album) stands out as being a little different, with Newman painting broader strokes instead of relying so heavily on Mickey-Mousing the action. Monsters, Inc. continues very much where Toy Story 2 left off the year before. The good points, and the bad points, are pretty much the same. There's some great jazz, especially "The Scare Floor", without doubt the standout track. Some great romance, too, and the main theme is given a few decent airings, perhaps to greatest effect in "Oh, Celia!" But then, as is inevitable with music for this sort of film, it comes in fits and starts - it can change mood completely within seconds, then change back again, and so on.

Newman is an amazing composer, regularly overlooked as such, no doubt because of his background as a singer/songwriter. But he can write and orchestrate music as well as anyone working in film, and to have written scores of such consistency for these Pixar movies is one of the most notable achievements in film music. Each of them supports the movie almost staggeringly well, but each of them fares somewhat less well when taken out of context. Not much Newman or anyone can do about that: his first priority is to the film and, let's face it, there's not really many alternative ways of killing this particular cat. Give me this over a sappy John Debney or Alan Silvestri effort any day.

Another aspect of Monsters, Inc. whose quality really cannot be overstated is the quality of performance by the Hollywood musicians. The music is so high-octane, some of the trumpet parts virtually impossible to pull off, yet the orchestra manages it without a single flaw. Incredible.

Monsters, Inc. makes for generally a very entertaining and satisfying album, but despite all the comments above, Newman is at his best when scoring serious drama like Awakenings and Avalon and I hope that he manages to squeeze some of those in along with the inevitable Pixar projects to come his way over the coming years. Newman is never, ever given his due as one of the most talented composers working in film, but that's exactly what he is, and it really is a shame that he doesn't get to show those talents on a more regular basis in more serious adult dramas.

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