CD/DIGITAL DOWNLOAD REVIEW - HAPPY NOW


Happy Now
Music by Dario Marianelli
MovieScore Media MMS 10023
17 Tracks 38:51 mins

As part of the label's "Discovery Collection," MovieScore Media has ventured into the past to resurrect a score by Atonement Oscar winner Dario Marianelli for a little-known British comedy, Happy Now, which was released some six years before his triumph.
The score for Happy Now was performed by the Munich Symphony Orchestra and this premiere recording, though fairly brief at under 39 minutes, features an interesting mix of styles , from quirky cues like the opening "The Strange Land,'" "Execution," "The Scream," "It's a Camaleon's Life," and "Photos;" to more conventional fare, such as the melancholy "Locked Away;" the somewhat Herrmannesque "Near Miss," "Derangement," "The Rock," and "Can't Be her...;" to the elegant "Hommage to David Rose; and the pseudo-spaghetti western sounds of "Bonanzaland;" whilst both "On the Chase" and "Glen Loses It" combine the quirky elements with the Herrmannesque, and Who's the Bullet For" the quirky with the spaghetti; the penultimate track "Wild West Wales" offering a little of everything.
All concludes with the closing title track which, after a slice of the "all's well that ends well," plays us out with a reprise of the main theme, introduced at the opening of the album.
Go to www.moviescoremedia.com/happynow.html for samples, and suggestions as to how you can obtain the album on CD, or as a digital download.