The Score by Howard Shore: This score dabbles in near archetypical jazzy heist movie sound with a decent sized orchestra with vibraphone, assorted percussion and drumkit thrown into the mix. Shore dispenses with lengthy themes and develops shorter musical ideas, like the simple initially 7-note main theme, the 6-note heist theme and another 4-note rising figure for suspense and tension, throughout with single-minded determination. Rhythm is the key here as well as the atmosphere of "cool" which propels the whole soundtrack forward and the composer has a very active ever-present percussion section working the whole time, bringing a sort of energetic nervous simmer to the whole affair from start to finish. Shore accentuates the mood with jazzy double bass, vibraphone and suspenseful sounding flute solos which most of the time blend into the fabric of the orchestra and smoky muted trumpet lines that echo the urbane atmosphere. The result is a rather enjoyable piece of film music. While the music is mostly forward propelling some short solaces from the rhythms can be found, like the tense but detached Set Up, where the muted brass, piano and bass waft through an atmopshere of ambiguous glassy string harmonies and atmospheric Iron Clad where whiny strings develop an intesifying line above a percussion base. Otherwise the score churns forward with the often subtle but unrelenting percussion. All culminates in the 11 minutes of energetic heist music in Running Late and the final setpiece Suspended that offers not only most powerful versions of the motifs used in the score as the drama reaches its height but also the jazziest suspense piece of the score where bass, bowed cymbals and the muted brass and fluttering flutes conjure palpable sense of tension, Shore expertly ractheting the suspense to fever pitch with the ever intensifying percussion and brass blasts. And everything is drawn to a musical conclusion in Bye Bye, which sees the final satisfying send off to the main theme and its accompanying motifs. The score for The Score does contain some very groovy and energetic pieces of music and lovers of jazzier urbane scores might find it highly enjoyable on that account. The use of jazz bass, vibraphone and percussion is often inventive and adds a suitable touch "cool" to the whole soundtrack. The downside of the quite short album (less than 40 minutes) is the single-minded focus on the rhythms and forward motion which can become tiring as the tone and style vary very little over the course of the listening experience. While a tad monochromatic this relatively small scale work from Shore showcases his versatility and ability to paint such singular feel and atmosphere in quite effortless chameleon-like way. A nice change of pace for anyone wanting to explore the composer's ouvre beyond his Tolkien epics that too often overshadow his prior career.