WaterTower Music release the soundtrack to Todd Phillips’s film Joker, which centres around Gotham Cities infamous villain. The score, composed by Hildur Guðnadóttir, is slightly unhinged and more than a little disorientating...

Joker is an impressive film for a number of reasons, not least that it's worlds apart from the DC / Marvel universe superhero/villain films of recent years. In fact, you could change the Joker's character (removing all batman references) and it could just as easily be a chilling movie set outside of the DC universe that sees the birth of a killer. It gives us a believable back story to Batman's most infamous of adversaries but leaves many more questions hanging.

The music is perfect for the movie, helping to set up an eerie, disjointed, fractured atmosphere designed to mirror the inner workings of Arthur Fleck as he stumbles towards transforming into the Joker. However, for me, it wasn't a score that was instantly accessible outside of the film.

I listened to this before seeing the movie, didn't really notice it that much in the film (a sign the composer is doing their job) and again after watching the film. While there's no arguing it's an incredible score... it's a little hard to enjoy on its own merits. It really does need the onscreen weirdness to really work as intended.

So, while I totally love what Guðnadóttir delivers across these 17 tracks (36 min, 26 sec), it's not really an album that stands on its own two feet (which it was never intended to do).

If eerie, unsettling mood pieces are you're thing, then you'll find much to enjoy here.

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Darren Rea