Hail, Caesar! - Carter Burwell

2/17/16
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Hey, you dropped his fancy hat.
What You Will Hear:  Let me see if I can list every genre:  full orchestra featuring choir, regal brass, clarinet, and…  operatic vocals, a showtune, 50’s(ish) country, Russian choir, church choir, noir saxophone.  Let me know what I've missed.
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Standout Tracks:  Fiat Lux, 5 A.M., Hail, Caesar!, Hobie and Whitey, No Dames!, In Pursuit Of The Future, Slavery And Suffering, Soviet Man, Denizens of the City, Faith God Damn It!, Behold, Echelon’s Song

Will You Be Humming Along?  Yes, there is a short motif that shows up quite often, mostly in the woodwinds.
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Ties it all together nicely.
The score this makes me want to dust off:  Cast Away - Alan Silvestri
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Will I come back to it?  I must admit that I’m very late to the Burwell party; I’m just starting to explore his library.  From my limited knowledge, however, I can easily tell that you’ll love this effort if you are a fan of his traditional soundscape.  The strong brass, smooth strings, and simultaneously quirky and warm woodwinds are classic Burwell. 
   Mixed in with the Carter score is an eclectic collection of genres.  Each one is done extremely well and helps to create a completely enjoyable listening experience.  The show tune is legitimate (nice instrumentation!).  Burwell clarinet!  Love the church choir.  Love the Red Army Choir.  Seriously, things get suddenly Russian and it is awesome.  One early track goes all out opera.  Throughout it all, Burwell’s simple main theme and well established sound effectively hold everything together.
   After two delightful scores (Mr. Holmes and Carol) that were subdued in their character, this is Carter Burwell as I’ve come to expect.  With Hail, Caesar!, he continues a long list of collaborations with the Coen Brothers.  The result is an incredible mix of music that seamlessly blends together to create an amazingly fun score.

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