The original motion picture soundtrack for the biographical drama Seberg is released via Music.Film Recordings. The movie is inspired by true events about the French New Wave icon and Breathless film star, Jean Seberg who in the late '60s was targetted by the FBI, because of her support for the civil rights movement and romantic involvement with activist (and cousin of Malcolm X) Hakim Jamal...

For a soundtrack that accompanies a drama movie, Jed Kurzel's score for Seberg is, on a first play through, remarkably subtle and a little dry. But the more you invest time with it, the more it opens up. Kurzel delivers a soundtrack that is more a soundscape of the film, than it is a collection of themes and reflective moments.

For this reason it won't be a release that everyone will get enjoyment from. And, unless you're a huge fan of the film, it's doubtful that you'll be picking this up as an impulse purchase. For the most part it feels like a collection of disjointed music cues - music that could be slotted anywhere in the movie (or just about any movie for that matter) to very subtly enhance the atmosphere.

I can't say, after listening to it numerous times over several weeks, that I'm any closer to knowing or liking it as I was on the first play through. A lot of this could be to do with the way the album tracks are ordered. There's nothing to pull you in or hold your attention for even a moment.

The finished album just feels like a cheap and hurriedly put together collection of music cues that fail to capture the mood or essence of the movie... with the possible exception of the haunting theme at the centre of 'Research'.

4

Darren Rea