Music Composed by John Powell
Rating: ****

Over the past couple of years, John Powell has emerged as one of film music’s top talents. Right now he’s one of the most prolific composers working in Hollywood, and he’s been steadily building up an impressive list of directors to add to his references. Unfortunately, many of these collaborations happen to be on the famous director’s worst film. Let’s see - he worked with Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters) on the very unfunny Evolution, then he worked with Martin Brest (Midnight Run) on the infamous Gigli, and now he’s back with John Woo (Face/Off) on Paycheck. And let’s not mention The Adventures of Pluto Nash, I Am Sam, Rat Race, or Two Weeks Notice! Powell seems to have taken the burden off of Jerry Goldsmith as the “man who writes great scores for horrible films”.

“Boring and Stupid!” should be quoted at the bottom of all the posters for this film. John Woo, the action king, seems to have lost “it” - whatever “it” was. Thankfully, John Powell hasn’t lost that spark and vitality he had as a part of the Media Ventures engine. On his own (with a few friends), he seems to be better than ever and starting to really leave a mark as a film composer. With Face/Off, his first score at MV and his first collaboration with Woo, he sounded more like Hans Zimmer than John Powell. Now, little more than five years later on his second collaboration with Woo, all indications that he was a part of MV seems to be absent in his writing… for the most part. Yes, like most of MV’s output, the pop/rock/electronica fused with orchestral idioms have been present in all his latest scores, but this stuff is miles ahead of anything I’ve ever heard from any of Hans’ kids.

John Powell

Unlike Powell’s last couple of action-oriented films like The Bourne Identity or The Italian Job, Paycheck is much more centered around a traditional orchestra. There’s strings, brass, woodwinds, piano, harp, and a bevy of percussion. (Powell likes his percussion.) There are still samples and synth grooves, but the orchestra, and in particular the piano and celli, are the heart of the score.

James Newton Howard’s The Fugitive set the standard for modern “man on the run scores”. (Ok, yeah, Bernard Herrmann was first with North by Northwest). Sans the Kenny G soprano sax (shudder), many of those elements appear in Paycheck. Of particular note is the wistful main theme performed on the piano throughout the score- very reminiscent of how Howard used piano in The Fugitive. However, I imagine people won’t think of The Fugitive when listening to Paycheck as much as they’ll recall another James Newton Howard score: Signs. “Wolfe Pack” is ripe with references to the Signs main titles - from the string ostinati to the overbearing repeated notes in the horns. It was distracting on my initial listen, but now I wish Signs had an action cue as cool as “Wolfe Pack”. (Not to take anything away from Howard’s masterful score). Also, as someone who has studied Powell’s music since the start of his career (all the way back to good ol’ 1997), one could argue that the Signs influence is merely coincidence as Signs shares many elements of Powell’s style than can be traced all the way back to Face/Off.

There’s many highlights on the Paycheck album. The one that should get everyone excited are the “Hog Chase” cues - which, incidentally, were making everyone bob their head or tap their feet in the theater I was at. “Hog Chase Part Two” reverts back to MV Powell to a certain extent. The cue’s great and there’s some wonderful references to the main theme, but it’s a bit lazy in its design, relying too much on the drum machine to carry it along. It’s “Hog Chase Part One” that makes Mr. Powell one of the more refreshing voices in action scoring these days. When Powell fires up the funky bass line at the 1′30 mark, things get really cool really quick with some fantastic brass writing and even funkier upper sting lines. Powell has a very uncanny sense of rhythmic cohesion, making his action music flow (and yet properly mickey-mouse) without sounding choppy. There’s also a sense of “tongue-in-cheek” fun that pervades this cue, making it all quite an entertaining couple of minutes.

Lots of mystery/suspense cues surround the hog chase action at the center, but I’d be hard pressed to pick any cue on this album that doesn’t grab your attention - possibly the five minutes combined of “I Don’t Remember” and “Tomorrow’s Headlines”. However, they work well bringing everything down a notch before the two big finale cues, “Future Tense” and “Fait Accompli”. “Future Tense has some fantastic moments of bombast - one of particular interest to those who have heard Powell’s D-Tox score. “Fait Accompli” has an insane final minute, of which I won’t spoil for you - other than to warn you not to be driving on icy roads while listening to it for the first time.

Lastly, the cherry on the sundae is “Rachel’s Party” which is a chamber version of his Paycheck main theme, performed by string quartet. Although much of the cues success comes from the expressivo performance by the musicians, this cue should definitely change some people’s opinion of Powell’s skill with classical idioms.

Ultimately, Paycheck is nice basket of John Powell goodies. People who may have been put-off by his pop or funk-based sensibilities in his last couple of action scores will likely enjoy Paycheck more than The Italian Job or The Bourne Identity. There’s much to enjoy in John Powell’s music. Let’s just hope the near future offers him higher quality projects to score.

Music Composed, Programmed and Arranged by John Powell; Orchestra Conducted by Gavin Greenaway; Orchestrated by Bruce Fowler, Suzette Moriarty, Todd McIntosh, Walter Fowler, and Elizabeth Finch; Recorded and Mixed by Shawn Murphy; Produced by John Powell; Availability: In print; Label (Catalogue): Varèse Sarabande, (302 066 535 2); Release Date: January 13, 2004

01. Main Title (3′10)
02. 20 Items (2′53)
03. Wolfe Pack (2′54)
04. Crystal Balls (2′09)
05. Mirror Message (3′37)
06. Imposter (3′53)
07. Hog Chase Part 1 (3′13)
08. Hog Chase Part 2 (4′04)
09. I Don’t Remember (1′28)
10. Tomorrow’s Headlines (4′02)
11. Future Tense (7′14)
12. Fait Accompli (6′09)
13. The Finger (’33)
14. Rachel’s Party (2′47)