A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Held in bizarrely high regard, I just don't see why people have elevated the first Basic Instinct to a level of respectability.  Aside from a bigger budget and hence better actors, it doesn't seem to offer anything other than your standard sex thriller made for late-night cable tv.  With one exception: Jerry Goldsmith's magnificent music.  Working painstakingly on it over a long period, Goldsmith turned out the finest score of the latter part of his career, brilliantly capturing the trashy mood of the film and yet somehow producing something genuinely classy and remarkable, and launching a thousand imitators.  The seemingly pointless sequel, a desperate bid by a desperate Sharon Stone to find some box office success (she doesn't need to do this, she's a genuinely good actress, as some of her post-Basic Instinct roles demonstrated) somehow managed to attract a decent director, Michael Caton-Jones, who brought along composer John Murphy for the music.

Pleasingly, producer Andrew Vajna announced early on that Goldsmith's music would be utilised for the sequel, since it was a key component of the original film.  Murphy certainly does utilise it, though with one exception it is only the theme that gets heard here.  And, as is often the case with sequels scored by different composers but using the original composer's theme, Murphy actually uses the Goldsmith theme rather more than Goldsmith did.  It's a good theme, but here it forms the basis of no fewer than nine tracks, and apart from the excellent string quartet version in "I Smell Blood" it doesn't do anything that just sticking the original theme on wouldn't do; because of that, the reasons for purchasing the album as a whole must lie with Murphy's original contributions.

These are decent enough.  If anything, they remind me more of John Powell's action scores than anything else, with an impressive combination of orchestra and electronics.  Sometimes, Murphy emulates Goldsmith to an extent, with music that sounds like it might have been in the first score, but is in fact entirely new; this is generally the case with the sex scene music, which is usually piano-based, and creates the right kind of atmosphere without being anything like as effective as Goldsmith's original.  There is a curious juxtaposition between the two styles, and with the album being a collection of mostly very short tracks, the sudden shifts in mood can be a little disconcerting.  The components work well enough, however, and there's probably enough in the new material here to make it recommended - those just looking for a Goldsmithian expansion of the original score are likely to be disappointed, but taken more as a modern-day thriller score on its own terms, it's fine.

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Tracks

1. Michael Reads her Book (:56)
2. 120 MPH Sex (2:17)
3. Not Yet / Courtroom (2:07)
4. Bodies Still Warm (1:41)
5. Sex with Michelle (1:40)
6. Adam Towers is Dead (1:26)
7. Questions about Catherine (:56)
8. Catherine is Waiting (1:01)
9. Legs Wide Open on a Chair (1:49)
10. I Smell Blood (1:19)
11. Soho (1:23)
12. If She Calls Again (1:08)
13. Michael Argues with Michelle (:54)
14. Olympic Toilets / Saving Denise (3:01)
15. Catherine at Police Station (2:52)
16. Sex with Catherine (1:30)
17. Library (1:20)
18. No Apologies (:56)
19. In the Car with Washburn (2:04)
20. The Long Night of the Soul (1:29)
21. Jacuzzi (2:54)
22. Reading "The Analyst" (1:30)
23. Racing to Miena's (1:47)
24. Michael at Miena's (4:30)
25. Washburn Dies (1:47)
26. Broadmoor (1:33)
27. She Tells the Plot (1:24)
28. She Kisses Him Goodbye (1:21)
29. End Credits (3:31)
30. Yuppie Chill (2:01)
31. Atlantic Bar (1:39)
32. Orgy (1:13)
33. Mozart: Violin Concerto in A Major "Minuetto" (4:04)