Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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160 of 167 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brokeback Heartbreak, November 3, 2005
A fine collection of C&W songs performed by some great artists, with some evocative instrumental interludes from the film. The highlights are the moving A Love That Will Never Grow Old (next year's Oscar-winning song?) and I Don't Want to Say Goodbye, songs written by Gustavo Santaolalla and Bernie Taupin and performed by, respectively, the reknowned Emmylou Harris and Teddy Thompson, a talented young artist (check out his excellent self-entitled debut on Virgin Records). These songs do a great job of conveying the love of the two main characters in the film, but can be enjoyed by anyone. They are wonderful country ballads. Santaolalla's other songs are excellent too. No One's Going to Love You Like Me is a nice twangy Patsy Cline-y piece, while I Will Never Let You Go is a strong, more fast-tempo song. These songs are performed by more talented up-and-comers, Mary McBride and Jackie Greene. Rufus Wainwright's own The Maker Makes is tremendously desolate and moving. Wainwright and Thompson also team for an immensely enjoyable cover of King of the Road, their voices alternately blending and contrasting quite pleasingly. I think the Willie Nelson cover of "He Was a Friend of Mine" is fine. It is more uptempo, but Willie's vocal treatment is very touching. There's a nice, frantic fiddle piece too, "An Angel Went Up in Flames."
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159 of 174 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One Of The Year's Best Soundtracks, November 24, 2005
I stumbled upon this soundtrack at a record store recently & decided to give it a shot, as the roster of artists impressed me. I'm glad I made my purchase. This soundtrack is easily one of the year's best.
There are a number of distinguished country artists performing new tracks, some written specifically for the film. Willie Nelson is first up with a gorgeous cover of Bob Dylan's "He Was A Friend Of Mine." Emmylou Harris also turns in a poignant performance on "A Love That Will Never Grow Old," a beautiful song written specifically for the film by Argentinian musician Gustavo Santaolalla (who provides the film's score-- more on that later) & lyricist Bernie Taupin. I hope this gets some Oscar consideration!
Mary McBride, Teddy Thompson & Jackie Greene give nice performances in ballads also written for the film by Santaolalla/Taupin. The strength of these songs are impressive, especially considering the fact that they come from an Argentinian guitarist & a pop/rock lyricist. These songs sound like they belong in any classical country canon.
The only tracks that weigh down the album are Steve Earle's "The Devil's Right Hand," & Linda Ronstandt's Buddy Holly cover, "It's So Easy," both recycled hits for the artists in 1987 & 1977, respectively. They break the mood of the album & just sound out of place here.
Also somewhat out of place, but just simply delightful, is Rufus Wainwright & Teddy Thompson's cover of Roger Miller's "King Of The Road." The track doesn't even appear in the film, but it's inspired & downright fun.
But it's Rufus Wainwight's solo track, "The Maker Makes," that is the highlight of the album for me. It's a beautiful, twangy, heartwrenching little ballad that's performed on the piano. I get the chills each time I hear it! I'm a big fan of Rufus & Teddy Thompson, so I may be biased, but they too succeed in creating country songs that transcend their singer/songwriter limitations.
The tracks from Santaolalla's score start to sound kind of similar-- stark guitar instrumental interludes-- but they no doubt capture the essence & emotion of the film. I'm only familiar with his work from the Motorcycle Diaries (which was right up his alley), but he seems to segueway into American westerns seemlessly & with much grace.
Just about all the songs and instrumental cues on this album are huge achievements in conveying the emotional themes of the film: love, loss & longing. It's a soundtrack full of passion that transends musical genres. These aren't just country & western songs-- they're love songs.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Genius of Film Scoring Is Knowing What Fits, What Enhances, April 5, 2006
So often film scores that utilize songs from a period of time during which the cinema story happened are dismissed as 'non-original' or 'uncreative' or, worse yet, 'plagiarized''! But the charge of a composer assigned to provide music for a film is to support the mood, enhance the plot, identify certain motifs, and in general make the film more powerful without drawing attention to itself. Some film scores are so immediately accessible and beautiful that the audience stops thinking about the story to appreciate the beauty of the music. Yes, that is fine, to a degree, but more credit should go to the score master whose work is so subtle that you simply don't notice it.
The score for BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is an example of writing music that is noticed in the right moments and unnoticed in others. Gustavo Santaolalla has written some very subtle, almost minimalist music such as 'Opening', 'Snow', 'Brokeback Mountain 1, 2 and 3', 'Riding Horses' and 'The Wings', scored for acoustic guitar, guitar, and strings which underline the loneliness of the Wyoming cowboy and the isolation of the characters longing for each other. The music is lovely and evocative. But Santaolalla also selects well known country western music from the period to use in the bars and festivities, adding some of his own ballads such as 'A Love That Will Never Grow Old', 'No One's Gonna Love You Like Me', 'I Don't Want to Say Goodbye', 'I Will Never Let You Go', and 'An Angel Went Up in Flames' - all with the help from librettists of stature. But he also chose songs like 'He Was A Friend of Mine' by Bob Dylan sung by Willie Nelson and by the time this song happens along in the score the audience is married to the story and it is gentle, quiet moment of tenderness and melancholy greatly enhanced.
All of the vocals included so appropriately on this CD soundtrack are beautifully rendered by some of our best CW talent. But it must be remembered that were it not for Gustavo Santaolalla they would not be included and be as memorably placed as they are in the final cut of the film. Santaolalla is a master composer who puts the story first, and his music in the background, where it grows into our memories of fine films such as this long after the closing credits. Grady Harp, April 06
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