One of the most unappreciated composers working in Hollywood, Michael Kamen is frequently, unfairly, seen as primarily an action composer.  While scoring the likes of Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and Licence to Kill made this somewhat inevitable ten years ago, it's difficult to see why it has stuck - indeed, since 1993, he's scored twenty-eight movies, only four of which are action films, and along the way he's written the likes of Mr Holland's Opus, The Iron Giant and Band of Brothers - for my money three of the best scores of the last decade.  Probably his most overtly romantic effort has been Don Juan de Marco, a somewhat silly film about someone (no less than Johnny Depp, in fact) who thinks he is Don Juan reincarnated.  No less a figure than Marlon Brando made an appearance as well, with the rather wonderful rumour being that the eccentric acting genius turned up every day nude from the waste down.  (Almost as good is that, while filming The Score, he refused to be on set at the same time as director Frank Oz.)

Anyway, back to the matter at home.  Kamen wrote several hit songs during the 1990s for his scores, and while not being the most successful, "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" (whose Bryan Adams performance opens this album) is arguably the best.  Florid and romantic, it's a beautiful ballad.  Its melody also serves as the film's main theme, and is very beautiful; and in "Love at First Sight", there is an uncredited vocal duet, in Spanish.

The score is everything you might expect.  Guitars abound, there are nods to Bizet's "Carmen" (especially in the opening score cue, whose first couple of bars are lifted directly) and the hispanic flavour lends the music such a beautiful, passionate quality that it's difficult to resist.  Aside from the main theme, each of the selections is generally built around another new theme of its own.  Kamen is rarely recognised for being the melodic composer that he is - oft criticised for not giving his scores themes, in reality he gives them so many themes that people just don't notice - but Don Juan must be his most beautifully melodic score.  Along with all the Spanish material there's even a trip to "Arabia" in track 8, which benefits from some slightly tongue-in-cheek Arabian stuff music.

What I think sets this apart from the score that other composers may have written is that it never gets schmaltzy, never goes too "Hollywood", and the orchestration is remarkably good - few film composers use an orchestra as well as Kamen.  When he's on top form, there's nobody better, and this is surely one of his best scores.  A real treat for all the old romantics out there.

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Tracks