Lakeshore Records release Michael Brook's score for Stronger. The film is inspired by a true story and based on the New York Times bestseller, Jake Gyllenhaal stars as the working-class Boston man [Jeff Bauman] whose iconic photo from the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing captured the hearts of the world. Stronger is the deeply personal account of the heroic journey that came after that photo – defining a man’s inner courage, a community’s pride, a family’s bond and an unexpectedly tenacious love to overcome devastating adversity...

As you'd expect, given the film's subject, Michael Brook turns in a sweet score for Stronger. However, I was surprised, given this was the same composer that previously gave us Brooklyn and Jerusalem, that this wasn't a much stronger score.

While it is an enjoyable enough affair, there's not actually that much here to make it stand out from countless other similar scores. It's mainly an album full of music cues - albeit, touchingly delicate ones - and atmospheric background themes.

While, on balance, I did rather enjoy these 23 tracks (48 min, 35 sec), it's not really an album I'll be digging out any time soon to play again. It's functional score, but contains nothing of real interest.

5

Darren Rea