by John Zimmer on 4/13/2002
favorite track: 16
 
Elliot Goldenthal is a composer that has unbelievable talent, but to me only rarely expresses that talent to its fullest. Demolition Man is in some cases one of those scores. The opening track begins with the full orchestra and chorus performing a dark and sinister, yet very catchy, theme. The second track starts with a loud blast of brass and slowly builds with quick moving electronics to a full-body statement of main theme. These two tracks are easily the best on the album. Track 3 introduces the atmosphere of much of the rest of the score: slow chords (usually in strings) with some scattered percussion and Goldenthal's trademark background brass. In the fourth track, Goldenthal moves to action, which sometimes sounds like his music for Batman Forever (which I didn't really enjoy). "The Machine Waltz" is very enjoyable, yet wacky in the (oddly enough) style of Danny Elfman. The track then moves away from the waltz timing to a much faster pace with aggressive percussion. Track 6 begins with a creepy fantasy motif performed with quickly moving soft electronics. Different from most of the previous tracks, this cue does not have a hard edge and is easy to listen to. Track 8 starts off with some of the weirdest electronics you will ever hear in a film score, which you should find either very cool or very annoying. I fall, sadly, with the latter.

The final track is easily Goldenthal's best cue written to date. Huge, emotional string writing fills your ears for a beautiful ending that pushes all of the electronic garbage to the back of you mind.

Overall, Goldenthal fans should seek out Demolition Man. However, if this is your first Goldenthal score, his music for Michael Collins or Final Fantasy is recommended. However, serious score collectors should eventually own this, if only for the first two tracks and beautiful finale.