Score!

If you've known or read me for any length of time, you know I collect film scores and one composer whom I particularly enjoy is James Horner.

You also know that, for the past several years, I've banned myself from listening to Horner until he shapes up and produces something that isn't a derivative, self-ripoff of his earlier work. He has been, it seems to me, in a severe creative slump lately.

That may be over.

I can't stop listening to his latest work for All the King's Men, a score that is unmistakably Horner though original enough to be worthy of my money. Thunderous and emotional, it powerfully mixes brass, percussion, pianos and indigenous Southern instruments to create a score that is as bombastic and tender as the character Sean Penn plays.

While there is nothing groundbreaking here, it is certainly a very solid and listen-able score.