Composed by Mike Patton (best known as lead singer of the alternative metal rock bands Mr Bungle and Faith No More].
With it's heavenly voice intro and strings, a guitar with reverb glides in and you are immediately transported to Twin Peaks land with an opening track called Schenectady. It's obviously a place where nothing much happens as the pace is slow and eerie.

Family Trees is a fractured track punctuated with high choral voices which certainly gets your attention. The deep guitar returns for Bromance another track with sinister overtones which displaces you even more. There still is no evidence of a melody here just tones until a melancholic piano is introduced.

It's almost like an experiment, no structure just notes thrown onto a magnetic stave, some clinging on repetitively in the background whilst others drop off when done with. It's curious and hypnotic and chilling.

The cue Evergreen is startling with its interweaving voices.

Powerful and confusing and challenging to listen to, I found this score unnerving and in some tracks momentarily beautiful.

WON'T BACK DOWN
Love the energy of this soundtrack, it has an unrelenting pace which commands your attention. It's structure reminds me of Michael Nymans music, it's repeating notes hooks you in.
With it's rhythmic, simple note chords it would be easy to write of this that its a neat, light and pleasing score but the structures weave and skip creating musical patterns which slice through the score.

The patterns bring a sense of urgency especially in the track The Vote.
I really, really like this soundtrack!
With his superb score to The Words, I am fast becoming a Zarvos fan.

Best tracks: Main Titles/It's For The Teachers/Petitioning
Released on the Lakeshore Label

OZ - THE GREAT AND POWERFUL

Having been disappointed with Danny Elfman's score to Hitchcock, I really wanted this score to work on all levels and it certainly does hit home with his trademark style dominating the rousing Main Titles. T2 A Serious Talk is sad and sweet and serious but Oz Revealed is Elfman at his majestic best with soaring brass and his ever prominent use of chorus.
The brief The Munchkin Welcome Song gives a nod to the kind of jolly, kid-like feel of the original Wizard of Oz and The Bubble Voyage is a goose bump track for sure. The main melody is sad with sad violins and cello's to reflect this.

Elfmann serves the subject matter very well with his now easily identifiable trademarks but it's a melancholic score which needed a bit of fun injected somewhere. Saying that, there are some heavy duty tracks with huge orchestrations especially Fireworks/Witch Fight which cannot be ignored.
Strongest tracks: Main Title/Oz Revealed/China Town/The Bubble Voyage
Released on the Intrada label

KILLING THEM SOFTLY
M

Opens with a very disconcerting piece called Moon Dance by Carl Stone, you have no idea where you are with it at all, it's a kind of mechanical piece of music, I would describe it as a 'distraught mind', and it has a great foreboding about it. It's an extraordinarily clever piece of music as there is no melody to it, just shadows and shades. It's really a scene setting piece of music, you couldn't just sit down and listen to it.
Then goes into a retro, cowboyish feel track called The Man Comes Around by James Willcy, deep guitar with a reverb and brushes on a snare, love this type of stuff.
Compilation soundtracks can be tiresome but this one really works as someone has gone into the research for just the right tracks - we are transported to Jack Hilton and his Orchestra and Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries. Next it's The Velvet Underground and Heroine think this really tells us where we are with this film.
Then the ubiquitous Love Letters by Kitty Lester, I say this as it pops up on so many soundtracks. Onto the slow drawl which is The Referee and We Think This Town Is Nervous, aptly named. Cliff Edwards knows as Ukelele Mike and Paper Moon, great version, has a fantastic voice rift in the middle, sounding like the Mills Brothers.
Oh I am loving this soundtrack compilation, there is some very carefully placed tracks here like Barratt Strong, Money Thats What I Want.
Now I think we are onto the scored piece by Marck Stetenfield and The Feeling In My Nuts, despite it’s title it’s a lamentable piano piece.

Composed by Lucas Vidal. T1 Overture really gets you into the action, very driving. T3 Invasor has a really sweeping crescendo which always makes the hair stand up. As its called Followed I should imagine that this cue is to a chase scenes and travel cues are always pretty good on a soundtrack, this cue does a pretty good job with a driving under beat and a striking violin, 3 minutes in and it really gets going with some amazing flourishes full of horror and tension. if so use for Halloween if not future Filmic. Didn't know what this film was about when I sat to listen to it the it soundtrack defiantly sucked me in. ‘Family’ brings a different tone, melancholic with a central sweet violin. There is some truly scary moment within this score, especially a cue called Transfusion, the name alone strikes fear as does the music. Beach Beating another action cue which jangles in places.
Yes jangly is THE term for this score.