Lakeshore Records release John Debney's original score for the movie Broken Horses. Having left town as a child after the death of his father, young music prodigy, Jacob Heckum, returns to his desolate hometown after years only to discover that Buddy, the child-like elder brother he left behind, now works for a notorious drug gang. The gang's ruthless boss has twisted Buddy's simple mind and manipulated him into a killer, a surrogate son who blindly does as he is told. Jacob is unable to convince Buddy to leave his new fraternity. Drowned in guilt for having abandoned him, Jacob realizes the only way to save Buddy is from the inside out. Set in the shadows of the turbulent American-Mexican border Broken Horses is a gritty, epic thriller about bonds of brotherhood, laws of loyalty, and the futility of violence...

John Debney's score for Broken Horses contains 32 tracks (1 hr, 02 min, 16 sec) of suspense and action music. It's an intricate and interesting collection of tracks which works incredibly well as a stand alone album.

Tracks like 'Killing My Brother' reminded me very much of Lennie Niehaus's score for The Unforgiven; whilst tracks like 'Theme From: Broken Horses' brought to mind Mark Knopfler's music for Last Exit to Brooklyn. It's odd, because both of those tracks revolve around exactly the same theme - the movie's main theme, which is woven throughout the entire score.

And that brings me neatly around to possibly this album's biggest weakness - its over reliance on one central theme. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful theme, but there's only so many times you can present it and dress it up to disguise the fact that you're just reworking the same piece of music.

That slight quibble aside, overall this is another impressive album by Debney.

7

Darren Rea