Lost: The Last Episodes (2010)

Composed by Michael Giacchino

After releasing music from only the first three quarters of Lost’s final season, Varese Sarabande quickly followed up with the last album. The Last Episodes album also contains two discs. The first contains an hour of material from the three pre-finale episodes, while the second is a full disc that focuses on the series finale itself. This album is a wonderful capstone to ten discs of music. It gets all of the major themes and motifs together for a rousing finale while still introducing a couple new melodies. I’ve already discussed my general feelings on the last season in my last review but I will reiterate that the last episodes of Lost contain a lot of engrossing material, but also a few unfortunate issues that are common throughout the finales of serialized television shows, especially in the realm of sci-fi and fantasy. Of course, regardless of any of the episodes’ quality, Giacchino delivers perhaps his best work.

Before getting into a fuller rundown, I’ll quickly review each section of the soundtrack. The first comes for “The Candidate,” one of my favorite episodes of the last season. It’s an action-packed episode full of gunfights and ticking time elements. As a result Giacchino really lets loose with this one, right out of the gate in “Cage Crashers.” There are a couple emotional pieces from the flash-sideways in “Shephard’s Why” and “Flew the Coop,” but the music from the episode is mostly concentrated into two lengthy action cues: “Sub-Primed” and SS Lost-Tanic.”

Lost: The Final Season (2010)

Composed by Michael Giacchino

Lost’s final season was entertaining and in some ways emotionally satisfying. However it failed to provide a cohesive explanation for all of the show’s mysteries. It was evident that the writers and producers did not a hundred percent know what they were building. The on-island stuff, despite some ridiculousness, is very engaging, but the new flash-sideways are a sore point for me (more on that in a couple paragraphs). Any flaws in the season were helped by Giacchino’s wonderful score. After focusing more of his creative energies on major motion pictures in 2009, he came back with a vengeance, capping off his television masterpiece with suitably amped up material. While the story was not resolved to viewers’ satisfaction, Giacchino successfully weaved all of his thematic material for an epic conclusion. Almost every theme of note appears across the four discs (the outlier is the Freighter theme from Season Four, which did have a brief iteration in the series finale but not on disc; same for the heartwarming Rose and Bernard theme).

The release of music for season six was both surprisingly extensive yet also confusing. The Season Six soundtrack itself only contains material from the first 13 episodes (12 if you count the first two as one like the album booklet). This was soon followed by a limited “Lost: The Last Episodes” release. However Varese Sarabande, the record label, neglected to clearly state that there would be two double-disc albums and many buyers were legitimately concerned that an abundance of great material would not be released. Not helping is the presence of two “bonus tracks” on the first set. These include “The Hole Shebang” and “Moving On,” the action and emotional climaxes of the series finale. Varese Sarabande likely intended these for those who would not buy the limited edition Last Episodes release. This is curious thinking as anybody who picks up the first album would likely be familiar with the show’s music and not be worried about shelling out more money for the epic conclusion. I will not be covering the two bonus cues until my review for the Last Episodes album. As always there will likely be spoilers.

Lost Season Five (2009)

Composed by Michael Giacchino

Season 5 of Lost might be the most over-the-top season of the show, thought it is still greatly entertaining. The plotlines go all over the place, for reasons I will explain once I get into spoilers. I find this to be the in the bottom third of my season rankings. It’s not bad, just not as great. Giacchino’s music also seemed to be affected for the fifth season. I think the issue was that 2009 was the year where he started taking on major film score assignments. While scoring Lost, he was also creating scores for the Star Trek reboot and Pixar’s beloved Up. His creative energies seem to have flowed more to these properties, and understandably so. While season 5 of Lost has some new concepts and a couple new characters, Giacchino could easily just insert his pre-established material.

Even on album, parts of Giacchino’s music are lifted whole or nearly wholesale from previous cues. This creates a lack of originality in places and makes avid listeners wonder why a few of the more unique pieces were not chosen for album space. The trade-off is that season 5’s album is the most thematically cohesive. The themes for Locke, Ben, and Jack are prominent throughout the disc and two of the main themes also recur fairly regularly. As for new themes and motifs, this season still has a good amount. The only one to have a lasting impact through the remainder of the show is the mystical theme for Jacob (“Tangled Web”). The new love theme in “La Fleur” also grabbed fans’ attention. Otherwise most of the themes and motifs were singularly suited for just this season. The most memorable of these is the bomb theme (introduced in “Sawyer Jones and the Temple of Boom” at 2:44), which appears to be built out of the second phrase of the main Lost theme.

Lost Season Four (2008)

Composed by Michael Giacchino

Season four of Lost was the shortest of the seasons at 14 episodes. The producers were actually already planning for shorter seasons, but it would have been 18 episodes. A writer’s strike had forced them to cut things down, unfortunately resulting in underdeveloped new characters. Still, it’s an engaging season where the pace really picks up. Also, the shorter runtime means that it was easier for the album producers to select highlights for a full single disc. The soundtrack for season four is where Michael Giacchino’s music reached true cinematic levels, even though the booklet shows that he still had the same number of musicians. Some of the lengthier tracks sport four or five themes in interplay with each other, and some of the action cues are able to sustain themselves beyond one or two minutes. The higher level of emotion and intensity make this the best single disc presentation of music from the series. It’s definitely the first that can safely be accessed by people who have never watched the show.

This season also introduced the Oceanic Six theme for its three-part finale. This theme appears around the album’s halfway point in “There’s No Place Like Home.” As with many of Giacchino’s theme introductions, it starts on piano and then repeats on more dramatic strings. The construction of this theme is epic, and noticeably utilizes the first six notes of the main Lost theme at the end. “Of Mice and Ben” reuses the theme with heavy percussive elements for a cliffhanger. “Can’t Kill Keamy” brings in the theme for a very stirring moment, this time with the full Lost theme as counterpoint (0:46). “Landing Party” provides a final grand iteration, this one with a heart-tingling flourish of cello at the end (2:44). This theme is so notably epic that Giacchino used it as the main emotional identity for the series finale two years later.

Lost Season Three (2006-2007)

Composed by Michael Giacchino

Season three of Lost was the last of the show to run for a full 20+ episodes. From what I recall it’s my favorite season, though it also sported the single worst episode in “Stranger in a Strange Land.” In this season the show digs deeper into the mysterious Others, the other inhabitants of the island. At the same time more aspects of the greater conflict start to appear, of course in mysterious tidbits. Giacchino’s music definitely went on an upswing this season. With the dramatic stakes escalating the emotional cues have more power. There’s also a lot more in the way of action scenes and a couple smoke monster attacks, so in contrast to season two there’s more excitement and intense rhythms to be had. In a welcome surprise, Varese Sarabande opted to release two jam-packed discs. There were so many musical highlights and thematic development that this was definitely a wise move. The first disc contains music from the first 20 episodes, while the second has the complete score for “Through the Looking Glass,” the season finale, and an abundance of material from the preceding episode.

The first disc is definitely superior, featuring selected highlights. By this time the music was much more lush and exciting and at certain points positively cinematic. The second disc is a different story. It is fascinating to get a complete score from one of the episodes, but the end result is a good amount of material that simply isn’t that engaging, from slow, underdeveloped emotional signatures to ambient suspense. There’s lots of slow string twanging and long pauses between notes. The sound quality on the second disc also seems to be hastily taken from the initial recording sessions. A better release would have had both discs be highlight-centric, with a few more cues from the first 20 episodes and a more rounded 40-50 minute presentation of music from the last 3. Still, it’s hard to complain when one considers how much great material would have been left off a single disc.

Lost Season Two (2005-2006)

Composed by Michael Giacchino

The second season of Lost was a strong continuation of the show. Like the first season it focused much on the characters’ efforts to survive. But it also sees the character relationships start to cement, for better or worse. Also the island’s mysteries remain far out of reach, but elements of its past are slowly revealed through the discovery of the Hatch, an underground facility with a dark secret. Another major element is the discovery of another group of survivors from Oceanic 815, but thanks to circumstances involving the actors this didn’t amount to much in the long run. Michael Giacchino also continued his strong run, further developing his network of themes and motifs. The score as heard on album, however, is lacking in several areas.

One of the major issues is actually with the season itself. It’s not bad, but there are far less smoke monster and polar bear chases and the show hadn’t reached the point where shootouts became a common recurring feature. As a result the album moves rather slowly despite the quality of the compositions. The emotional character themes are almost exclusively broken up by dark suspense. Again the music is good, but the album flow suffers as a result. Ironically the second issue is related to the themes. The producers of the season 2 album seemed to prioritize establishing the various character themes. It catches up on ones that were introduced in season one, but absent from the first album, including those for one-hit musician and drug addict Charlie (“Charlie’s Temptation”), overweight comic relief Hurley (“World’s Worst Landscaping”), former Iraqi interrogator Sayid (“A New Trade”), and rich step-siblings Boone and Shannon (“Shannon’s Funeral”). There’s also a plethora of new character themes for Nigerian priest Eko (“All’s Forgiven…Except Charlie”), Korean couple Sun & Jin (“The Last to Know”), Scottish Desmond (“Bon Voyage, Traitor”), two more themes for Hurley (“Mess it All Up” and “Hurley’s Handouts”), and loveable old couple Rose and Bernard (in the track of the same name). In a 65 minute presentation the multitude of themes ensures that no theme or themes, such as the trio of strong identities on the first album, provide a cohesive framework. The album as a whole works better as part of a vast musical experience encompassing all ten discs rather than a stand-alone piece.

Lost Season One (2004-2005)

Composed by Michael Giacchino

Lost, conceived by J.J. Abrams, became an instant television phenomenon. The show sees a plane crash on an island. The survivors realize that there is something odd about the island, such as how no rescue seems to be coming even after weeks of waiting. A mystery show, Lost kept audiences engrossed with its seemingly endless string of mysteries and surprises. But the true appeal comes from the interesting cast of characters (ranging from the mysterious John Locke to the loveable Hurley) whose stories are equally interesting and absorbing. Each episode would focus on a character, providing flashbacks to their pre-crash lives. One aspect that greatly helped the story along was the fantastic music by Michael Giacchino. Giacchino had previously worked on J.J. Abrams’ Alias. Giacchino’s music for that series was heavily electronic and Bond-inspired. But for a show as big and ambitious as Lost, Giacchino and the brains behind the project knew that an orchestral score was needed. And so the composer embarked on an incredible musical journey. His work on the six-season show produced an incredible array of themes and motifs which by the later seasons worked with each other in a complex web. While Giacchino had some fairly high profile work with the Medal of Honor franchise and the Incredibles, this show really launched him into the major leagues. It further helped usher in what I consider the golden years of TV scores, alongside Bear McCreary’s Battlestar Galactica and Murray Gold’s Doctor Who. Whereas they were previously cheap, often synthetic filler, they were now rich orchestral scores that often outshone film scores with easier production schedules.

My reviews for the Lost soundtracks will of course be guided by the album production. I can say right off the bat that Giacchino’s music for the series as a whole hits a 10/10 rating. Album releases for television scores, moreso in those days, would contain about an hour to a full disc of highlights, sometimes from more than one season. Therefore I rate each season’s score by how it was put on album, not in the show itself. I will also try to give brief spoiler-free summaries before launching deeper into the music, for the benefit of anyone who plans on seeing the show for the first time and wants to be surprised. The album for the first season is about 65 minutes and spans material from 25 episodes (roughly 1,050 minutes of running time though much of season one is unscored). The first season only scratched the surface of the island’s mysteries and was often more about survival and learning to get along. The music is thus less complex than what would be heard in later seasons. Many of the earlier cues featured ethereal synthesized-backed moments or low-key suspense. The album is full of short but frenetic action cues that, given the isolated jungle island setting, sound primal. The various percussive effects give even softer cues a distinctly tropical feel. The music in later seasons would get showier. Giacchino’s music actually has a bit of a throwback feel, sometimes evoking Bernard Hermann’s suspense scores (“Kate’s Motel”) or The Twilight Zone (“Proper Motivation”).

24

 

Composed by: Sean Callery

In 2001, 24 hit television screens and became quite the success, spawning seven further seasons detailing the badass yet unlucky career of CTU (counter-terrorist unit) agent Jack Bauer. Its real-time format within a 24-hour period helped create a suspenseful, surprise-laden experience, although after the first season the show gradually lost focus of the real-time aspect in favor of drama (imagine dealing with a stack of terrorist schemes and action scenes uninterrupted in just one day). The music by Sean Callery is an electronics and synthesizer-laden score that, despite its TV budget, contributed greatly to the suspense of the show and has some outstanding moments. It even garnered Callery several Emmy awards.

Unfortunately, there hasn’t been many albums for the music of 24, for while it’s not a thematic powerhouse like Lost or Battlestar Galactica, the music is up there in TV scores and has its own set of themes and motifs, unlike many other spy/military shows. Thus the albums miss a lot of highlights for those who love the show and pay attention to its music. These compilations also don’t reveal the many themes and motifs as most that manage to get on album appear only as one-offs. However, they are good listens and the absence of vast highlights won’t bother those who aren’t big fans. The first album here collects highlights from the first three seasons, clocking in at less than an hour and heavily focusing on the first season, which is a little frustrating for me personally as a fan as I know that there were great moments in the next two seasons that would have been great to feature.