Signs (Score)

1. Main Titles

2. First Crop Circles

3. Roof Intruder

4. Brazilian Video

5. In The Cornfield

6. Baby Monitor

7. Recruiting Office

8. Throwing A Stone

9. Boarding Up The House

10. Into The Basement

11. Asthma Attack

12. The Hand Of Fate - Part I

13. The Hand Of Fate - Part II

From Amazon.com
For decades strange, intricate symbols have appeared pressed into farm fields across the globe. Enormous, puzzling messages from an extraterrestrial civilization--or an incredibly elaborate hoax staged by... whom? Those are the questions that drive M. Night Shyamalan's narrative, but as in the director's other thrillers (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable), the answers aren't always where you expect them. As he's done for Shyamalan's previous films, composer James Newton Howard creates a musical undercurrent of mystery and unease, with nervous arpeggios and sullen, swelling strings ratcheting up throughout the score's unsettling first half. The film is dotted with apparent visual homages to past sci-fi films, and moments of Howard's orchestral score have occasional parallels with the more action-oriented passages of John Williams's landmark Close Encounters score. But there's more than brooding atmospherics, tension-building, and the occasional booming crescendo here. A sense of gentle spirituality gradually evolves as well (largely via the composer's sensitive use of minimalist techniques), with Howard's music ultimately achieving a quiet, satisfying sense of resolve that's missing from all too much of Hollywood's hollow dramatic thunder. --Jerry McCulley

48 Reviews 5 star:  (35) 4 star:  (10) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:  (1)           Average Customer Review (48 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews   Signs - Brilliant score by JNH, Dec 21 2003 By  M. Drejza "markd1970" (Bear, DE) - See all my reviews    James Newton Howard's score for Signs has topped my collection. The sounds are simple and classic, yet very stimulating and adrenaline-pumping--akin to the famous strings in Psycho. The depth of the music is in its layers of instruments. The music complements the movie (the DVD of which I own) so well, reviving that Hitchcockian-style thriller I enjoy so much. In addition, I think the music captures so well the emotional plot within the story. I typically listen to movie music while driving. On many occasions, I drive with my two young sons to and from school. I watched Signs with them (editing out certain parts). Afterwards, we listened to the music in the car. The three sudden, loud, and scary parts (end of Brazilian Footage [Track 4], beginning of Asthma attack [Track 11] and Hand of Fate [Track 12]) made us all jump. And at every listen, at the climactic part, my younger son says "Swing away Merrill. Merrill, swing away." and then yells "WATER!" (sorry if you haven't seen the movie yet). You can't get a better response from a 3-yr-old. The music tells the story. Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   WOW!, Dec 3 2003 By A Customer Listen. Just a soft single note. Suddenly WHAM! A shrill three note motif. One that literally sends chills down your spine. Listen to this in broad daylight. Chills. Listen at night. What was that? a door creaking open? Or was it Howard's score? This CD will give you a slight uneasyness, like Funeral March for a Marionette (Alfred Hitchcock Presents). Buy this CD. Buy this CD. Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   Perfect within the film, less so by itself, Oct 30 2003 By  Scott Sweet "Music Freak" (Colorado Springs, CO) - See all my reviews I'll play the contrarian: I really enjoyed the film. The higher meanings and the semi-surprise ending worked for me. It's a spiritualized Twilght Zone episode. James Newton Howard is so attentive to the plot and underlying emotions of each scene that the music becomes indispensable. Other reviews have rightly mentioned the Bernard Herrmann minimalism. The three-note motif is a similar tactic to the five-note signature of "Close Encounters." Howard's intent with the opening theme was to create what he called "[...]a context of expectations." The music telegraphs that at SOME point, something big is going to happen to go along with it. Normally, the music will change to mark a shift in location (city, country, planet). Since nearly all of this movie occurs within 20 acres, the repetition and thematic simplicity reinforce the claustrophobic atmosphere of the film. Still, this presents exactly the same problem as with John Williams' score for "Minority Report." Parts of the score become TOO sedate when removed from the film. The furthest Mel Gibson's character gets from the confines of the farm is in flashback dreams of his wife. In turn, that memory keeps him cooped up under his roof, trying to hide from God. Howard uses