V/A – Jarhead: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack / 2005 Universal / 25 Tracks / http://www.jarheadmovie.com / http://www.universalclassics.com / Reviewed 25 February 2006 The music that Thomas Newman creates for “Jarhead” fits the movie perfect. Compositions like “Battery Run” contain a certain energy while taking the geography of the matter into consideration. While I’ve not seen Jarhead, the fact that “Don’t Worry Be Happy” is amongst all of these other, (typically) darker-sounding tracks shows a rapid change in the tempo of the disc and of the general sound achieved by it. At every point, the compositions by Thomas Newman seem to elicit different emotions and get individuals primed for what is happening in the movie. While none of the compositions here created especially for the movie really reach a normal track’s length, the one thing that seems to not mesh perfectly has to be the Newman tracks with the pop tracks used in the movie (which include tracks by Bobby McFerrin, T-Rex, Naughty By Nature, Public Enemy and Tom Waits). Aside from the obvious reasons (lyrical versus instrumental tracks), there seems to be a little better fit of the action of the movie by the Newman tracks than the pop tracks. This can be seen in the martial drumming that occurs in tracks like “Desert Storm”. In a sense, there is some beauty in the diversity shown in the choice of specific pop tracks that differentiates the disc (and by extension the movie) from the mass of other military-focused movies of the past. There are not the average military standards on here; nothing like the “Ballad of the Green Berets” but a heavy use of rap tracks to show the diversity of today’s military. Overall, Thomas Newman’s compositions on this movie do a great job in creating a specific atmosphere that only bolsters the visual aspect of the movie. By making such a successful soundtrack, there is no doubt that viewers of Jarhead will come out being attacked on all fronts, not only the visual. Aside from the role fulfilled by these compositions, Thomas Newman really makes a great stride in having eir compositions act in an almost-independent way. Either increase the complexity of some of these tracks or throw on a set of vocals, and this could be marketed as experimental rock or industrial music. The interest that individuals will have in picking up this soundtrack should be enough to bring the Jarhead DVD into the player that one last time, to try to match specific compositions to parts in the movie. Top Tracks: Raining Oil, Pink Mist Rating: 6.0/10

[JMcQ]