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A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Jerry Goldsmith's relationship with director Paul Verhoeven is certainly the greatest he has forged in a very long time and his two scores for the director at the start of the 1990s, Total Recall and Basic Instinct, belong on any list of the composer's best.  Sadly eight years would go by before the pair would collaborate again, on 2000's Hollow Man, an updating of the classic Invisible Man story for the new millennium.  It's an atmospheric, sometimes uncomfortable, visually brilliant movie and Goldsmith's music is challenging and demands more work from the listener than most he has written in recent times - but it's worth it.

The opening title music presents a theme that clearly evokes memories of Basic Instinct, but is distinctive enough from it - and good enough in its own right - to warrant repeated listens.  It's the sort of theme that creeps up on you rather than dazzles you outright.  A lot of the remainder of the disc is taken up by action music, though it is more thoughtful and restrained than you might expect.  Synths play a heavy role, but their integration with the orchestra is very clever and they are not the kind of annoying effects Goldsmith might have used fifteen years earlier.  "Linda and Sebastian" is the only real respite from the chaos, a touching piano-based love theme.  Having said that, there is a fair amount of build-up / suspense music thrown in as well.  A track like "This is Science" will offer a sustained period of tension before the explosive pay-off; brilliant stuff.  "Hi Boss" is particularly exciting, with Goldsmith's ever-meticulous orchestration bringing the best out of a typically adrenaline-charged action track.  The ten-minute "Bloody Floor" is another highlight, summing up all the very best aspects of the composer's 1990s/2000s action music style.

As with everything he writes these days, the score was horribly underrated on its release (it's far more exciting than any other score written during 2000, and not only fits the film like a glove, it actually makes it a better film, which is not something that many scores do these days).  Goldsmith's written better, even in recent times, but this is a winning album nonetheless from a composer who wrote the book on how to score films like this.

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Tracks

1. The Hollow Man (3:02)
2. Isabelle Comes Back (6:04)
3. Linda and Sebastian (2:57)
4. This is Science (6:17)
5. Not Right (2:42)
6. What Went Wrong? (1:44)
7. Broken Window (3:01)
8. False Image (1:58)
9. Hi Boss (2:49)
10. Find Him (4:38)
11. Bloody Floor (9:57)
12. The Elevator (3:01)
13. The Big Climb (3:06)