Ghost Rider

Christopher Young

 
" Ghost Rider is not your typical heroic score, hoorah for that! "

Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the regular release

Ghost Rider is the atypical hero movie, so naturally there ought to be an atypical score. Say no more said Christopher Young and he started writing it. What to expect is basically his unexpected presence of a voice and the combination of grotesque and gothic music with slices of hard rocking music and intimate love poems. The result is a bit uneven. I adore the approach for this film and inside the picture it sounds uber cool, but somehow I'm occasionally drifting away. Perhaps it's too much of a good thing to hear gothic overpowering music, perhaps it's a bit uneven in the diversity (the calmer love cues come too little I'm afraid). That doesn't take away this is a ballsy score, totally unserious in the way it also mocks the "common to go to music" for these pictures. Young ridicules them and goes totally overboard with a gothic almost horror score, simply to give them the finger and tell all those producers that's the way to write a heroic score. A ballsy operatic horror score that is even too good for the film. No matter the complaints I have about Ghost Rider, I dig the way Christopher Young thinks.

Kick ass opening, not your typical main heroic theme, not your typical composer's voice. A mixture between Spider-Man and Hellraiser / Drag me to Hell.
Lots of rocking electric guitar roughness, for this kind of picture it's okay (and mixed with the choir it gives one hell of a feeling).
Completely the opposite is the subtle gentle guitar love theme.
Begin and end are uber cool.
For this kind of picture it is a rocking score, but somehow the constant return of the gothic music makes the impact a little less epic after a while.
Interest fades occasionally away, perhaps a certain lack of diversity in its tone.

Track Listing

1. Ghost Rider (3.16) Excellent track
2. Blackheart Beat (3.06)
3. Artistry in Death (4.13)
4. A Thing for Karen Carpenter (2.00)
5. Cemetery Dance (5.31)
6. More Sinister Than Popcorn (5.40)
7. No Way to Wisdom (2.15)
8. Chain Chariot (6.18)
9. Santa Sardonicus (3.36)
10. Penance Stare (5.26)
11. San Venganza (3.22)
12. Blood Signature (2.08)
13. Serenade to a Daredevil's Devil (1.53)
14. Nebuchadnezzar Phase (5.52) Excellent track
15. The West was Built on Legends (3.59) Excellent track

Total Length: 58.35
(click to rate this score)  
 
  •  
(total of 4 votes - average 4.13/5)

Released by

Varèse Sarabande 302 066 789 2 (regular release 2007)

Conducted by

Hummie Mann & Adam Stern

Orchestrations by

Kostas Christides, Sean McMahon, Sujin Nam, George Shaw, David Shephard, Martin St. Pierre & Thanh Tran