Rather unfortunately, prior to giving this album a final listen in preparation for review, I was listening to Sergei Prokofiev's outstanding ballet score, Romeo & Juliet - a piece of classical music that any James Horner or John Williams fan would love. Less than a minute into the Escape from New York main title (mix 1 of 2, no less) I couldn't for the life of me think of any reason why anyone might want to listen to this dreadful mixture of synths instead of something as wonderful as the Prokofiev. Of course, music doesn't have to be as good as that written by one of the 20th century's most gifted composers, but even so, John Carpenter's music is less worthy than most. Carpenter has made some influential horror films in his time and is in/famous for penning most of the music too, most successfully for the original Halloween, although after two minutes of the vaguely suspenseful main 'theme', I was about ready to bludgeon puppies, but maybe this is the desired response.
Almost all of Carpenter's music sounds like it could be written by someone given half an hour and a cheap 80's Yamaha keyboard. There are none of the sophisticated samples of Media Ventures or even the wafting sounds of Vangelis or Tangerine Dream, neither of whom are on my top list of favourite composers, but at least they achieve some kind of atmosphere and drama. Here however, the keyboards sound like keyboards and there is almost no attempt to use their full potential, it's synthesised doodling piano music. I'm not saying that all electronic instruments should emulate acoustic instruments, but with search a dearth of interesting melodic material - the inanity of which is amplified by the seemingly endless repetition - it leaves the distinct impression of almost entirely redundant music.
The album has two redeeming features, unsurprisingly these are contributed by someone other than Carpenter. Admittedly, the cue from Morricone's The Thing does actually sound like Carpenter's own music, but at least there are some interesting harmonies and some attempt to use different synthetic textures to produce a genuinely creepy few minutes. On the other hand, Nitzsche's theme to Starman is as lush as they get, although only the orchestral version really does it justice. Even then, the melody is just repeated over and over with increasing orchestration, James Horner could have done something better and more subtle, especially since it's very similar in style to Horner's lovely theme to Cocoon. An album that die hard Carpenter fans will no doubt enjoy, but I don't honestly imagine anyone else finding much of interest. If Carpenter's music had been composed by some ninth rate nobody composer and not a moderately famous director, it wouldn't even have see the light of day. Dismal stuff.
Rating ~ 
Bonus Track
Total Time ~ 72:13