Age of Adaline [CD]

"The Age of Adaline" wears its heart on its sleeve, for better or worse. How appropriate that the score attempts to do the same, and it succeeds. This is not a soundtrack (or a film) that I was particularly looking forward to, but I must say that composer Rob Simonsen's score did the trick. The story is first and foremost a romance. There are a lot of emotional ups and downs, and quality writing and great performance are essential for the movie to work -- but films like these also require a strong musical component to really hit the emotional beats. You'd expect that the goal of most composers would be to elicit an emotional response (whatever that emotion may be); yet I'm surprised at just how unmoving most scores are these days. "The Age of Adaline" does it though - the album is not only pleasant to listen to, but it evokes feelings of sadness and hope right when it needs to. This is one of Simonsen's biggest assignments to date - he scored "The Way Way Back" and "Foxcatcher" (as well as provided additional music for Michael Danna's Oscar-winning "Life of Pi" score). So he's typically working with great material, and elevates it appropriately. His "Adaline" score is definitely less subtle than much of his previous work; but fortunately it is not over-the-top like so many scores seem to be these days. The album ends with "Start Again", an original song created for this film. It fits perfectly with the rest of the album, sounding like a piece of the score with lyrics added. I'd highly recommend this album. As always, I've listed my favorite tracks below. It wasn't easy here because one track is not necessarily distinguishable from another, but that's fine - this is a perfect example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. This score just works on every level (for me anyway), and seems to do so effortlessly. Favorite Tracks: [1] Adaline Bowman [4] First Resurrection [22] To a Future with an End - John from FilmMusicFan.com