The smooth blend of rock and blues tones from The BusBoys is largely consistent across its four songs for 48 Hrs., often utilized as source pieces in the story's bar and club sequences. The end credits song, "The Boys Are Back in Town," is the best remembered of these contributions, originally considered by producers as the weakest of the lot but once again defying expectations. Horner's score does attempt to emulate a very slight dose of the same instrumental and genre character from the song placements, but it is, per the director's wishes, largely a frightfully serious score meant to accentuate the many action sequences. The instrumentation and constructs of 48 Hrs. resemble a blend of saxophone, electronics, and steel drums that not only foreshadows Commando and Red Heat but also represents some of the least palatable music to ever be written by the composer. An orchestra does assist in providing depth to the score, but minus trumpets and French horns. Trombones and tubas perpetually perform a single descending phrase from key in unison over and over again, a monotonous mechanism used with much better results in Brainstorm and even Vibes. The rest of the orchestral ensemble is mostly marginalized until the final chase cues, only the piano a traditional element of significant presence. Its thundering bass tones merge with tired, wandering lines of synthetic keyboarding that become even more increasingly obnoxious as the score ages. The sax performs the score's primary theme over a seven-note motif conveyed by basses, both of which presented in the first minute of "Main Titles." Unfortunately, none of these recurring motifs is particularly memorable, meandering aimlessly in variations that make them difficult to follow or care about. Horner does carry them over into Another 48 Hrs., but there is so little to like about the phrasing of these themes that the continued use has a negligible impact in the sequel. The sax performances in 48 Hrs. are nowhere near as stylish as Horner can make them (revisit Sneakers as an example), and the bass idea becomes swallowed up in the dull droning of whole notes on the synths.

Horner's fascination with steel drums as means of representing contemporary coolness is still a bit odd given that the instrument is more commonly associated with reggae music. (The source cue "Aerobics" actually reminds of Mark Mancina's Speed 2: Cruise Control) Veteran Horner collectors may find their usage in 48 Hrs. to be predictable and boring. The only instrumental application of interest for such listeners will be traditional band-inspired percussion, the recording of the regular drums and cymbals slightly wetter and thus more pronounced in a couple of cues. Since Hill chose to spot the film with music very sparingly, Horner only wrote about 25 minutes of non-source material for it, and almost all of it addresses the suspense and chase scenes. Within this subset, there is really no development or evolution of ideas until the overdue killing of the villain in "The Alley" brings the score to a sudden, depressingly sparse set of piano thuds to close things out. The only upbeat cue is "Jack Leaves Elaine's Apartment," with the aforementioned percussion joined by hip electric bass and the sax performances of the primary theme. Compared to Horner's otherwise downbeat score, the fifteen minutes of songs from The BusBoys is a welcome relief. No soundtrack had ever been released for 48 Hrs. until Intrada Records issued a short album in 2011 with most of the score and the songs on one CD limited to 5,000 copies. The quality of that album was as satisfactory as could be desired, with decent sound for a 1982 recording and an adequate arrangement of the material. Still, the label managed to acquire better sources for a 2022 release that improves the stereo spread of the instruments and offers a handful of alternate mixes of Horner's cues. Those alternates mostly present different handling of percussion. The improved sound quality won't be enough reason alone for many collectors to jump at the longer presentation, despite the film version of the score being better paced on the 2022 product. It's hard to imagine that either product will appeal much to even the most ardent Horner collectors, though, because the music is a predictable reminder of a period and genre in which the composer often underachieved. Approach this one only with the intent to complete your Horner library.  *   @Amazon.com: CD or Download