Rolfe Kent provides the soundtrack for director Jason Reitman's Labor Day. Kent has taken intimate instrumentation, including guitars, charango and sounds of crickets, and processed them to create intense moody ambiances, at once both organic and other-worldly, delicately navigating a line between tension and emotion...

Rolfe Kent's score for Labor Day wasn't one that I found to be an enjoyable listening experience. In fact, it was a bit of a chore. It's another soundtrack that probably works wonders in the movie to add ambiance and an emotional crutch, but just feels flat and boring when listened to in isolation.

The first time I listened to the album I found no themes of interest and nothing to make me want to listen to it a second time. To be honest it felt like filler material designed to sit in the background and not be noticed. If that was the case, it seems a little odd to release it as a soundtrack.

On the second listen through, I still couldn't understand what it was all about - nor did I care very much either. Yes, there are a few half-hearted attempts at creating themes, but none of them seem to go anywhere. It's as though they are half completed - or rough versions of a work in progress.

I was incredibly disappointed by this album - I can't even imagine fans of the movie wanting to pick this up.

2

Darren Rea