SOUNDTRACK
Sideways

Composer: Rolfe Kent
Silva Screen
RRP £9.95
SILCD 1174
Available 24 January 2005


Two men reaching middle age with not much to show but disappointment, embark on a week long trip through California's wine country, just as one is about to take a trip down the alter. The jazz inflected score perfectly accompanies this story of two friends...

Sideways is a humorous and touching movie which revolves around two old friends who have known each other since college. Apart from that, they have nothing else in common. The music to this film accompanies Miles and Jack as they drive through the countryside in California - arguing, getting into difficult situations, tasting fine wines and trying to pick up women.

The jazz influenced score for Sideways works incredibly well: from the toe tapping Wine, Safari to the almost Parisian Picnic to the romantic Miles and Maya. There does, for some strange reason, seem to be an element of French influence in this soundtrack - the composer's English in case you were wondering.

I spent ages trying to work out where I'd heard the track Abandoning the Wedding (elements of which are also present in the track Los Olivos) before. It niggled me whilst I was watching the movie and then again when I listened to the soundtrack. Then it hit me. It is an almost note for note copy of a prominent piece of incidental music in Carter Burwell's score for Being John Malkovich. Tut! Tut! Kent! Did you think no one would notice?

Like a fine wine, this matures with age. After listening to it a few times you'll soon discover that this not only offers a fine accompaniment to the movie, but also works well as a stand alone album.

Darren Rea

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