FOUR CHRISTMASES - SONG ALBUM + SCORE


Four Christmases
Various Artists
Decca 478 1543 (EU)
11 Tracks 32:39 mins

Seth Gordon's new festive comedy, Four Christmases, starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon has arrived on a mission to break us out of our gloomy reality and kick start the Christmas spirit, allied by a soundtrack album (released in UK stores on 1st December) that brings a smattering of old familiar chestnuts, like Baby, It's Cold Outside, Sleigh Ride, Jingle Bell Rock, I'll Be Home for Christmas and of course White Christmas, with legendary (and not so) artists like Dean Martin, Perry Como, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Gavin DeGraw (who?), doing the honours.

Four Christmases
Music by Alex Wurman
Costa Communications Promo
10 Tracks 13:11 mins

The incidental music for Four Christmases was written by Alex Wurman, and the composer's publicists kindly sent me a brief "best of" sampling of his score. No news as to whether a score album is likely, but I imagine there would certainly have to be a good deal more than the 13 minutes on offer here to make that a possibility. Not that any expense was spared in the score's realisation, with Wurman conducting a 90 piece orchestra and choir at Warner Bros Eastwood Stage. He saw the project as an opportunity to write a score with an old fashioned, classic, if you will, quality to it, incorporating orchestral variations on classic songs, to compliment the vocals utilised in the film and presented on the above-mentioned song album, and at the same time paying homage to the likes of Gershwin and Bernstein; also, in his own original way, underlying the emotional aspects of the film quite subtly, whilst providing larger, more bombastic cues like "Jump Jump Part 1,""Roof," and the martial opening to "Back Bedroom Boundaries Speech."