A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

While John Powell's star is most certainly on the rise, and he is one of the most promising young composers in Hollywood, he has in his fairly short career had the misfortune to be associated with various turkeys; in 2003 he scored both Gigli and Paycheck, hardly two assignments that are going to leap off anyone's CV and leave that person with much pride.  In both cases, however, Powell has managed to completely transcend the movie and write music of a high standard that deserves to be in something more; OK, so Gigli was "just" light romantic material, but Paycheck's score is considerably more substantial and is particularly strong.

Ben Affleck plays a scientific genius (perfect casting - whenever I see Ben Affleck, I instantly think "scientific genius") whose memory is partially erased to protect the secrets he knows; so I suppose on some superficial level it bears comparison with the Matt Damon-starring The Bourne Identity, which ironically was also scored by Powell.  For that movie the composer wrote a slightly disappointing score that worked reasonably well in the (surprisingly good) film without doing anything spectacular, based as it was around seemingly endless drum loops; the situations are reversed this time as this stinker of a film gets a considerably more sophisticated and imaginative score, that strikes me as the sort of music that should really be being used in the modern-day Bond films.

Drum loops are almost constant, but this time they are only providing embellishment to a surprisingly rich and varied orchestral score.  This is exactly how contemporary thrillers should be scored - with imagination and a willingness to build on older-style film music rather than just provide non-stop musical wallpaper.  Powell keeps everything moving along, yet there are plenty of moments of calm in between the action.  The score's centrepiece is the terrific "Hog Chase", split over two cues in the album's middle, full of individual little sections showcasing brass, strings and percussion (live and sampled); great structure and gripping stuff, with the various little parts of it being combined together in an admirably fluidic fashion.  It probably seems even better because it's so unexpected in its approach, completely eschewing the standard Media Ventures sounds of sampled brass and the like.

Powell is surely destined for bigger and better things than Paycheck; the ability to write music as compelling, original and exciting as this for such a poor film is not one that can be overstated.  This is almost certainly his finest score yet; each new score he writes seems to bring new pleasures, and I look forward to his upcoming assignments with relish.  This and Brian Tyler's Timeline give me renewed hope that there really is a future for good action scoring, after years of waiting for young composers coming through to actually fulfill their promise and seeing them not doing so; Powell and Tyler seem to be here to stay.

Tracks

1. Main Title (3:10)
2. 20 Items (2:53)
3. Wolfe Pack (2:54)
4. Crystal Balls (2:09)
5. Mirror Message (3:37)
6. Imposter (3:53)
7. Hog Chase Part I (3:13)
8. Hog Chase Part II (4:04)
9. I Don't Remember (1:28)
10. Tomorrow's Headlines (4:02)
11. Future Tense (7:14)
12. Fait Accompli (6:09)
13. The Finger (:33)
14. Rachel's Party (2:47)