The Number 23 [Soundtrack]

Harry Gregson-Williams | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 20, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Watertower Music
• ASIN: B000MDH882
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #222,465 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Director Joel Schumacher casts a pall of obsessive paranoia over this dark Jim Carrey star vehicle, resuming a compelling collaboration with U.K.-born composer Harry Gregson-Williams that's already produced wildly disparate scores for Veronica Guerin and Phone Booth. Gregson-Williams's work here seamlessly weds the electronica of the latter with a large orchestral palette, pushing the envelope of one-time mentor Hans Zimmer's trademark fusion gambit in the bargain. The composer's brooding organic textures burble with minimalist rhythms and synthesized percussion FX, punctuated by haunting solo passages by trumpeter Jon Hassell and Hugh Marsh's electric violin--a masterful soundscape of tension and psychological unease that's arguably the 21st-century extension of Herrmann's and Goldsmith's own landmark work in the thriller genre. The classically trained Gregson-Williams largely professes ignorance of both computer technology and contemporary pop music forms, yet his challenging, texturally rich work here ably shows why he's been asked to collaborate with such modern artists as Jane's Addiction, Peter Murphy, and Hybrid. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars chilling and haunting, March 12, 2007

By 

homeslicermark (CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Number 23 (Audio CD)

What else can I say besides 'wow'? After sampling the first song on this CD while at the store I thought "I have to get this no matter what the other songs sound like." Sounds like quite a risk...but I did sample the other songs and well, to my benefit the rest of the songs are just as good. Harry Gregson-Williams has created an eerie yet very captivating score. For about 2/3 of the time the music is not upbeat but rather delicate and you never quite know when it will pick up again. I'm listening to it right now, and I could almost lean back and just let my mind wonder...but listeners beware...although my description makes it sound like a mellow listen, it is by no means mellifluous.

A shadowy and mysterious journey await thine ears.......

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unsettling, April 17, 2008

By 

Jon Broxton (Thousand Oaks, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Number 23 (Audio CD)

I'm always excited when Jim Carrey plays is straight, having witnessed his superb performances in films like The Truman Show, Man on the Moon, and The Majestic; however, his run of dramatic successes had to end eventually - and end it did, with director Joel Schumacher's paranoiac thriller The Number 23. Carrey plays oridinary family man Walter Sparrow, a dog catcher for the Department of Animal Control, with a loving wife Agatha (Virginia Madsen), and a teenage. However, after Agatha buys an odd novel with the central premise concerning the number 23 as a birthday gift for Walter, his life quickly unravels: he becomes obsessed with the story, believing the mystery about the number 23 to be true, and finding many coincidences and parallels between the book and his own life. Harry Gregson-Williams' music creates an unsettling aural world of fear and confusion. Nervous, skittery string work overlaid with a plethora of moody electronic effects build an atmosphere of chaos and suspicion. Martin Tillman's electric cello, plus various other wailing string instruments, keep the listener teetering on the edge of sanity, while being called beyond it by sampled cooing choral effects. "Fingerling's Childhood" offers the album's only melodic respite, and thereafter the score settles down into a rhythm of muted orchestral performances overlaid by electronic percussion, sampled vocal effects, and surprisingly effective ethnic flutes, which somehow give the score an unusual, exotic tinge. It's not easy listening by any means - the score is dense, and claustrophobic, and never really allows the listener chance to process the off-kilter noises, but its effective in context. The conclusive cue, "Atonement", while remaining true to the style of the score which preceded it, adopts a darkly satisfying orchestral sweep to bring things to a fine finish.

5.0 out of 5 stars Love the music, August 31, 2007

By 

Sarah Ann Adkins "Soundtrack Lover" (Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Number 23 (Audio CD)

This is fantastic. Most soundtracks lose their meaning when you listen to them without the movie (or if you've never seen it). This soundtrack is great and worth the money. The impact remains and sets a creepy and reflective tone. If you've seen the movie the tracks will instantly bring you back to the scenes they're composed for. If you want the actual songs in the movie they aren't included and you have to purchase them elsewhere since they are from two different artists. If you liked the song during the Fabrizia scene it's called "Tear You Apart" and the band is She Wants Revenge.