CD REVIEW - DEAR JOHN


Dear John
Music by Deborah Lurie & Various Artists
Silva Screen SILCD1320 (UK)
10 Tracks 36:01 mins

On the 19th of this month, Silva Screen Records are to release the original soundtrack album for the The Notebook writer Nicholas Sparks' latest weepie to be adapted for the screen, Dear John, starring Mama Mia's Amanda Seyfried. The film has done well in the States, knocking Avatar off the top spot at the box office, and the album has reached number 2 on the Billboard Folk Chart.
Unfortunately, as you can guess, the album consists largely of songs by artists like Joshua Radin & Schuyler Fisk, The Swell Season, 311, The Donkeys, Fink, Rosi Golan, Rachael Yamagata & Dan Wilson, and Seyfried's own rendition of "Little House;" with just a final consolation track, the "Dear John Theme" by the score's composer, Deborah Lurie.
Lurie, whose name is probably best known for her association with the Spider-Man film franchise, deserves better but, once more, commercial considerations hold sway. The theme is very pleasant and relaxing, with piano and strings, but I don't suppose you'll be wasting your hard-earned cash on just under two minutes of music.
If you are interested at all, you'll need to go to www.silvascreenmusic to order the album on CD, or presumably as a digital download. If the latter is the case, there might be the possibility of just downloading the theme.