Mark Isham – “The Express”
Album Reviews | Oct 25th, 2008
Record Label: Lakeshore Records
Genre: Film Score
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I know what you’re all saying, great, another sports movie. Let me guess, there’s adversity and racial tension? There’s a hard-nose coach that teaches him about things on and off the field? I could go on but I won’t. Even though I’m poking fun at the movie, I’d still be interested in seeing it. Most of these sport flicks are very uplifting and heart felt. The Express is the story of Ernie Davis, the first African-American football player to win the Heisman Trophy.
The film score was composed by Academy Award nominated composer Mark Isham. Besides film, Isham also has several jazz and electronic CDs out as well. You might have heard his scores for the movies A River Runs Through It, Quiz Show, Nell, October Sky, Crash and many others. I actually haven’t heard too many film scores from Isham lately so it was nice to see he did this score. I liked his A River Runs Through It and October Sky scores a lot.
The Express score CD includes 17 tracks in total and a lot of tracks are sweeping orchestrated music. There are a few tracks (mainly the action motifs) that sound electronic/computerized. For the most part I enjoyed listening to the orchestra sounding tracks because it was just pleasant. This type of score seems very Isham and I thought it was decent. There really aren’t any standout themes that I could pick out and I mostly like a score with themes. I know some people think differently. This isn’t a bad CD though, but perhaps I need to see the film to appreciate the music more?
Bottom Line: Good score but not really memorable
Notable Tracks: Jackie Robinson, Lacrosse, What Kind of Bottle, The Express
Overall Rating:
