A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

William Ross is far more prolific as an orchestrator for others (most prominently for Alan Silvestri) than as a composer in his own right, but he has scored almost thirty projects now, dating back to various tv shows as long ago as the 1980s.  Impressive though his music regularly is, it's difficult to escape the fact that it often seems more heavily influenced by temp-tracks than most; blame the director, blame the producer, blame the illegal immigrant who sweeps the floor of the scoring stage, but it's there for all to see.  My Dog Skip is no exception - but despite that, there's no denying that it's a truly lovely piece of music.

The movie is about a boy (played by the young man from Malcolm in the Middle) and his dog (played by the young man from Frasier) in a good-natured coming-of-age tale, and without putting too fine a point on it, it sounds for all the world like Ross was hired to do his best impression of his regular boss Silvestri.  He does it very well.  Silvestri is one of the film composers who scores this type of movie very well, occasionally slipping into the realms of schmaltz but usually pitching the sentimentality at just the right level.  Ross does the self-same thing here, using all the devices which work so well in this type of film, from the sweeping strings to the twinkly pianos, it's Forrest Gump by way of Rudy all over again (only failing to match up to those popular works because the theme isn't quite so memorable).

Elsewhere, there are moments of Coplandesque Americana, most notably in "Sad Homecoming"; outright Marc Shaiman-style "sweet-as-it-gets" scoring in "Opening Day"; a little bit of playful comedy music in "Driving with Skip"; and one of the most John Williams-like pieces of music you'll ever hear not written by the great man himself in the darker "Greenwood Cemetery".  Every track offers something delightful and it's only the knowledge that virtually every track can be traced quite clearly back to something else that keeps the score from getting to the next level up.  I daresay that it is the listener's reaction to the "temptrackitis" which will shape his view of My Dog Skip, but if you can get over it then you won't find too many more overtly pleasant and amiable listening experiences.  (As a sidenote, this album has probably the cutest CD cover in history.)

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Tracks

1. Main Title (3:21)
2. Hometown Hero (1:56)
3. A New Friend (1:37)
4. Driving with Skip (1:01)
5. Rivers (1:10)
6. Greenwood Cemetery (3:24)
7. Crossing Over (1:17)
8. Sad Homecoming (2:47)
9. The Deer (2:54)
10. Opening Day (1:12)
11. Will Strikes Out (2:19)
12. Searching for Skip (3:00)
13. Dad's Advice (1:53)
14. Will Grows Up (8:57)