The 1990s were a strange time for Jerry Goldsmith.  He scored barely any films that met with much critical approval, though some of them did go on to achieve great financial success, and indeed many of his scores were derided by even his most die-hard fans and the film music community at large.  In truth, his output over the decade was easily better than that of any other film composer, and surely looking back now from a safe distance, many of the scores that were initially hated are surely worthy of some degree of praise.  Take Bad Girls.  The film was awful, and unsuccessful, and the score was absolutely loathed, seemingly by everyone, when it first came out.  The reasons for the latter are quite beyond me, for it's a fresh-sounding, exciting score that deserves to be heard.

The score opens with a soft, low-key version of the main theme on guitar in "The John", a very pleasant track; and things really get going with "The Hanging", in which the theme is given a driving workout in the classic western tradition.  A fluid and malleable theme, it's easily one of the most memorable to come from the composer in a long time and personally I don't see how it could fail to please.  A large bulk of the remainder of the score is made up of exciting action music - this is one of Goldsmith's busiest and most driving scores of the period.

The six-minute "The Ambush" is a clear highlight, essentially a fugue that builds and builds to a furious climax, a really thrilling cue.  Also of particular note is "Josh's Death", which begins with yet more frantic action material before concluding with a stunning burst of the main theme.  The score ends as it began with the gentle "My Land" giving the album a soft, beautiful finale.

99% of film composers couldn't write a score as good as Bad Girls in a million years - indeed, it's of just the same high standard as Goldsmith's lauded western scores of the 1960s and 70s - lauded, I might add, by the very same people who dismiss Bad Girls out of hand.  Had it been in a successful or half-decent movie then I'm sure it would be far more popular, but for me all the best scores need to function independently of the film if they are to succeed as an album.  Which this does.

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