At the time of writing this, the last new score album I reviewed was Steve Jablonsky's unbearable The Island.  I spent a lot of time in there commenting on Media Ventures and the huge negative impact it has had on film music; it seems only fair, therefore, to balance that out with a bit of praise.  I suppose it's sort of damning with faint praise in a way, but it's remarkable that some composers seem to emerge from the production line formerly known as Media Ventures as excellent film composers in their own right who go on to bigger and better things.  With due acknowledgement to Harry Gregson-Williams and the success he's had, surely John Powell is the best Media Ventures graduate of all; ironically, since MV scores all sound the same, he has emerged as one of the very few young film composers with a distinctive musical voice and a whole load of style.

He has had successes in several genres, but has most impressed with action thrillers.  For many years it seemed that only Jerry Goldsmith could score them well, but just lately a few composers have emerged doing them well, from Brian Tyler's more traditional efforts to John Powell's ultra-modern ones.  If I read a review of a score which used the phrase "ultra-modern" I would immediately stop reading the review and decide that there would be no point in me ever buying the score - this is because I'm a grizzled old grouch.  Listening to John Powell's music, though, leads me to realise that it's not that the scores are ultra-modern that puts me off all the nonsense dominated by drum loops and sampled strings which passes as film music these days - it's that the composers aren't very good.  In the hands of a good composer, those drum loops can suddenly seem a whole lot more interesting.

Of course, there is far more to Powell's music than drum loops, and the way he combines modern electronics and synths with an orchestra is as impressive as any other film composer.  With scores like The Italian Job, Paycheck and The Bourne Supremacy he has honed the style very well, but bursts onto another level with Mr and Mrs Smith, surely his finest effort to date.  The film was given more attention for the off-screen shenanigans of its lead stars than anything else, which is a slight pity because Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie aren't just beautiful people, they're very fine actors - rarely credited for the latter because, I suspect, of the former.  Still, it gave Powell the chance to team up once again with director Doug Liman, whose films have benefited from strong Powell music in the past.

What sets Mr and Mrs Smith apart from other Powell thriller scores are two factors - first, there is a touch of flair added through the use of lots of flamenco guitars - second, there is a larger orchestra than usual, and the composer utilises it very well.  The opening "Bogota" is gorgeous, and indeed later on "Tango de Los Asesinos" presents the main theme in a delightful fashion.  Wonderful as these pieces are, it is with the action music that Powell impresses most: the jagged strings and John Barry-style brass are joined by a battery of guitars in "Hood Jump" for a wonderful track, and then there's "His and Her Hits", "Dodging Bullets" and "Minivan Chase", which is probably the most impressive piece of action music of the year.  Powell manages to do something which isn't easy to pull off, which is to write genuinely sexually-charged action music; few composers have done so successfully.

To that end-- some of Powell's previous action scores seem to have almost been auditions for him to score a James Bond movie, and this is another.  This would be absolutely perfect for a Bond movie, and is far more impressive than any actual Bond score of the last decade.  Powell continues to impress and with Mr and Mrs Smith has confirmed himself as one of the most exciting and interesting voices in modern film music.  This is a sassy, sexy, stylish score - one of the year's best so far.