It's not strange or particularly surprising that Sony Classical makes a big deal about The Perfect Storm being James Horner's return to the sea. After all the soundtrack for Titanic has sold more than 28 million copies worldwide. Of course, the soundtrack release of The Perfect Storm won't even come close to those figures, but it's a good score, neverthless.
Two of the genres in which Horner excels as a composer are, in my opinion, drama and action. And with The Perfect Storm having plenty of both, the result is a score that works really well, with lots of music that will rock your house. Or your boat (OK, that was a lousy one...). When Horner unleashes the powerful sound of the symphony orchestra, with plenty of crescendos it isn't especially hard to imagine the sea with giant waves rising high above, swallowing everything that comes in their way. Tracks like "Coast Guard Rescue" and "Rogue Wave" offer some of the most exciting and best action music Horner has ever written, complete with the composers' clanging anvil, chrashing piano, strong brass and swelling strings. In short, everything a Horner fan could ask for, even if it sometimes gets a little too caothic for my taste. What the score lacks, though, is a good, strong theme. Not that the score is themeless - the scores' main themes crops up in virtually every track on the CD - it's just that they could be much better.
The Perfect Storm is a rather typical Horner score when it comes to sound and orchestrations - much of the action music could easily have been written for Titanic instead - and while it certainly isn't as unoriginal and derivative as Horner's score for Bicentennial Man one could point out several moments that sound familiar. But I won't. However, what we haven't heard in scores by Horner that much before, is the sound of the electric guitar. Although it was used very briefly in the scores for Courage Under Fire and Titanic, The Perfect Storm marks the first time Horner has used the instrument throughout an entire score. It has, however, been given a small role in the background, serving as a dramatic backdrop to the rest of the orchestra with its raw and wild sound. This technique works really well, and saves the action music from becoming too cheesy, which often is the case when composers use electric guitars too much.
On to Horner's recent found obsession with end credit songs. If these are written on the request of the director and producers, or if Horner himself is the one too blame is probably something we will never get to know. The song for The Perfect Storm, titled "Yours Forever", is performed by John Mellencamp and while it is an okay song, based on the scores' main theme, I really miss Horner's end credit cues, which is one of few occasions when the composers get the chance to really develop their themes.