Thank goodness Lost found its way. After an occasionally painful-to-watch third season that filled us in on the backstory of the Others and the Dharma Initiative (not always the same entity, coincidentally), the decision was made by the show’s own producers and writers to shorten the three remaining seasons to something only slightly longer than a UK television season, setting a finite end point in the process. And yet somehow, with that limitation set, the show’s storytelling has become anything but finite, as it messes around with time and space with reckless abandon. The fourth season was an eye-opener that made good use of the renewed focus that was made necessary by the shorter season length; the fifth season then proceeded to be a jaw-dropper.

This CD of music from the fourth season of Lost also benefits from the show’s sharper focus, collecting the absolute cream of the musical crop from the fourth year. Many themes from prior seasons are rehashed and expanded upon, but for the most part, the fourth season’s soundtrack doesn’t feel like a musical flashback to something we’ve already heard. The early tracks seem to have a more intimate feel, a bit less epic, as the show’s core characters – ostensibly the only six survivors of the Oceanic 815 crash so far as the general public knows – work out their own internal dilemmas. Even these cues tend to take a right turn into melancholy or menace, as the fourth season’s early episodes developed a knack for revealing that the survivors’ apparently triumphant return wasn’t as it seemed.

There are moments of uncharacteristic-for-Lost whimsy (”Maternity Hell”), deceptive calm (”The Constant”), and flat-out mayhem (”Keamy Away From Him”). Many of the tracks clock in at a pleasing length – actually, a few of them at surprising lengths for television scoring. The disc is chock full – and yet never quite achieves the slightly top-heavy feeling that I got from the two-disc season 3 soundtrack (even though it was marvelous to have the complete score from Through The Looking Glass in that collection). This is a good specimen of a compilation soundtrack with just the right cues, and at just the right length.

1. Giving Up The Ghost (2:40)
2. Locke’ing Horns (1:51)
3. Lost Away – Or Is It? (1:41)
4. Backgammon Gambit (1:17)
5. Time And Time Again (2:43)
6. The Constant (3:52)
7. Maternity Hell (2:31)
8. Karma Jin-itiative (1:24)
9. Ji Yeon (3:07)
10. Michael’s Right To Remain Wrong (1:55)
11. Bodies And Bungalows (1:25)
12. Benundrum (3:24)
13. Hostile Negotiations (2:19)
14. Locke-About (6:04)
15. There’s No Place Like Home (2:35)
16. Nadia On Your Life (1:41)
17. C4-titude (1:59)
18. Of Mice And Ben (2:19)
19. Keamy Away From Him (4:58)
20. Timecrunch (2:06)
21. Can’t Kill Keamy (1:48)
22. Bobbing For Freighters (5:20)
23. Locke Of The Island (7:07)
24. Lying For The Island (4:52)
25. Landing Party (3:22)
26. Hoffs-Drawlar (3:58)

Released by: Varese Sarabande
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 78:18

The first solo album released by actor Leonard Nimoy after the original Star Trek began riding a wave of publicity in the 1960s, Mr. Spock’s Music From Outer Space is a curious creation, consisting in roughly equal parts of Nimoy singing, Nimoy performing spoken word pieces in character as Mr. Spock, and instrumental renditions of songs related to two television shows with which he would become closely identified: Star Trek and Mission: Impossible. (The inclusion of a cover version of Lalo Schifrin’s Mission: Impossible theme might seem to be a bizarre happenstance – Nimoy didn’t become a regular on that show until after Star Trek had run its course in the summer of 1969, two years after this album was released – but the entire album project was bankrolled and guided by Dot Records and Desilu Studios executives. As unlikely as it is that Nimoy even got a recording contract, it was all a carefully coordinated move to exploit Nimoy’s high visibility as the “real star” of Star Trek.)

Musically speaking, if all of this sounds like an utterly surreal combination, trust me – it is. The Star Trek theme appears in two forms, a lounge-music-style rendition of the entire theme, and a piece called “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, which seems to be a variation/improvisation on the Enterprise fanfare which always served as the opening notes of the Trek theme. The Mission: Impossible theme tune, also a different arrangement from what was originally recorded for the television show, lacks some of the “official” rendition’s punch. Also appearing is “Beyond Antares”, a piece attributed to Star Trek writer Gene Coon and Wilbur Hatch, the man behind the theme tune from I Love Lucy who also happened to be the music director at Desilu Studios, the originators of Star Trek.

And then…there’s the actual “Spock music.” Nimoy performs spoken-word pieces in character as Spock on three numbers, “Alien”, “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Earth” and “A Visit To A Sad Planet”. “Twinkle Twinkle” is the lesser of this trio, being just plain silly, while “Sad Planet” is an interesting peek into the year and decade from which the album sprang; it takes the form of a short monologue, complete with stardate and log entry, in which Spock beams down to find a once-civilized planet reduced to radioactive rubble. He finds only one survivor, who poetically bemoans the fate of his world and then tells Spock that this sad planet is called Earth. It’s rather predictable, sure, but a fascinating (if you’ll pardon the pun) glimpse into the Cold War mindset through the lens of utterly disposable pop culture.

How seriously can you possibly take Mr. Spock’s Music From Outer Space? All I’m going to say here is that you know you’re in trouble when you go from a Spock soliloquoy to Nimoy rumbling his way through “Where Is Love” from Oliver!. I have no doubt that these represent earnest, well-intentioned, heartfelt performances on Mr. Nimoy’s part, but the album also inadvertently serves as a reminder that pre-fabricated releases designed to cash in on the performer’s already-existing celebrity are nothing new. Once upon a time, it could even happen to Spock.

1. Theme From Star Trek (2:07)
2. Alien (2:04)
3. Where Is Love (2:03)
4. Music to Watch Space Girls By (2:22)
5. Beyond Antares (1:58)
6. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Earth (2:21)
7. Mission: Impossible (2:03)
8. Lost In The Stars (2:32)
9. Where No Man Has Gone Before (2:30)
10. You Are Not Alone (2:07)
11. A Visit To A Sad Planet (3:02)

Released by: Dot Records
Release date: 1967
Total running time: 25:09

While this fourth installment of the comic-inspired film franchise finally gives in to an unabashed celebration of the character (and, let’s face it, the actor who plays him) who has intrigued both long-time X-Men fans and uninitiated viewers for ten years, it’s an understatement to say that there’s been a little less cohesion behind the scenes. Each of the X-Men films has been handled by a different composer, with no one under any apparent obligation to build upon the themes established by his predecessors. The X-Men films have been scored by some top-flight talent as well, from John Ottman (Superman Returns) to no less than the late Michael Kamen.

It’s into that august company that rising star Harry Gregson-Williams (The Chronicles Of Narnia) steps with his score for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. His two scores for the Narnia movies thus far are worth mentioning, because the Wolverine score very strongly resembles those: many passages of Wolverine can be described, in a nutshell, as “Narnia, but darker.” Wolverine delves more into screeching string crescendos, electric guitar textures, and dark, pulsating electronics.

One of the strengths of Wolverine – the movie – is its obvious focus on one character. The score follows suit, but that turns out to be a musical weakness; much of the score CD has the same “feel” to it, with few major variations in the music to break the tension. Kayla gets a theme that strikes me as very Narnia, while an interesting motif creeps into the “Adamantium” cue (the scene in which we see the horrifying process Logan undergoes to become invincible), but then vanishes for the rest of the soundtrack. Would it really have killed anyone to, for example, roll out just a little hint of zydeco for Gambit’s scenes? That may sound silly, but we’re not talking about taking it to a ridiculous self-parodying degree that would take the viewer right out of the movie, but just enough of a flavoring to signify the character’s presence. Instead, most of the scenes that don’t involve balls-to-the-wall, bold-and-brassy action music are kept to a menacing restrained thunder with few, if any, concessions to anything overtly thematic.

It’s an enjoyable enough listen, and a fine specimen of modern orchestral-with-a-smattering-of-electronic movie music that serves its visual accompaniment well, but Wolverine won’t be replacing Harry Gregson-Williams’ Narnia work as the composer’s definitive calling card anytime soon.

1. Logan Through Time (4:16)
2. Special Privileges (1:58)
3. Lagos, Nigeria (5:10)
4. Wade Goes to Work (1:29)
5. Kayla (2:50)
6. Victor Visits (2:05)
7. Adamantium (4:17)
8. Agent Zero Comes for Logan (3:06)
9. To The Island (3:43)
10. Deadpool (4:09)
11. The Towers Collapse (3:23)
12. Memories Lost (2:57)
13. “I’ll Find My Own Way” (1:24)

Released by: Varese Sarabande
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 45:23

The moment that it was announced that J.J. Abrams would be taking the helm of the Enterprise for its next big-screen voyage, the first thought that entered my head wasn’t a question of loving or hating the movie over a year in advance; rather, it was “I hope Michael Giacchino is doing the music.” It actually would’ve been a massive surprise – bigger than any on-screen plot twist imaginable – if that hadn’t turned out to be the case: Giacchino’s music has accompanied Alias and Lost on TV, and Mission: Impossible III on film, all projects headed up by Abrams. Furthermore, with non-Abrams films like Speed Racer, Ratatouille and The Incredibles (whose music earned an Oscar nomination), Giacchino has proven himself to be at the forefront of a new generation of composers, and certainly a dependable one.

The question is: can he handle the final frontier? The Star Trek franchise has seen – and heard – some of the very best works of talents such as Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner, and some of the TV music hasn’t been bad either. Star Trek has established themes aplenty and a rich musical legacy – a lot for even an A-list composer take on. From the opening notes of his score album for the new Star Trek film, Giacchino makes it clear that he’s trying to forge his own path. The score does incorporate the immortal Alexander Courage theme, but not right at the beginning. A rather low-key, somber theme opens the movie, says its piece and gets off the stage very quickly. It’s not entirely unlike – but also not madly similar to – the unusual opening numbers of Star Trek VI and Star Trek Nemesis, and it certainly sets a different tone, shortly before doing the musical equivalent of crashing into something abruptly.

This theme recurs throughout the selections presented here, and though its first statement is somewhat downbeat, it’s driven through major keys and triumphant arrangements as well. “Nailin’ The Kelvin”, a cue accompanying a chaotic early scene in the film in which James T. Kirk is literally born in battle, features this theme in a bittersweet rendition, while “Enterprising Young Men” turns the motif into a bold anthem. A simple but menacing theme for Nero, the movie’s villain, surfaces in “Nero Sighted”, which also brings some of Giacchino’s trademark dissonant action music to the fore (one of the few places where I honestly listened to the soundtrack and thought, “Hey, that sounds a bit like Lost”). More Giacchino action music signatures can be found in “Run And Shoot Offense”, which also introduces a vaguely Eastern motif, and “Nero Death Experience”, which features a rare (for a Star Trek film score) choral interlude or two and resolves to a triumphant statement of the main theme before layering it into a boisterous action cue.

But there really aren’t many places where the Star Trek score is a dead ringer for Lost. Whether it’s a larger orchestral ensemble at Giacchino’s disposal, or a different approach to orchestration, the score is very, very traditional Hollywood blockbuster – at times, it reminds me more of John Williams than anything. Electronics seem to be kept under a tight rein, and the most exotic the selections on the album really get is a lonely ehru motif for Spock’s alien heritage. (Science fiction TV and film scores may be the ehru’s best friend in western music – see/hear also the new Battlestar Galactica and Earth: Final Conflict.)

And the original series theme as composed by Alexander Courage? Its opening fanfare makes a triumphant comeback in “To Boldly Go”, and the end credit suite then takes up a glorious full statement of the entire theme from start to finish, with a very pleasing arrangement that balances the French horns just right – sounding very much like Courage’s original orchestration, except with a full choir standing in for the soprano solo of the original theme. Over the considerable length of the end credit suite, Giacchino weaves Courage’s theme into his own material repeatedly, including one incredibly clever section where he demonstrates that the new movie’s theme can fit inside the original series theme as a running counterpoint composition, melding with the Courage theme and not straining against it. Gorgeous and very well thought-out.

Some fans may be a little displeased that the entire score isn’t constantly calling back the themes of the original series and movies, but why should it? It’s clear from the outset that this is a different Star Trek, with fundamental changes made to select parts of the underlying premise. It’s still about James T. Kirk and Spock and the Enterprise and her gallant crew, but the movie spins these basic conceits into a different direction – and yet not not a drastically different one, just a way to open up new stories in a universe whose cat’s cradle of continuity had, by the time the last TV series ended, become almost too tangled for its own good. And if there is room for new Star Trek stories, then there’s room for new Star Trek music – and one gets the hint, during the end credits, that the next movie’s music might have a slightly more familiar feel to it. Judging by this album, hopefully Michael Giacchino will be giving the next movie its sound too. Star Trek probably isn’t what most Trek soundtrack fans are expecting – but maybe that’s not a bad thing.

1. Star Trek (1:03)
2. Nailin’ The Kelvin (2:09)
3. Labor Of Love (2:51)
4. Hella Bar Talk (1:55)
5. Enterprising Young Men (2:39)
6. Nero Sighted (3:23)
7. Nice To Meld You (3:13)
8. Run And Shoot Offense (2:04)
9. Does It Still McFly? (2:03)
10. Nero Death Experience (5:38)
11. Nero Fiddles, Narada Burns (2:34)
12. Back From Black (:59)
13. That New Car Smell (4:46)
14. To Boldly Go (:26)
15. End Credits (9:11)

Released by: Varese Sarabande
Release date: 2009
Total running time: 44:52

A collection of short, punchy instrumental pieces composed for Nokia’s Reset Generation game – which itself pays tribute to numerous games of yesteryear – 8-Bit Weapon’s soundtrack has a lot in common with the old video games that I like: the tunes are addictive, make me want to come back for more, and don’t hang around long enough to get old. Not a bad combination, really.

One thing that may throw listeners off, however, is the brevity I’m talking about above: many of the tracks barely clock in at over one minute, and many of them begin and end very abruptly. The latter is no accident: the tracks are meant to “loop” repeatedly during specific scenes and levels of Reset Generation itself. Fortunately, the tracks are timed out in such a way that one tune’s end leads directly into the next track almost seamlessly. Any one track by itself might seem to be an abrupt listening experience, but the entire soundtrack is a fun listen.

Highlights include “Power Up Pumpin’”, “Micro Anthem 2a03″ (named after the NES’ sound chip), “64 Rocker”, “Rock Music Entry 6581″ and the Leviathan mix of the Reset Generation theme – to name just a few. Those are just my favorites, but to an extent, all of the Reset Generation tracks are earworms that will prove difficult to dislodge from your head after you’ve heard them.

Included as a bonus track is “2D Died”, a riff on Don McLean’s “American Pie” (as in “the day 2D [gaming] died”) which does a great job of updating the original song into a chiptune extravaganza with vocoder-ized vocals. My one issue with “2D Died” is the same issue I have with “American Pie” itself (or, for that matter, “Sweet Home Alabama”: the first three minutes or so are okay, and after that I start looking at track time remaining because the same melody/chord structure is just repeating. I don’t know if that’s even something to dock points for: 8-Bit Weapon is only paying homage to the 7+ minute original. And in any case, I like it better than Madonna’s update of the same song, but it’s just not something I feel compelled to listen to repeatedly, though its lyrics are pretty clever. But the rest of the album – which, by the way, can be downloaded free via the link below – is 8-Bit Weapon gold: repeat listening is compulsory (and with the loop-ready nature of the tracks, it’s even repeat-button-friendly!).

1. Reset Generation Anthem (3:42)
2. Aphex Tweek (1:26)
3. Dungeon Derivative (0:54)
4. Blip Bwop (1:16)
5. Little Lost Lazer Boy (1:01)
6. Lethargic Menace (1:16)
7. Bubble Twin Bonanza (1:04)
8. Where Fools Tread (1:01)
9. Chiptune Chump (1:19)
10. Commodore Base (1:20)
11. Micro Anthem 2a03 (1:35)
12. 64 Rocker (1:12)
13. Krafty Noob (1:16)
14. Tricky Game (1:04)
15. Reset Generation Anthem – Leviathan Mix (1:22)
16. Nin10do Raver (0:59)
17. Breakin’ Bits (1:20)
18. Macro Boogie (0:57)
19. Power Up Pumpin’ (1:20)
20. BootySoft Inc. (0:57)
21. Corrupt Conscript Festival (1:25)
22. SID Vicious (1:55)
23. Rock Music Entry 6581 (1:04)
24. Reset Generation Anthem – Sinister Mix (1:13)
25. 2D Died (7:43)

Released by: 8-Bit Weapon / Nokia
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 39:41

Some concept albums try to tell a specific story, while, with some concept albums, the “concept” is built around specific musical parameters – we’re only going to use these instruments, or we’re only going to play live with no overdubs. In the case of Tim Finn’s The Conversation, it’s the latter kind of concept album: reuniting with fellow Split Enz alumni Eddie Rayner on piano and Miles Golding on violin, Tim Finn aims for nothing less than a folk-rock version of chamber music.

Now, this isn’t to say that it’s strictly lo-fi. Within that very specific combination of instruments, there are plenty of possibilities for a variety of sounds. The opening track, “Straw To Gold”, ends with a searing duet between violin and electric guitar. “Only A Dream” takes on a dreamy, almost-old-school bluegrass/country flavor with its guitar work. Out of the entire album, only “Forever Thursday” has drums at all. One guest musician brings a special touch to one particular song; “The Saw And The Tree”, which turns out to be an anti-domestic-violence song, features an actual saw solo that, against Golding’s violin work in the background, is positively haunting. The “limited range of instruments” turns out not to be much of a limit at all here.

The presence of Split Enz musicians doesn’t mean that this is a particularly Enz-y album, although it seems as though Finn’s Enz experiences inform the lyrics in many cases. Musically, the closest The Conversation gets to the Split Enz ethos is the light-hearted “Great Return”, and the Enz-iest element of that song is Rayner’s piano work. As Golding was dropped from the Enz lineup very early in the 1970s, when the band went from acoustic to electric, it’s hard to nail any of his performances down as particularly Enz in nature, and even so, there are almost 40 years of professional classical concert performance that stand a slightly better chance of being a musical influence on him. Lyrically, “Fall From Grace” references the Enz song “Maybe” and seems to be Finn’s equivalent of “All Those Years Ago”, while one wonders if “More Fool Me” isn’t a song whose words are pointed at a certain Mr. Judd.

In the end, though, The Conversation is not only uniquely Tim Finn, but it’s fairly unique within Tim Finn’s body of work; I’d be very surprised to hear him do another album in this style, but The Conversation – despite its sparse arrangements – is substantial enough that it’s a very worthwhile detour from Finn’s usual fare.

1. Straw To Gold (3:57)
2. Out Of This World (3:01)
3. The Saw & The Tree (4:04)
4. Slow Mystery (4:00)
5. Rearview Mirror (3:43)
6. Only A Dream (2:31)
7. Fall From Grace (2:42)
8. Invisible (3:51)
9. Snowbound (2:57)
10. Great Return (3:02)
11. Imaginary Kingdom (3:17)
12. Forever Thursday (2:57)
13. More Fool Me (3:41)

Released by: Capitol
Release date: 2008
Total running time: 43:43