Plaza Mayor Company Ltd release Jefferey Alan Jones's original score for Most Beautiful Island, a tense psychological thriller that puts a new spin on the immigrant survival story...

This is not a soundtrack that works, on any level, outside of the medium it was composed for... and I really can't understand why someone saw fit to do so. As composer Jefferey Alan Jones admits in the press notes: "The music is carefully woven into the sounds of the city in a manner in which you cannot distinguish the music from the sound design. The score is intended to be felt, not heard."

From that perspective this is a flawless score, beautifully crafted to give dark and atmospheric undertones to the onscreen action. Listened to out of context it just feels limp and bland; just a collection of not very interesting disjointed sounds.

Normally I can't abide scores where dialogue from the film is lifted and placed throughout the tracks (who does that? The reason you're buying the score is to hear the music on its own) but in this instance it actually helps to break up the monotony.

Don't buy this unless you've seen the film and thought "Hey, what a great soundtrack. That would sound great playing in my creepy dungeon room".

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Darren Rea