The great Randy Newman wrote one of his finest scores in 1998 for director Gary Ross, with Pleasantville (an underappreciated movie oddly marketed as a comedy); the music was easily the best of the year and should have won an Oscar, but never mind.  Quality of both film and score made the prospect of a further collaboration between Ross and Newman really quite mouthwatering, especially given that Newman hasn't scored a "serious" film since - three Pixar animations and the puerile Meet the Parents make up his film output over the period.   Ross chose to adapt Laura Hillenbrand's "Seabiscuit: An American Legend", about the race horse, for his first follow-up, again teaming with Tobey Maguire and the peerless William H. Macy and again collaborating with Newman for the music.

Reportedly, the scoring process was rather more difficult this time, with fairly serious arguments between Ross and Newman during the recording sessions; but whatever happened, the results are outstanding.  Given Newman's past work on films set in America in the early part of the twentieth century, like Ragtime and Avalon - two of the truly great film scores - and also his excellent score for the sports movie The Natural - it is no surprise how good his music is, nor that some of it sounds slightly familiar from those previous efforts - and Seabiscuit is almost certainly the most beautifully-crafted score of 2003 so far.

What sets Newman apart from virtually all his contemporaries is that he can score this kind of movie without ever resorting to schmaltz - he can get just the right emotion without throwing in layers of strings and laying the sugar over the top with a giant spoon.  Seabiscuit is touching, moving and very beautiful without once seeming falsely sincere or schmaltzy - very rare for a film like this.

The album plays very well from start to finish.  It starts off rather subtly, with Newman deftly creating exactly the right sense of Americana, helped no end by some sublime writing for solo instruments, most notably trumpet (performed by Malcolm McNab with his customary brilliance), guitar (George Doering, Dean Parks and John Goux) and flute (Jim Walker).  There's more than a hint of folksy blues as well, such as in "Call Me Red", with barnstorming guitar playing.  Americana sometimes gives way to Mexicana such as in the delightful "La Tequilera" and "Marcela / Agua Caliente", and later in "Wedding", written purely for guitar.  You sometimes feel as if you are listening to a western score, with more than a hint of the old west about "Night Ride" and some other pieces.  Of course, no sports movie score would be complete without some inspirational pieces for when the underdog inevitably triumphs, and these are provided in "Red's First Win" and, best of all, in the rollicking "The Derby", as fine a showcase for Newman's skill for deft, intelligent orchestration as you could want.

Randy Newman is probably the most underrated film composer out there.  So many people seem to think of him as a songwriter who sometimes dabbles in film scores, and possibly see him as being like the various "pop star turned film composer" types who haven't really got a clue how to write music.  I can think of no other film composer with a collection of scores of such consistently high quality.  Ragtime, Avalon, Awakenings and Pleasantville are film scores of the very highest order which would grace any collection - and now Seabiscuit can be added to the list.  It's a first-rate album of truly beautiful music and anyone who admires the likes of Bruce Broughton and Elmer Bernstein - as well as Newman's fans, of course - ought to love it.  It doesn't happen much in horse racing - but put $15 on this one and you're guaranteed a winner.

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