Customer Reviews

Crash: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very unnerving soundtrack to listen to. The wiry guitars make you feel really uncomfortable and some of the effects are almost scary. Howard Shore's collaborations are noted for their eerie nature and this lives up to that as well. Though not as full blown as Scanners ( when will they release the music on that to CD - it's so perfect ) this CD can still creepy crawl into your skin

It's been about four years since I first purchased this soundtrack and it is still one of my favorite albums when I listen to it. The moods, the sounds, the resonance of the guitars, the strings. I've yet to hear anything quite like it. I was a fan of the film first. I see the release year listed as 2001. I was hoping they had added the (at least) two pieces of music in the film that are missing from my circa 1998 version, but apparently they haven't. I would really love to have a complete soundtrack to this film.

This is an amazingly haunting soundtrack, very dark and very focussed upon creating the mood for the movie. The overlay of steel stringed instruments brilliantly reflects both the car crashes within the movie and the seemingly cold and inhuman obsession of the main characters. The movie is extremely psychological and this soundtrack adds an enormous amount to the atmosphere. There are no warm and fuzzy bits here and no loss of focus. This is like an album of mood music for industrial nightmares. Overall quite brilliant, but only when you are in the right frame of mind.

If you've loved the film, you've got to love the soundtrack. Close your eyes and listen to the distorted guitar; you're bound to feel a cold stream of air rushing into your face. Faster, faster, faster...and we all fall down.

Crash. The fine art of juxtaposition.

J.D. Ballard collides with cult filmmaker Crownenberg, deftly misses formulaic score treatment. While Howard Shore is clearly a peer among such names as, Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Henry Mancini, et,al. this was work that demanded outside-the-box artistic independence in line with the material and the genre.

Rather than boring us with gratuitous gimmickry, we got a synthesis of music, sound and cinema... it was hard to tell them all apart! No formula, no cliches. It was difficult to tell where the foley artist left off and where the score picked up and vice-versa! Ambient, subsonic washes contrasted metallic guitar sections that would build and crescendo... VERY HYPNOTIC!!! Even sparser tracks would feel like a haunting grind calling from some some dark place within.

The compositions are in thematic lockstep with the various acts while any one of the tracks could act as a primer for the entire score. The timbral nuances become even more complex upon each listening, I found myself rediscovering both an underrated film and an outstanding score.

Disturbing and seductive at the same time.

Even listening to the score a decade after viewing the film brought it all back, not by mere association, but by essence, sense of place. A moody, melancholy that washes over you leaving an uncomfortable dissonance of humans interfacing with steel.

Sounds like art to me.

Even if you don't feel comfortable with the genre or subject matter of the film, I would highly suggest this CD to fans of Brian Eno or anybody interested in experimental music such as musique concrete.


The scary part is this score passed my rush-hour drive test, anything that takes me away from that passes.

I thought the movie was good but not great.to get the whole idea behind "crash" read the book by jg ballard(some very trippy elements were left out in the film.)as far as the score itself-it's truly innovative and strikingly original in every way!check this out,for instance;in the liner notes of the cd booklet howard explains how he created the lush atmosphere of the score by playing instrumentals he recorded of guitar and harp backwards and pretty much mingling and re-aranging these recordings to create an awesome feel.if you like david cronenberg,david lynch,or any others like them you will like this cd.pure atmosphere

This soundtrack sounds very unlike some of Shore's previous scores; it sounds closer to an ambient New Age album. Nearly every track features a sort of floating guitar which goes back and forth. The effect is very pleasing. This soundtrack also reminds me of driving music, which appropriately fits into the movie. My advice is to listen to clips before purchasing, because it may not impress everyone. I, however, found it to be a refreshing change in the world of soundtracks, and I am looking forward to more from Shore.

Imagine a stoned, scared steel drum band rescored for guitar layered over itself. It's broken into surprisingly short sections on the CD and I've never decided if this works to or against the material. On the one hand the pieces don't have the chance to build up as much as they might but on the other it dodges the pretentious song-cycle and the sharp disjunctions reset the listener. The cumulative effect is strong as the theme is hit on every track.

This is the music of obsession and as such is the perfect match to Ballard's novel and a fair one for the film.

I've purchased this cd a couple of times now for various reasons, one of which is because it's a score I could not live without. Simply put, this is one of the best film scores ever recorded, and certainly one of Shore's best.
The music is moody, elegant, enigmatic, and darkly sensual. It was one of those rare moments where film and score achieve synthesis, and the result is incredible. BUT, as a score alone (sans film), it's still great (not good but Great) music. If you've read this far, just get the cd already!

I feel like driving (fast,fast) everytime i hear this..