While the music for
Speed Racer may eventually
only attract a very small audience, it certainly reaffirms Giacchino's
talents when both inspired and working under a reportedly tight
recording schedule. Those positive attributes of Giacchino's attempt to
launch the music of
Speed Racer into the 21st Century, however,
fail to create a cohesive whole, and debate will linger about how much
of this problem can be attributed to the film's lack of clear direction.
Parts of this score give you the same feeling as John Powell's
Horton
Hears a Who! earlier in the year because of both scores'
tendency to impress in the moment but lack a cohesive heart or soul when
trying to present themselves as a combined work. The music on album
constitutes only roughly half of what Giacchino wrote for
Speed
Racer, but that still clocks in at an hour in length, and most
listeners will be fed up with the hammering effect of the score's
incessantly wild action cues by the half-hour mark. Part of this effect
is caused by the intensity of the ensemble and the frantic pacing of
each and every action cue. A large orchestral ensemble, joined by choir
in a handful of major cues, is stretched to the limits of its tonal
diversity. The percussion section gets a significant workout, from the
medium range drums and wild xylophone that hail back to the cartoon, and
the electric bass, occasional electric guitar contribution, omnipresent
brass, and usual shrieking flutes on top make for as dynamic a
soundscape as you could imagine. The score often breaks into the action
and jazz blend that Giacchino has utilized well recently in his career,
though the extreme enthusiasm and accelerated tempi of the jazz here is
aimless and accomplishes no greater purpose in the score. Character
development cues, which exist in the score only to the extent that they
seem forced into both it and the film, are few and far between, and they
provide only basic thematic exploration of no particular interest.
The score does start well, interestingly, with "I Am
Speed" setting the stage with a strong rhythmic crescendo and "World's
Best Autopia" opening with the first of the somewhat alluring female
vocals that exist throughout the score before striking up one of the
score's more attractive and subdued rhythms. The choir's contribution in
the latter half of the score, including "The Maltese Ice Cave,"
"Reboot," and "Let Us Drink Milk," plays like forced fantasy, though the
two latter, climactic cues are highlights of the album because they
finally take it easy on the volume and allow some fluidity to their
thematic enunciation. The integration of the title theme into the actual
finale of "Let Us Drink Milk" is nicely handled. The theme is broken
into its two distinctive parts by Giacchino for use throughout the
score; both the rising three-note phrase and the more memorable,
swinging four-note repetitions are well integrated into the action cues.
For purists, Giacchino provides full treatment of these ideas in "Speed
Racer," which concludes the album with a performance complete with
lyrics. There do seem to be other themes woven into the fabric of
Speed Racer, but with a headache from the nearly non-stop action
and only marginal clarity to any of those ideas, they don't have an
appreciable impact for someone who has no interest in the story.
Overall, fans of the original show's music will find much to smile about
in Giacchino's score for this film. Otherwise, collectors of the
composer will be better served seeking the jazz from
Ratatouille,
the action from
Mission: Impossible III, or the two together in
The Incredibles. Without a doubt,
Speed Racer is the least
readily listenable album of all four, but this is in no part because of
the score's technical mastery. Rather, it's simply too explosively loud
and incessantly enthusiastic to tolerate for lengthy periods of time...
almost like those annoying guys in television commercials who try to
sell you household cleaning products while shouting their praise for the
item and never yielding to take a breath. They're effective, but after a
while, most of us either mute the bastard or change the channel.
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