Fargo / Barton Fink

The Coen Brothers seem to be the only writers/directors whose every film is given wide critital praise and are modestly successful. Despite quite a number of credits to their name previously, including Blood Simple and Raising Arizona, perhaps their breakthrough film was Fargo, which garnered and Oscar for Frances McDormand as the pregnant cop who solves a bizarre mystery set in motion by a car showroom owner played by the excellent William H Macy who pays two third rate thugs to kidnap his wife and extort a ransom. Despite many grim moments, the film is actually more of a black comedy, although with Burwell's music, the accent seems more on black than comedy.

The main theme is a lethargic, folksy and memorable melody played to perfection here on solo fiddle by Paul Peabody. There is little variation on the theme per-se, but several different orchestrations, from the lonesome solo verison to a more full bodied orchestral performance. The theme isn't terribly malleable and so changes in mood tend to be somewhat less melodic and so the score does sometimes seem to be unrelated to the rest. There are some distinctly melodramatic moments, as well as the more lilting material of Rubbernecking and Dance of the Sierra.

As a bonus, around fifteen minutes of the score from an earlier Coen effort, Barton Fink is added to extend the album. Compared to the strong thematics and darkly dramatic episodes of Fargo, this effort is much more transparent underscore. This is very much music where nothing substantial at all happens, with the love theme starts with nothing more than sustained strings over a piano motif, which strangely gives away to the drain effects (by Skip Lievsay); essentially just the noise of rushing water drowning out the instruments.

Fargo as pure music is no masterpiece, although it did compliment the film extremely well and it does at least contain some decently memorable music, even if its generally fairly depressing stuff. While it was thoughtful to include music from Barton Fink, it is not really a score that invites being released on its own since it has very little to recommend it. The piano motif for the love theme is nice enough, but hardly substantial. No doubt it fits perfectly well behind the Coen's surreal and imaginative films, but on disc is slow moving and uninvolving and not a score that is liable to invite any kind of repeated listening. Burwell fans will no doubt enjoy his more offbeat writing and it is certainly often imaginative and dramatic, but does not always make for the most coherent listening experience in album format.