Secretary

Although he has written a large number of scores, I'm not terribly familiar with the music of Angelo Badalamenti. From what I've heard of his music, it tends towards the smaller ensemble and synths, more moody than tuneful, a heavy handed Thomas Newman. He is, of course, most famous for his music to the miniseries Twin Peaks (I have no idea what that was all about, I gave up) and has contributed to several of David Lynch's films as well, most notably The Straight Story, an atypical Lynch film that received a glowing score from Badalamenti. The Secretary is from director Steven Shainberg and stars James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal as the titular assistant. A sort of variant on Swimming with Sharks, the film hasn't received a widespread release, despite promising reviews and winning various awards. I must admit that it doesn't look like it ought to be very good, maybe the advertising killed it, not the first time that's happened to a good film.
Despite my limited exposure to his music, Badalamenti's score still isn't really much of a surprise. A mixture of drum kit, guitar, some synth pads, it's faux folksy atmospherics and although there's always a melody on hand, it isn't terribly noteworthy. Badalamenti is good at using his ensemble to create an interesting mix, but as mentioned above, it is similar to Thomas Newman, but Badalamenti is more forthright in his ideas with more obvious melody. There are some nice touches, Snow Dome Dreams starts with a lullaby that seems sweet, but also feels slightly cynical too. Most tracks are underpinned with percussion and these keep everything moving along, although the quieter moments are perhaps the most expressive. The second half of Seeing Scars is particularly effective as synth pads, piano and acoustic guitar combine for an atmospheric, but dramatically astute couple of minutes.

The album is bookended by songs performed by Leonard Cohen and Lizzie West, the former isn't really to my taste, but Chariots Rise is a nice folk/indy effort, only slightly marred by a slightly unflattering recording, West's voice just a touch too upfront. Pleasingly, they actually feel like they belong on the album and work well alongside the underscore. Film music does come in many different musical genres and this generally shies away from a more typical orchestral score, despite the occasional (quite probably synthetic) string passage, but remains an interesting alternative. As with many Newman scores, the mood and textures are likely to be remembered much more than the melodic content, but not entirely unsuccessful for all that.