Search - Steve Jablonsky :: The Island [Soundtrack]

Jablonsky variations on a theme by Jablonsky

Andres Segovia | 07/27/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Steve Jablonsky worked on quite a few works with Hans Zimmer but only with the "additional music." Now Jablonsky is flying solo. He's worked on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Steamboy and The Amittyville Horror. With The Island, we get to hear Jablonsky's abilities on action scoring.



The Island score starts off with some good guitar music accompanied by some brass roars with a male chorus every now and then intensifying every time it appears. After a minute or so the music becomes uneasy as Ewan McGregor's character has a nightmare about drowning. The theme is carried over across the album used tastefully never overwrought like, say, James Horner.



Two tracks that I did not enjoy were "Mass Vehicular Carnage" and "Blow." "Mass Vehicular Carnage" didn't sound like score material, its more of a hip-hop song because it contained lyrics. "Blow" is not found anywhere in the movie and its not even part of the score. Its probably one of those "inspired by" rock songs.



The score is good action percussion. There are some romantic moments in the album where Steve uses his guitar motif softly (e.g. This Tongue Thing is Amazing). "My Name Is Lincoln" brings all the themes of the album together very nicely with a lyricless chorus.



Michael Bay usually hires someone from the Media Ventures' gang to score his films. Steve Jablonsky met the challenge and, in my opinion, succeeded. I recommend this score if you're into the electronic Media Venture works."

Excellent. Great Music, Mixed and Compiled into Great Track

Louis Kosn | Ohio, USA | 08/04/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great score. I loved the music during the movie and bought the CD immediately afterward. There are a lot of small pieces throughout the movie, not enough to make whole tracks by themselves. I thought the score was well-compiled and mixed to make unique individual pieces that can stand alone. As one person wrote, the track titled "The Craziest Mess I've Ever Seen" doesn't match the music used in the film during the main chase scene, but I think it was expanded and edited to include short action sequence cues from other parts of the movie. Again, I think this is nice work compiling and mixing to get all the music from the movie into workable tracks.



This music is slightly more electronic than any of Hans Zimmer's recent works. For those familiar with Hans Zimmer's scores to Crimson Tide, The Lion King, Mission Impossible 2, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor, and The Last Samurai, none of these are more electronic than the music in The Island.



The two tracks titled "Mass Vehicular Carnage" and "Blow" should have been left out. They aren't score music; they are songs probably played in the background (almost inaudibly) at some point in the movie.



The music is varied throughout the score, the themes aren't overused -- and again, I think this is due to careful mixing and editing. The soundtrack to Requiem for a Dream fails because it is a collection of every short snippet of music in the film, made into individual tracks. I also recently bought Trevor Rabin's score to Armageddon. There are a couple great pieces and a couple great themes, but The Island score is far better. This is great music!"

Stunningly good Score!

Scott Hill | Redondo Beach, Ca USA | 11/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a hauntingly good score to a pretty darned good film, which for whatever whim of the masses was less than well received. I you like taiko drums, fast paced and wonderfully executed "world beat" music, this is definitely the score for you, I've played it again and again and it only gets better with each listening."