How to Train Your Dragon Composed by John Powell
Varese Sarabande Records (2010)
Rating:
10/10
Soundclips below from AmazonMP3
“Hands down,
[HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON] is
POWELL’s best score to date and stands as one of the best scores of 2010.
”
Buy the Dragon -- Just Buy It.
Review by Helen San
The first time JOHN POWELL caught my ear was in 1997 with his energetic
music to Antz (co-composed with HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS). Two years later
his score to FORCES OF NATURE put him on the map as a composer to watch,
and listen to. We caught a glimpse of the kind of uncommon brilliance that
makes us fans of film music—and bemoaned the fact that this awesomeness
was not available commercially. Since then POWELL has released a string of
solid hits, but FORCES OF NATURE was always, for me, the one that got
away, as it were.
Finally, we get another chance to own and enjoy that sheer luminosity we
know POWELL is capable of. How to Train Your Dragon has every bit of the
effulgence of FORCES OF NATURE, and then some. We don’t get just a glimpse
this time; this is virtuosity in all its glory. Hands down, HTTAD is
POWELL’s best score to date and stands as one of the best scores of 2010.
For me, it was an early contender for 2010’s Oscar-worthy elite and has
remained so all year.
More often than not, a good soundtrack album will have a few good themes,
nicely expressed in a handful of tracks. HTTAD is gold from beginning to
end. That is not to say that some tracks don’t take a backseat to other
tracks; the music has to journey, after all. But its magic is that the
journey, like the story, flows flawlessly from one theme to the next,
always taking the listener to new places, even with reoccurring ideas.
While themes appear and reappear throughout the score, they are expressed
with vastly different instruments and tempos, yet woven so seamlessly with
one another that their variations seem infinite. This perfect teamwork, if
you will, lends an extraordinary richness and sophistication to the
composition, even as its familiarity connects intuitively with the
audience.
Something I’ve noticed in this score, more than in others, is that POWELL
seems to shine best when percussions take center stage, when the rhythm is
the main brush painting the musical picture. His work reminds me of JAMES
NEWTON HOWARD this way, another composer who is very strong in propulsive,
percussive music. Melodies and cultural flavors (in this case, a sort of
Medieval Celtic thing) help, but it is the dance of his instruments that
gives us goosebumps.
By far, my favorite track is Forbidden Friendship (8), which soars with
the same emotional depth we heard in FORCES OF NATURE. A slowly rousing
romantic theme, it begins with a melodic rhythm on xylophone, joined by
other mallet percussion instruments, and ends in a fervent full
orchestra/choir crescendo. Coming Back Around (23) is another noteworthy
cue with all the dramatic splendor that I like to give standing ovations
to. This is Berk (1), the opening track, has a very nice medley of most of
the main themes in the movie. If one had only $3 and could not possibly
sell a kidney to get the entire album, I would start with these. Dragon’s
Den (16) is an awe-inspiring dramatic action cue with a new theme not
presented elsewhere, so it should come next if you should have $4. Test
Drive (11) is also absolutely fantastic, but does reiterate some of the
same gusto in the first three mentioned tracks. I know times are hard, but
this is one case where you should just bite the bullet, get a second job
or whatever it takes, and buy the album. This is not a score that should
be listened to piecemeal.
The album is rounded out pleasantly with HTTAD’s original song, Sticks and
Stones (24), performed by Jonsi, the Icelandic post-rock star. It is a
surprisingly catchy alternative rock song in both English and Icelandic, a
nod, no doubt, to the story’s Viking heritage.
I know that if this review glowed any brighter, you’d be able to read it
from outer space. As a music critic, I worried about being too positive.
But something this fun and moving and not at all boring only comes once in
a blue moon. Ten out of 10’s are reserved for special occasions; for me,
this is indeed one of them.
