Like most everyone else associated with Dreamcatcher, including director Lawrence Kasdan, screenwriter William Goldman and actors Morgan Freeman, Damian Lewis and Tom Sizemore, composer James Newton Howard seems to be rather overqualified to be working on such a silly film as this. Of course, he's made quite a name for himself with his creepy thriller scores for M. Night Shyamalan, so in that sense he's sensible composer casting.

Let's not beat around the bush: this is an atrocious album. Every so often, the uninitiated make comments like "How can a film score be listened to when separated from the film? - surely the music is so tied to the visuals as to render it redundant when it is separated" - and while there are countless scores to disprove that theory, I can't think of any that would illustrate it better than Dreamcatcher.

It's certainly not helped by Shawn Murphy's recording: as I type this review, I am listening to the CD on my computer, and it is literally impossible to hear 50% of it since it is mixed so quiet - but I daren't turn up the volume since every so often there's a sudden, incredibly loud burst of brass which may well blow the glass from the windows. These bursts of brass are simple, unimaginative and frankly could have been written by a computer: as generic as they come. Occasionally we are treated to synth percussion accompaniment. There's quite a nice passage in "The Weasel" - obviously designed to inspire awe - but it's been done so much better, so often, including in Howard's own The Sixth Sense. Bizarrely, a 107-piece orchestra is credited in the album booklet - for no more than a few seconds at a time do more than five of them play at once.

A score for the film, not a score for a CD - this CD is virtually unlistenable. Where's Jerry Goldsmith when you need him?

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