The Fifth Element

Almost impossible to recommend one way or the other. It is such a strange score, that one part you may love and one part you may loath intensely. There is not a great deal of cohesion to the score in that Serra seems to do whatever he feels at the time. The second and third tracks open the score and the film with not totally unusual Arabic/desert tinged music. This may well lull you into a false sense of the rest of the score, a kind of Stargate type action/adventure score. However, the track, Korben Dallas soon dispels that with it's techno beat, sampled sounds and general overall modern funkiness, cool! This type of music turns up several times later on and fits perfectly with the future that is trying to be portrayed, very much implying the techno-junky society that is displayed on screen. Having seen the film, I would still say that many of the track titles make no sense and so I can't ever be sure what each track underpins and the nature of the music makes it hard to work out based on that alone.

Some of the stranger moments include the Ruby Rap which basically is a techno beat underlying the most annoying radio DJ I have ever heard in my life (even compared to Chris Evans...) who also comes across as a talkative sex maniac, utterly bizarre (even if you've seen the film). Other moments include The Diva Dance, which, from a piece of straight opera launches into yet more techno drum and bass type music, with samples to support some superb singing by Inva Mulla Tchako. The straight part, Lucia Di Lammermoor is performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, but the next track is presumably performed separately. Quite whether Serra got the real singer in for some sessions of simply used her voice and overlaid his unique style over the top is something of a mystery. Whatever happened, some parts of the Serra arrangement is clearly sampled and some of the more extreme moments sound too difficult to perform vocally. Still, the overall effect is strangely good. On the whole, I like neither opera nor drum and bass, but the weird combination of both is wondrous to behold. The final track is a bonus track of samples from the rest of the score with rhythms and samples overlaid producing yet another utterly bizarre experience. As I said, this is tough to commend, there is something for everyone, but don't expect a traditional orchestral effort, this is a unique score, perhaps seeing the film first would be advisable.