Revolutionary Road
Thomas Newman
" Watch out for those string moments "Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the regular release
Pairing successful duo's together again has always been one of Hollywood's strongest actions, whether it was for critical or financial reasons. Obviously, the critical aspect was foremost the one and only element that Sam Mendes was looking for once he re teamed Kate Winslet (his wife then) with Leonardo Dicaprio for Revolutionary Road. And naturally pairing him with composer Thomas Newman has never let him down before, so the composer was an obvious and (normally) award winning choice. Alas for Newman he was only nominated for Wall-E that year, one of 2008 biggest movie surprises.
It wasn't surprising however that the combination of Kate and Leo would deliver their goal, making Revolutionary Road not only critically acclaimed but also a financial box office hit. For Thomas Newman none of that acclaim was given to Revolutionary Road, though delivering his usual effective and interesting self. Revolutionary Road can be seen as a score that follows the Little Children approach. That means relaxing melodies, atmospheric almost hypnotic background music and the occasional slightly eccentric cue. The few moments where it turns ever so dark is discovered in "Night Woods" (recreating those darker sounding piano tones of Finding Nemo). The few moments we go hypnotic is when Newman just delivers long everlasting piano and string maneuvers that never seem to turn boring ("April" is definitely the best example of that).
But by far the biggest moments are when Thomas leaves those hypnotic moments behind and goes for a brief but powerful emotional climax. It doesn't happen a lot but "Route 12", "Unrealistic", the end of "April" and the brilliance of "Revolutionary Road (End Title)" see piano and strings colliding to give you Thomas Newman goosebumps. They are not in the same vein of Meet Joe Black or anything like that, but the way the strings deliver such spine tingling beauty show us Newman at his best nonetheless. In short Revolutionary Road doesn't give you anything remotely innovating of Thomas Newman, but it shows us once again that with a tranquil nature and a couple of winning emotional goosebump moments Thomas can nonetheless do so much.
Track Listing
1. Route 12 (2.23) Excellent track
2. Picture Window (1.17)
3. The Bright Young Man (3.31)
4. Hopeless Emptiness (1.27)
5. Unrealistic (2.49)
6. Count Every Star: The Ravens (2.53)
7. Simple Clean Lines (1.32)
8. Speaking of Production Control (1.06)
9. Golden People (2.08)
10. Night Woods (4.53)
11. Crying in the Chapel: The Orioles (3.02)
12. April (9.34)
13. A Bit Whimsical (1.32)
14. Revolutionary Road (End Title) (4.54) Excellent track
15. The Gypsy: The Ink Spots (2.46)
Total Length: 45.47
It wasn't surprising however that the combination of Kate and Leo would deliver their goal, making Revolutionary Road not only critically acclaimed but also a financial box office hit. For Thomas Newman none of that acclaim was given to Revolutionary Road, though delivering his usual effective and interesting self. Revolutionary Road can be seen as a score that follows the Little Children approach. That means relaxing melodies, atmospheric almost hypnotic background music and the occasional slightly eccentric cue. The few moments where it turns ever so dark is discovered in "Night Woods" (recreating those darker sounding piano tones of Finding Nemo). The few moments we go hypnotic is when Newman just delivers long everlasting piano and string maneuvers that never seem to turn boring ("April" is definitely the best example of that).
But by far the biggest moments are when Thomas leaves those hypnotic moments behind and goes for a brief but powerful emotional climax. It doesn't happen a lot but "Route 12", "Unrealistic", the end of "April" and the brilliance of "Revolutionary Road (End Title)" see piano and strings colliding to give you Thomas Newman goosebumps. They are not in the same vein of Meet Joe Black or anything like that, but the way the strings deliver such spine tingling beauty show us Newman at his best nonetheless. In short Revolutionary Road doesn't give you anything remotely innovating of Thomas Newman, but it shows us once again that with a tranquil nature and a couple of winning emotional goosebump moments Thomas can nonetheless do so much.
Track Listing
1. Route 12 (2.23) Excellent track
2. Picture Window (1.17)
3. The Bright Young Man (3.31)
4. Hopeless Emptiness (1.27)
5. Unrealistic (2.49)
6. Count Every Star: The Ravens (2.53)
7. Simple Clean Lines (1.32)
8. Speaking of Production Control (1.06)
9. Golden People (2.08)
10. Night Woods (4.53)
11. Crying in the Chapel: The Orioles (3.02)
12. April (9.34)
13. A Bit Whimsical (1.32)
14. Revolutionary Road (End Title) (4.54) Excellent track
15. The Gypsy: The Ink Spots (2.46)
Total Length: 45.47