Oh look, it's American Beauty 2, the one where Kevin Spacey is brought back to life as Julia Roberts and given a new name. Well, that's probably not quite true, but Thomas Newman's score isn't exactly the most inspired thing he's written. In fact it's probably one of the least interesting, lots of twinkling percussion, far too many very short tracks that don't do much and not a great deal of anything else. I really can't think of much good to say about Erin Brockovich as you might have guessed. Essentially it is a more of a pop/synth than the hypnotic and almost charming effect of American Beauty. The orchestra almost never gets a proper outing Only the the slightly more extended tracks (truly relative here) have a greater degree of merit. Malign is one of the only tracks that implies any sort of feeling, with ethereal, yet dissonent string writing that waft around. However, in Holding Ponds we are back into the beat-backed plinking and plunking.
As well as Newman's score, there are two songs by the screechy Sheryl Crow. While I appreciated her efforts on Tomorrow Never Dies more than most, that was quite enough for me. Othewise, it is this kind of score that makes me think twice about buying something by Newman. In many of his scores, he manages to mix all the things he is good at into a satisfying concoction, but frankly this is not one of those scores. Even with the numerous hints of American Beauty, this is still more inventive than most of his peers and as such deserves marks for trying. However, trying is not really enough to recommend an album. Newman fans will probably enjoy much of it, but otherwise perhaps one to skip.
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 35:08