Alien: Covenant

• Composed by Jed Kurzel
• Milan / 2017 / 59m

Prometheus, Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel, wasn’t a particularly well-liked film but its 2012 box office performance was still strong and so Scott returns to the series which he started back in 1979 with a follow-up.  Michael Fassbender returns from the previous film, part of the crew of a ship – the Covenant – which makes a rather unsettling discovery on an uncharted planet.  Scott hasn’t lost any of his visual flair over the years, so we can be sure of a film that – if nothing else – looks spectacular.

The director’s musical choices have always been somewhat eccentric but he has outdone himself over the last decade or so, with several baffling composer choices, but it seemed that with The Martian – for which he returned to Harry Gregson-Williams – he had finally seen sense.  When Gregson-Williams was announced as the composer of this film, there was a collective sigh of relief that Marc Streitenfeld wouldn’t be back from Prometheus, but a few months before the film’s release Gregson-Williams revealed he was no longer involved – an official reason for his departure from the film has yet to be given – and his replacement was announced as Jed Kurzel, who had recently come off providing a frankly pretty terrible score for the Assassin’s Creed movie.

While the response to that news was predictably muted, I’m pleased to say that Alien: Covenant is an infinitely more accomplished piece of work than the composer’s previous effort.  It’s by no means an easy listen, but this is an Alien movie so one shouldn’t expect it to be – it’s a very effective piece of work that straddles two styles, summed up by the opening two cues.  “Incubation” is pure sound design – synth textures, no melody, it’s unsettling, chilling; then “The Covenant” offers the first of a surprisingly large number of appearances of Jerry Goldsmith’s classic theme from the series’ first film.  Scott himself has previously described Goldsmith’s score as the best that’s ever been written for one of his movies, and he’s absolutely right – it’s great to hear the theme given fresh life nearly four decades later.

Kurzel’s writing for orchestra when he isn’t quoting Goldsmith is often striving for the same sort of impact – romantic strings placed in a starkly cold setting, with early highlights coming in cues like “Sails” – with some gorgeous, ethereal textures – and “Launcher Landing”.  He also uses Goldsmith’s brilliant little echoing suspense motif from the first film – in “Wheat Field”, it’s very effectively creepy.

Those opening eight cues are really first-rate but the scores goes off in a very different direction all of a sudden in “Spores”, with chillingly dark synths and abrasive orchestral touches moving firmly into horror territory.  There’s no doubting its effectiveness, or even its musicality – this isn’t just noise, it’s done very carefully and cleverly – its problem is that it’s so successful at being unsettling, it’s downright unpleasant.  At times there’s something quite compelling about it – “Payload Deployment” is a very interesting piece of electronica – but it’s a great relief when the Goldsmith strings return to open the driving suspense of “Command Override”.

What might be termed this score’s main theme is a simple, twinkly motif heard for example at the beginning of “Face Hugger” – it’s a clever little device that is somehow quite calming at the same time as evoking mystery and perhaps some danger.  That danger arrives in no uncertain terms with an explosion of strings (both real and processed) midway through the cue, which leads into one of the most sustained periods of action.  This contrasts starkly with the surprisingly beautiful “Chest Burster”, a romantic piano theme emerging from a bed of shimmering strings.  “Cargo Lift” is an exciting, energetic piece of action/horror, synths and orchestra coming together very well.  It’s very much a piece of modern film music, but the fact it doesn’t hold anything back means it stands apart from the crowd.  After this, there’s a return to the deeply unsettling synth textures for a few minutes, combining with a hint of Elliot Goldenthal towards the end of “Terraforming Bay”, before the album ends with what is called “Alien Covenant Theme” and does include that little motif but it’s pretty much a standalone cue which seems to be a poor relation of the Goldsmith theme.

As I mentioned, this is a very effective piece of work, and very much sounds at home in this franchise’s collection of music.  That lengthy middle portion which is very difficult listening means the album might not be returned to as frequently as several of the ones that have gone before, but credit is due to Jed Kurzel for executing a fine musical vision in this way.  It is true that the ground he covers is reasonably well-trodden, but he treads it with some conviction.  I’m sure I won’t be alone in having my expectations well and truly surpassed.

Rating: *** 1/2

See also:
Alien Jerry Goldsmith
Prometheus Marc Streitenfeld

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