Thomas Newman, almost unique among the A-list Hollywood film composers in that he will accept an assignment with virtually no money for him to create music, gets around the problem by writing some of the quirkiest, most unusual scores in films today. He has a unique style (well, apart from those who have recently taken to trying to imitate him) which some people mistakenly take to mean that all his scores sound the same - note the many reviews of In the Bedroom saying it sounds like American Beauty. It doesn't. For one thing, it's nowhere near as good.

American Beauty has a couple of strong themes and is generally fun throughout; In the Bedroom has a recurring theme which is unmelodic and little really to recommend it. Todd Field's movie is one of the most acclaimed since, well, American Beauty, and I can well imagine Newman's score working perfectly within it. But despite his best attempts to once again create the ultimate listening experience for the album, this score falls short of expectations.

The music is a curious mix of quirky, unmelodic material for the predictably unusual mix of soloists (instruments include "factory", "dock" and "struck quartz bowl") along with a standard string section performing anything-but-standard material, and some very strange choral pieces sung a capella by the Newark Balkan Chorus. The choral music is probably the most enjoyable, but even then all the tracks are so short (19 tracks on a 30-minute CD; take out the end title and you have 18 tracks covering just 25 minutes) there's nothing really to get much of a hold on, and ultimately this is the most disappointing Newman album for several years.

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