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THE BUCKET LIST
Pleasant, inoffensive easy listening score album
 A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Music composed by
MARC SHAIMAN

Rating
* * *



Performed by
THE HOLLYWOOD STUDIO SYMPHONY
conducted by
PETE ANTHONY
Trumpet
CHRIS BOTTI
Saxophone
DAN HIGGINS
Harp
GAYLE LEVANT
Bass
MICHAEL VALERIO
Piano
MARC SHAIMAN
BRYAN PEZZONE

Orchestration
JEFF ATMAJIAN

Music Editor
SCOTT STAMBLER
Produced by
MARC SHAIMAN

Album running time
49:56

Released by
VARESE SARABANDE
Catalog number
VSD-6877

Album cover copyright (c) 2007 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.; review copyright (c) 2008 James Southall

Director Rob Reiner's career never really recovered from having such an auspicious start - he's just never been able to live up to it.  But it was a long way down from This is Spinal Tap to the sort of fare he has been offering in his last few films, a slide which has perhaps been arrested with The Bucket List, which received its share of cutting reviews, but also more than a few very positive ones.  It's a road movie about two terminally ill men who set off to visit various places before they die, with powerhouses Jack Nicholson and  Morgan Freeman playing those two men.  Reiner's movies are always scored by Marc Shaiman, who scores his first film since the immense (and well-deserved) success of his musical Hairspray - success which is down in no small part to me, having suggested in my 1999 review of The Out of Towners that the composer really should lend his particular skills to a Broadway show.  It's nice to see that my influence is still as great as ever.

Shaiman is not exactly known for resisting an opportunity to lay on the sentiment with a very broad brush, so it's quite a surprise to note that The Bucket List remains somewhat restrained for most of its running time.  It's all set around a singular main theme, which is memorable and pleasant, and there is a soft jazz feel at times thanks to instrumental performances from trumpet Chris Botti and saxophonist Dan Higgins.  It has a really magical quality in some of its arrangements - particularly "Like Smoke Through a Keyhole" - and because of the score's relative brevity, never outstays its welcome.

When the story takes a darker turn, the music has to follow suit, and "Really Bad News" effectively presents the main theme in a very different guise.  That it all becomes a bit shmaltzy at the end is not entirely surprising, but it would take a pretty hard-hearted person to complain too much, so charming is the music.  It's a lovely score - and it's great to hear Shaiman back on film scoring duties in between his other projects (the latest of which is a Broadway adaptation of Catch Me If You Can).

Because the score is so short - less than half an hour - the disc is generously rounded-out with new piano recordings of some of the composer's best-known themes from other films, performed by Shaiman himself.  The highlight is "A Seed of Grain", a choral version of the theme from The American President which is an absolute treat.  Admittedly some of the pieces don't work so well in solo piano form, but it's still an extremely enjoyable brief tour of Shaiman's film music career.  The song "Printmaster", set to the music of "Goldfinger", offers an extremely witty set of observations about the composer's experiences on the dubbing stage ("That end title I slaved over now is gone - in its place, Celine Dion!")  A very entertaining album.

Tracks

  1. Hospital Hallway (:50)
  2. Like Smoke Through a Keyhole (2:00)
  3. Best in LA (1:21)
  4. Really Bad News (1:51)
  5. La Vie En Rose (2:27)
  6. Hotel Source (1:14)
  7. Did You Hear It? (2:34)
  8. Flying Home (1:17)
  9. Homecomings (3:30)
  10. Life and Death (3:54)
  11. The Mountain (2:23)
  12. End Credits (3:54)

    Memory Lane (Junk in My Trunk)
  13. A Seed of Grain from The American President (3:10)
  14. City Slickers (2:30)
  15. Simon Birch (2:13)
  16. The Addams Family (1:33)
  17. Mother (1:07)
  18. North (2:12)
  19. A Wink and a Smile from Sleepless in Seattle (2:23)
  20. Blame Canada from South Park: Bigger,  Longer and Uncut (1:47)
  21. Mr Saturday Night (2:24)
  22. Goldfinger (aka Printmaster) Marc Shaiman (2:14)
  23. What Makes a Family from Stuart Saves His Family Marc Shaiman (1:29)
    24.