Life as a House [SOUNDTRACK]

Mark Isham (Composer)

Product Details

• Composer: Mark Isham
• Audio CD (October 30, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Varese Sarabande
• ASIN: B00005R8DM
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #91,419 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
While Irwin Winkler's bittersweet film constructs a touching allegory--Kevin Kline's character is diagnosed with terminal cancer and sets about both salvaging a relationship with his estranged son and building the house of his dreams--it's also the kind of story that requires a deft musical touch, one that embodies a sense of buoyant optimism even as it heads toward the dramatically inevitable. Alternating between vibrant, rhythmic passages carried largely by mallet instruments (and resembling a more structured take on similar Tom Newman cues) and the melancholy of his quietly effective writing for strings and solo piano, Mark Isham's score strikes an almost perfect emotional balance amid a minefield of potential bathos. It also fuses some of the composer's modern minimalist composing instincts and spacious sense of dynamics with the more traditionally pastoral, resulting in emotionally introspective music that is considerably more than the sum of its parts. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

199 of 209 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Real Soundtrack, April 10, 2002

By	Julia Martin (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

I agree that the soundtrack is more like a score. The music on the film was awesome and I think you should take the previously given advice and create your own soundtrack. I have the DVD and I wrote down all the songs from the credits. Here they are:

Guster - What You Wish For
Guster - Rainy Day
Limp Bizkit - Re-arranged
Radiohead - How to Disappear Completely
Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now
Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams [Are Made of This]
Supertones - Who Can Be Against Me
Violent Femmes - Children of the Revolution
Gob - That's the Way
On - Soluble Words
Default - Live a Lie
Default - Somewhere
Ohgr - Water
Deadsy - Gramercy Park

118 of 127 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Life As A House... Big Emotional Breakthrough in movies, April 12, 2003

By	Betsy (Indiana) - See all my reviews

I'm a 14 year old girl who has recently watched Life as A House. The movie was excellent and really touched my heart with it's meanings. It's my favorite movie and I hope that more people will watch it. Anyways, thanks for all of your reviews about the Soundtrack. I was searching for it in the local stores, and had I not found out that it was only scores from the movie, not the pop/rock songs (that really helped the movie, I think, rather than the scores) were on there, I would have bought it. Thanks! And I also would like to say that The pop/rock songs on the movie were great, and I made a soundtrack of my own from the songs I caught on the scroll at the end. Here's a list:

Guster - What You Wish For
Guster - Rainy Day
Limp Bizkit - Re-arranged
Radiohead - How to Disappear Completely
Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now
Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams [Are Made of This]
Supertones - Who Can Be Against Me
Violent Femmes - Children of the Revolution
Gob - That's the Way
On - Soluble Words
Default - Live a Lie
Default - Somewhere
Ohgr - Water
Deadsy - Gramercy Park

I hope someone finds this helpful! Keep watching the movie, as have I like 25 times! hehe. It's awesome

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All the other songs from the film..., May 28, 2002

By	JH Ranch Camper (USA) - See all my reviews

For those of you wondering about all of the pop/rock on this album...here's a list I found:

Life As A House

Soundtrack Listing

"What You Wish For"
Written by Ryan Miller, Adam Gardner and Brian Rosenworcel
Performed by Guster
Courtesy of London-Sire Records, Ltd.
By arrangement with Warner Special Products

"That's the Way"
Written by Theo Goutzinakis, Tom Thacker, Gabriel Mantle and Craig Wood
Performed by Gob
Courtesy of Nettwerk Productions

"Soluble Words"
Written by Ken Andrews
Performed by On
Courtesy of Columbia Records
By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

"Live a Lie"
Written by Default
Performed by Default
Courtesy of TVT Records

"Sweet Dreams"
Written by David A. Stewart (as Dave Stewart) and Annie Lennox
Performed by Marilyn Manson
Courtesy of Nothing Records/Interscope Records
Used by arrangement with Universal Music Group and
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

"Somewhere"
Written by Default
Performed by Default
Courtesy of TVT Records

"Water"
Written by Kevin Ogilvie and Mark Walk
Performed by Ohgr
Courtesy of Spitfire Records/Eagle Rock Entertainment PLC

"Rearranged"
Written by Eric B. (as Eric Barrier), Rakim (as William Griffin),
James Brown (I), Bobby Byrd, Charles Bobbit, Fred Durst,
Wes Borland (as Wesley Borland), John Otto (II), Sam Rivers
and Leor Dimant
Performed by Limp Bizkit
Courtesy of Interscope Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises
Contains sample of "I Know You Got Soul"
Performed by Eric B. & Rakim
Courtesy of The Island Def Jam Music Group
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

"Rainy Day"
Written by Ryan Miller, Adam Gardner and Brian Rosenworcel
Performed by Guster
Courtesy of London-Sire Records, Ltd.
By arrangement with Warner Special Products

"Both Sides Now"
Written by Joni Mitchell
Performed by Joni Mitchell

Courtesy of Reprise Records
By arrangement with Warner Special Products

"Gramercy Park"
Written by Elijah Allman
Performed by Deadsy
Courtesy of Dreamworks Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

"How to Disappear Completely"
Written by Thom Yorke (as Thomas Yorke), Ed O'Brien (II) (as Edward O'Brien),
Colin Greenwood, Jonny Greenwood (as Jonathan Greenwood)
and Phil Selway (as Philip Selway)
Performed by Radiohead
Courtesy of EMI Records, Ltd.

Under license from EMI-Capitol Music Special Markets

Hope it was of some help! :)