October 15, 2014

  • Season 2 Music from the CW's Arrow

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    The CW network’s Arrow enters its third season as one of the most popular programs on the network.  The series follows a young vigilante, son of a millionaire, who has returned to seek justice in his hometown.  Blake Neely has composed many hours of music for the program and for this La-La  Land release, he has selected a great wealth of music from season 2.

     

    “Time to Come Home” begins the musical journey with a blend of churning strings percussion ideas and the heroic thematic statement which has its own sense of melancholy.  This will recur to help set up the Arrow’s planning (“Building a Team”) and in tracks like “A.R.G.U.S.’s Suicide Squad”—an extra edge added with electric guitar.  A warm lyrical theme appears in the second track “I Don’t Blame You” with parallel recurrence in “Get Your Soul Back”, “Purest Heart” and “The Essence of Heroism”.  Some thrash/electronic styles appear (“A Different Way”) sometimes with an overlaid thematic statement that helps provide good continuity.  The blend of rock styles against the orchestral styling (“Blind Spot”, “Roy Becomes a Hero”) is something we’ve seen work in the host of big screen superhero outings and Neely does a fine job of bringing that sound to the small screen.    Tension building ambient sequences also appear providing additional variety (“Off of the Island, Onto a Freighter”; “Creating an Army with a Needle”, “Promise Kept”).  There is some rather interesting electronic overlays against strong thematic writing for “Slade’s Metamorphosis” (one of the album’s highlights) and again later for “Good and Bad Aren’t So Clear”.  The same technique appears for action sequences with often intriguing orchestral (ethnic woodwinds) and electronic sounds blended together (“Mirakuru Spreads/Brother Blood”; “Deathstroking”—a very intense cue; “In the Crosshairs”; “Tunnel Fight”).  The final track “Never Again” pulls some of these various sounds and thematic variations further together.

     

    There are a couple of tracks only available on the album.  The accompanying booklet is not much help as there is little in it to distinguish which episode a musical sequence came from at all.  Neely’s own comments note that some of the tracks are edited together for musical continuity and this does result overall in a good listening experience.  Certainly, Arrow is a release for fans of the series and those who have become fans of Neely’s scoring as well.  Its primary thematic material is engaging and helps bring the album together well.

     

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