Glen here…

So I walk into a store today, looking for the score to ARMAGEDDON. I check the soundtrack section, look under "A". It’s not there. I find a store stooge standing in the middle of the soundtrack aisle, apparently dead to the world.

I ask him if he works in the soundtrack section.

He nods his head dispassionately.

I ask him if the *score* to ARMAGEDDON had come in today, as had been previously announced.

He looks as if me and my three heads just stepped off a big, purple, mushroom-shaped spaceship wearing nothing but an aluminum foil jockstrap and high heel shoes: "I don’t know what you’re talking about."

Stooge then returns to his catatonic state, as if this answer was somehow satisfactory and complete.

I was already in a bad mood, this wasn’t making things any better. I pressed on:

Glen (really curious, trying to be nice): Do you know what a score is?

No reply.

Glen: There was supposed to an ARMAGEDDON album issued today…

The stooge points meekly at the long-ago-released rock and roll CD, loaded with music which shouldn’t be called a "soundtrack", and should never have been heard in a science fiction film.

Glen: That has no meaning to me. I don’t want that. I want the *real* music. The orchestra kinda music?

Stooge: I don’t really know.

Glen: Well, it’s not on the shelves and it’s coming out today. Can you at least go look somewhere?

Stooge glowers, moseys on down to the *video* aisle, where he stops to look at the science fiction section, flipping through tapes filed under "A". I re-approach the fellow.

Glen: I was referring to a soundtrack. A CD. In case I wasn’t….clear.

He looks at me with an incredulous "Duh" expression on face.

Stooge: I know.

Stooge wanders off, mumbling something about the back of the store. No way I’m ever gonna see this guy again. He’ll probably walk straight through the doors of the stock room and into oncoming traffic.

I pace impatiently for a few minutes, figuring if statistics allow for the possibility of someone getting nailed on the head with bird shit, there’s always a *chance* this dude may actually find the score amidst the stacks of boxes and crates in the labyrinthine storage area, make his way back into the showroom, find me among the den of people there, and put the score in my hand. Yeah - and Lucas is gonna let me direct a STAR WARS prequel.

Just as I’d dialed "information" on my cell phone, with the intent of calling another record store, back comes Stooge with the product in hand! He looked very satisfied with himself, I must have looked like I was about to pass out from the shock of seeing this guy accomplish something - he actually looked concerned for me. I thanked him for his diligence (more likely luck), went and bought the CD, and came home to listen and type. Guess George Lucas *will* ask me to direct a STAR WARS prequel after all, hunh?

So, how does Trevor Rabin’s music play outside the movie? Well, first of all, it must be acknowledged that…yes…the film did have a score which wasn’t rock and roll, even though it was sometimes hard to detect while being sledge-hammered across the head by one of the most scorched-earth sound designs to hit the screen in years. When heard by itself, Rabin’s score ranges from merely *okay*, to sometimes quite good.

In my humble opinion, the score to ARMAGEDDON suffers many of the same complications suffered by THE ROCK when its score made the transition from screen to CD. The score for THE ROCK was magnificent and exhilarating inside the film it accompanied, but the impact of the score was so inextricably tied to the on-screen visuals, taking it out of its intended format seemed disjointed, ineffective, and sometimes even annoying.

I think this happens…partially…because films like THE ROCK and ARMAGEDDON are such *complete* sensory experiences, that taking any one element out of context negates that element when it doesn’t have other elements to lean on. These movies are about attitude, style, and energy. They are about wholly immersing the viewer in a combined sensory experience. More than other films, the components of THE ROCK and ARMAGEDDON are so intertwined and interlaced that the music alone doesn’t *feel* the same without the sound, for example - or the imagery. In essence, I suppose I am contending that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And the parts themselves have a difficult time impressing outside of the whole.

Maybe I’m full of crap, but I *think* this makes sense, and I think this helps explain my lukewarm reaction to Rabin’s new CD. In the film, I liked his score. Its bombast and occasional tendency towards melodrama lended itself nicely to the larger-than-life / reluctant-heroic iconification forwarded by director Michael Bay and cinematographer John Schwartzman. Outside of the film, however, the score feels a little less successful, a little more uneven.

Trevor Rabin’s ARMAGEDDON, as a whole, is quite eclectic. It ranges from bombastic "hero" music, a staccato "driller march", elegant and sometimes surreal "we are all coming together for a cause" music, to semi-bluegrass & jazzy sounding stuff.

Throughout the first half of the album, the score comes perilously close to being a caricature of action film music. There’s something that simply doesn’t come together right during the first 8 tracks (not like "eight track" - those big clunky dinosaurs of cassettes. Literally, track number "8").

But after track 9 - "Launch" - something happens. The score becomes more fluid, sophisticated, and seems to be more…well…legitimate. Put simply: about half way through, the score on this CD coalesces nicely. I’m not sure if this is a product of mixing, arrangement (which, to *my* ears, seems a bit more fully realized on the later tracks), the sequencing of tracks on the CD, or what. But there’s definitely a level of maturity accompanying the later half of the score, and it functions well on an artistic level woefully missing earlier on.

As such, only *some* ARMAGEDDON CD makes for a solid score CD, and roughly half of the music may encourage listeners to put the disc in repeatedly. A few movements here and there are oddly reminiscent of some quieter moments from Trevor Jones & Randy Edelman’s score for THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS. ARMAGEDDON was…at one point…temp-tracked (temporarily scored) with music from MOHICANS, so this might account for how Jones & Edelman’s influence made it into Rabin’s music.

50 minutes and 23 seconds of music in total, the ARMAGEDDON score from Columbia (Sony Music) hit stores today. The video cassette of the film will be issued this Friday the 13th, in pan & scan and widescreen.