Although Chris Bacon has conducted, orchestrated and scored additional music for a slew of high profile genre efforts by James Newton Howard, Source Code is Bacon’s eye-catching calling card as a solo composer for drama, suspense, and action – aspects readily apparent in Lakeshore’s 48 min. album which gathers strong collection of cues.

Bacon’s score is strangely airy, and one suspects that while the deep brass and electronic percussion textures in brooding tracks such as “Piecing it Together” are meant to infer looming danger, chords often glide between each other, tension stems from a flurry of staccato notes, and the harmonics invoke a slightly tongue in cheek sensibility. It’s as though Bacon intentionally reminds the listener that Source Code is just a popcorn movie, but there are moments of quiet introspection. “One Death is Enough” offers a humane statement on the character’s turmoil in relieving the same trauma repeatedly, whereas “I’m Gonna Save Her” is a more classical evocation of seething romance and heroism, with the cue’s love theme given an expressive string-heavy rendition in “Frozen Moment.”

“Everything’s Gonna Be Okay” closes the album with a snarly dramatic assault, but it also feels a bit abrupt, ending on a cliffhanger, and likely a signal the composer stepped aside to leave the end credits saturated with the usual song collage in place of an original end suite.

Bacon’s score may be a bit too mercurial for fans wanting grand, slow-burning action cues, but it’s a strong debut for a composer whose prior solo efforts mainly revolved within the family genre.

© 2011 Mark R. Hasan