Spy Game (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Hans Zimmer protégé Harry Gregson-Williams' name is most closely associated with animated features (Shrek, Antz, Chicken Run), but he has also worked on action pictures like The Replacement Killers and The Rock, and so he is right at home for Spy Game. Like Zimmer, he maintains parallel interests in traditional symphonic scoring and in heavily programmed music, and this lengthy score seems designed to show off his versatile talents. Tracking a globe-hopping adventure tale, he dips into various ethnic styles, making room for Middle Eastern vocals (courtesy of Khosro Ansari) on "Explosion & Aftermath," for example, and seems to delight in sudden juxtapositions, such as in "Red Shirt," where a grand symphonic theme emerges four minutes into the track after lots of percussion programming, only to submerge again. Similarly, a calm piano theme begins "You're Going to Miss It," then gives way to electronic effects. There may be some hope for electronica and dance crossover here in tracks like "Training Montage," and in the two remixes that close the disc. This is music for a fast-paced thriller with a lot of exotic settings, and it no doubt helps get hearts pounding in movie theaters, even if it is a bit too various for its own good as a merely aural experience.