PHENOMENON (1996) - Thomas Newman - Soundtrack Score Suite
Okay, let's first say this: Phenomenon is a delightful score by Newman, one of his very best. If you like the lush string sound from Little Women, Up Close and Personal or How to Make an American Quilt, you're sure to like this one. The main theme is a gorgeous pastoral melody for strings and clarinets that segues into some pretty energetic accoustic and eletric guitar playing (similar to certain tracks of The Horse Whisperer, let's call it Newman's countryside style). The rest of the score is equally elegant, with the great Oscar and Lucinda-like track Shout in the Sky, the rhythmic Orchard-track with its dynamic percussion and the many soothing tracks with soft piano and string melodies. It works marvelous in the movie and offers a delightful listening experience on its own. Of course, this score has not been officially released on CD. The only available source is a 23-minute promotional cassette compiled by Mr Newman that was sent out to the Academy's Music Branch voting members. At some point Varèse Sarabande had plans to release the score (most likely coupled with another Newman-project, like they did with American Buffalo and Threesome) but those plans never materialized. The promo cassette was the source for a bootleg-CD-R, which can be found on the collector's market. For now, this is the only way to obtain a copy of Newman's score, and that's too bad because Phenomenon is undoubtably one of his very best and most popular scores.
