Edge of Darkness is an emotionally charged thriller that tells a murky story of politics and big business. From the composer of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Seven, Philadelphia, Crash, The Silence of the Lambs and Eastern Promises comes a highly strung score that perfectly fits the dark themes of the film...

Howard Shore's soundtrack to Edge of Darkness, I'm sorry to report, is not one his best. From the opening 'Main Titles' to the closing 'You're my Girl' I found very little of interest.

Sadly, blandness seems to be the order of the day here, which is a crying shame because Shore has composed some incredible scores. Amongst my personal favourites are, in no particular order, The Fly, Big, Mrs Doubtfire, Dead Ringers (available on the The Films of David Cronenberg soundtrack compilation), parts of Ed Wood, the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Silence of the Lambs. Those films are a strange collection of genres and it's testament to Shore's ability as a composer that he's been able to write music for various genres without ever really repeating himself in the same way that John Barry and James Horner's (both of whose music I adore) compositions have a tendency to do. But with Edge of Darkness Shore seems to have hit a bit of a low point.

There was huge potential to create some beautifully moving themes - the movie follows a man who is driven on by his emotions after the death of his daughter and the ending (without spoiling the plot for those who have not seen the movie) should have been a licence to write a powerful and emotional segment of music. Sadly, this album just doesn't deliver much more than mellow background music. A lot of times tracks start to sound promising, only to revert back to a dull by-the-numbers affair.

Tracks like 'Beach' felt like Shore had delved into his bag of unused tracks for The Silence of the Lambs. 'Beach' is probably this soundtrack's most moving theme but, given Shore's previous work, it could have been so much more emotive.

While as an accompaniment to the movie this may add atmosphere, listened to in isolation it's painfully dull. In just over 40 minutes of music there was nothing that made me want to listen to this soundtrack again. I can't help feeling that Shore was being a tad lazy here.

3

Darren Rea