Crash
Composer: Howard Shore
Release date: March 21, 1997
Amazon users rating: 4,5 out of 5 stars.
All About Soundtracks Review:
When you talk about Crash, you’re probably talking about the 2004 film with a score by Mark Isham. Well, in this review I’ll talk about a much darker Crash.
It’s David Cronenberg’s Crash, from 1996, scored by the renamed Howard Shore.
(Read more.)
Crash is a psychological thriller about car accidents and fetishist sex (both are actually related in the movie). The disturbing pictures in the movie called for a dark score to draw a parallel with the characters fixation with these strange fetishes.
Howard Shore is a master to create strange and uncomfortable atmospheres and this score is a pretty good example of it. However, as a consequence, the score is better appreciated for its mood and orchestration, rather than its thematic content.
There seems to be actually just one theme or motif, that’s the central motif of the score and represents the obsession with all those disturbing things. That theme is played in electric guitars, which give a metallic texture to the music. The notes are very repetitive, once again representing the obsession, but, somehow, the main title cue (Crash) becomes strangely addictive.
That said, this score might be the ugly and disturbing equivalent of Jerry Goldsmith’s Basic Instinct.
However, when the characters appear to care for each other, the theme is given a more orchestral treatment, as heard in the disturbingly beautiful Sexual Logic.
Howard Shore employs very intelligent tricks in this score, but the atmosphere is mostly uncomfortable (the last track, Prophecy is Dirty and Ragged, will put you the edge of your seat), so this score may not please to everyone. Still, it is best than most of the horror-clichéd stuff that we hear a lot nowadays (especially from Steve Jablonsky).
This is a hard-to-find score, and a much unknown one in Shore’s career, but it’s worth a listen.
Ups: as usual, Howard Shore finds the right texture and music for a disturbing, difficult film, and still manages to deliveres a somehow addictive main title cue.
Downs: disturbing, slow-paced score, with too much music for its thematic content.
Noteworthy tracks: Crash, Sexual Logic, Prophecy is Dirty and Ragged.
Score note: 6/10
Preview:
Track 1 - Crash
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