Special Notes:

8-page colour booklet with brief liner notes.

Although the liner notes don’t really detail the CD’s full scope, it seems this collection gathers the main theme and music specifically from Season 2, episodes 7 and 8, which ensures the album has a solid dramatic and thematic flow instead of neatly arranged theme variations spanning 2 seasons.

Richard Wells’ main theme is woven throughout most of the cues, but they include complete renditions – namely the acoustic guitar version in the titular first track – and shredded-up versions, such as the electrified and distorted “Box Tunnel Massacre.”

Perhaps the album’s strongest qualities is the mix of quiet, kinetic, ambient, and profane cues, and the way Wells frequently returns to his theme on guitar, as though the acoustic rendition is both its purest, and its most affecting. A version using keyboards and gravely toned strings (“Resurrection”) is also memorable, as are “Leaving” and “Molly” which delve into folk arrangements, using deep clarinet tones to carry the main theme.

Most of the cues vary between under a minute to just under six, but the overall brevity of most cuts isn’t too grave an issue, since the shortest tend to lead towards meatier theme statements and tense dramatic versions. “Beautiful Chaos” gradually moves from foreboding ambiance to grungy chase music, and “Annie’s Door,” the longest cut, wraps up all of Wells’ abstract ideas into a tense cue that closes the album’s main conflicts before a brief character and thematic cliffhanger statements.

Silva’s album features the usual solid mastering, showing off excellent bass and Wells’ fine orchestration details, and hopefully this is the first of several albums culled from the series – either on CD, or perhaps as digital exclusives for series fans.

© 2011 Mark R. Hasan