CD: Sherlock – Season 3 (2014)
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Rating: Very Good
Label: Silva Screen/ Released: March 4, 2014
Tracks & Album Length: 23 tracks / (73:07)
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Special Notes: n/a
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Composers: David Arnold, Michael Price
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Review:
David Arnold and Michael Price’s music for the latest season of Sherlock is another amalgam of electronics and orchestra, with a sometimes heavy injection of techno pulses and electric guitar. “How It Was Done” starts the album with a digitized bang – fast rock beat and wheezing synth chords – and cuts like “Stag Night” are invigorated with feedback and backbeats from an assortment of the score’s exotic percussion, plus a clanging cimbalom to tie Season 3 to the prior seasons.
The metallic clangs are rather reminiscent of Eric Serra’s more synthetic stalking / tracking pulses in La femme Nikita (1990), and Arnold also applies some of the sleek harmonic lines and smooth bass lines (“Floating Dust”) which made Changing Lanes (2002) such a treat. Most cues, however, tend to drift between varying degrees of electronica, with tracks like the aforementioned and “Redbeard” ultimately fix on a hard, melancholy melody and heavy strings.
“Lazarus” gets its very epic feel from resonating drums and busy string figures, and a gentle solo violin in “Waltz for John and Mary” provides a moment of contemplation around the album’s midpoint. Perhaps more than prior seasons, the composers’ latest work emphasizes sad harmonies, lengthy melodic arcs, and a sense of serious emotional consequences for the characters – there’s less fun action cues in Season 3, which should please fans wanting a season compendium with a bit more dramatic meat.
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© 2014 Mark R. Hasan
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External References:
IMDB: Arnold / Price — Soundtrack Album — Composer Filmographies: Arnold / Price
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