Lakeshore Records releases Jed Kurzel's score for Slow West. The movie is a western adventure set in late 19th Century Colorado, and is centred on a young man’s epic search for the love of his life. Silas Selleck, a mysterious and inscrutable stranger acting as the paid protector to sixteen-year-old Scottish aristocrat Jay Cavendish, who is on a reckless journey through the American Wild West. Jay has grown up in the Scottish Highlands with Rose Ross, a humble farmer’s daughter. As they mature, friendship grows into something deeper for Jay. When her father has to flee to America after a tragedy, Rose is suddenly torn from Jay’s life. Heartbroken, Jay turns his back on his privileged life and sets off to find Rose and win her heart...

While I'm sure that this score works wonders in the movie, listened to on its own merits it is rather flat and dull. To be honest it contains three elements I detest in scores: dialogue from the movie (although to be fair in this instance it is placed between the tracks so you can leave them off your playlist); a strange mix of score and various artist tracks; and a limp, rather dull and lazy score.

You have to take your hat off to the fact that the usual cliched Western sound has been avoided, but to be honest I think I would have preferred that to what we end up with. Sure, in the movie I'm sure it works a treat, but I doubt many people will get much entertainment out of listening to it without the onscreen imagery.

I was also surprised to learn that this was the score to a romantic movie... At no point did the music attempt to lean towards romance based themes or anything that you'd expect from this sort of movie.

Track listing:

01 - 'Orion's Belt' - Jay Cavendish
02 - 'Jay’s Theme' - Jed Kurzel & London Contemporary Orchestra
03 - 'Let's Drift' - Silas Selleck
04 - 'Let’s Drift Theme' - Jed Kurzel & London Contemporary Orchestra
05 - 'Mbanza Congo' - Passi Jo, Sam Manzanza and Tawanda Manyimo
06 - 'The Trading Post' - Jed Kurzel & London Contemporary Orchestra
07 - 'The Swedes' - London Contemporary Orchestra
08 - 'In Where?' - Jay Cavendish & Silas Selleck
09 - 'Rupert’s Death' - Jed Kurzel & London Contemporary Orchestra
10 - 'Am Bata Uaine' - Ali ‘Beag’ MacLeod
11 - 'Jay Alone Theme' - London Contemporary Orchestra
12 - 'A New World (For Them)' - Werner
13 - 'After Werner' - Jed Kurzel & London Contemporary Orchestra
14 - 'Fly to Rose' - Silas Selleck
15 - 'Aeolian Arietta' - Lone Pigeon
16 - 'Rose Ross Is Her Name' - Jay Cavendish
17 - 'Absinthe Theme' - Jed Kurzel & London Contemporary Orchestra
18 - 'A Falling Angel' - Payne
19 - 'The Minstrel’s Song' - Bryan Michael Mills
20 - 'Jupiter and Mars (Instrumental)' - Lone Pigeon and The Kittens
21 - 'Not Bad Kid' - Silas Selleck
22 - 'The Washing Line' - Jed Kurzel & London Contemporary Orchestra
23 - 'Theme from The Orkestra of the Dead' - Bryan Michael Mills
24 - 'Kill That House' - Payne
25 - 'The Shoot Out' - London Contemporary Orchestra
26 - 'Jay Alone Theme (Revisited)' - London Contemporary Orchestra
27 - 'I Am A Soldier Of The Cross' - Silas Selleck
28 - 'A New World (For Us)' - Jed Kurzel
29 - 'Slow West' - Django Django

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Darren Rea