The Road

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

 
" It's the kind of calm, heartfelt and yet understated emotional type of score that I love to listen to. "

Written by Joep de Bruijn - Review of the regular release

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, who had been playing together since 1993, scored their first score together for John Hillcoat's The Proposition, for which Cave also wrote the original screenplay. It showed their ability to write a solid score for an unusual western drama. While this was good music, their craft really came to bloom on Andrew Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The music was far more complicated and far more emotional. Truly a heart-wrenching score with some of the finest violin solos and much more. Their style of The Proposition was continued, but even more changed for Jesse James. Now, The Road picks up right where the composers left with their previous efforts.

The Road is yet another picture directed by John Hillcoat. It's based on a novel about a boy and his father who struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic time. Given the fact that these two characters have lost a mother and a wife, the music alludes to that sense of loss. So the music is simply underscoring these kinds of emotions by pure and simple use of mainly melancholic strings and tender piano.

This is the ideal, calm type of (mostly thematic) music which is directly related to a sense of loss (of things, of humans) and of loneliness, while also integrating great comfort and hope. It's the kind of calm, heartfelt and yet understated emotional type of score that I love to listen to. But while the music is really moving, part of the music was written to reflect the post-apocalyptic horrors. It is then that the composers build up a chilling atmosphere by the use of shivering strings, heavy percussion, low piano and screeching electric guitars. This balance between the ominous and lighter, yet melancholic is well done. However, to some I can advice to change the order of cues to undergo a fully relaxing experience.

The Road is yet another fantastic score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. It's not to be missed if you enjoyed The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The score was first released digitally and I'm glad that Mute records had decided to the release this on cd as well. Some cues were also placed on a score compilation release (White Lunar) by the same label. I'd recommend that release as well, because there's some magnificent amount of music from two more scores on it: The English Surgeon and The Girls of Phnom Pen. I can't wait for the next film scored by these two Australian composers.

Tracklisting

1. Home (2.04)
2. The Road (3.41)
3. Storytime (2.25)
4. The Cannibals (2.05)
5. Water And Ash (1.31)
6. The Mother (2.46)
7. The Real Thing (2.32)
8. Memory (3.42)
9. The House (3.17)
10. The Far Road (2.45)
11. The Church (1.34)
12. The Journey (4.14)
13. The Cellar (1.09)
14. The Bath (2.31)
15. The Family (3.42)
16. The Beach (3.45)
17. The Boy (3.11)

Total Length: 46.54
(click to rate this score)  
 
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(total of 12 votes - average 4.17/5)

Released by

Mute 9436-2 (regular release 2010)

Conducted by

Matt Dunkley