2 out of 5

Label: iam8bit

Produced by: J.G. Thirlwell (recorded by)

Preface: J.G. Thirlwell’s compositions for Archer are not “2 out of 5” quality. I wouldn’t consider them on the level of his Venture Bros. work, or even the more cinematic Foetus / Manorexia tracks, but the songs presented here are absolutely competent score work, with some more flavorful standouts peppered throughout. But because of some consistent quality control with iam8bit releases, as well as a somewhat middling presentation, there’s a superficial taint to this; in addition… I don’t know that J.G. has necessarily been set up for success.

I enjoyed Archer’s first season, but also felt the echoes of both Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo (tonally and visually) in a somewhat watered down fashion that allowed me to check out. The show’s longevity brought me back out of curiosity, and the time away gave me room to see its uniqueness, and also how the series had subsequently been influencing other shows; the building plot and evolving characters of Archer were (it turned out) especially strong up through its first few seasons, and I was now wholly back in. Like any long-running show, though – and since we’re animated, South Park comes to mind – there are ebbs and flows, and Archer’s strengths started to peter out, sometime before the seasons scored here, although I did appreciate the attempted rejuvenation, starting in season 8, of recasting the show as different genres, i.e. noir, and an Indiana Jones-type adventure. All the same: the type of humor had been somewhat homogenized, and the visuals were no longer quirky – time and technology had smoothed them out. So I don’t know that the show had a very strong identity by the time of season 7.

On top of this, you bring in a new series composer – J.G. started in season 5 – one with a rather strong “brand” in terms of sound, and task them with making tunes for this already established show that’s maybe getting a bit long in the tooth, and then a few seasons later, that show gets reinvented as the noir “Archer Dreamland”…

My point here is that asking for the music to have a complementary identity to a show struggling with its own was a tall order. And I think we hear that in J.G.’s tunes, which tend to play it safe initially (as sequenced), with Venture-adjacent orchestrations; or go more traditional, with shorter tunes that really don’t bear too much of the composer’s touch, and moreso just do the task of acting as background. That’s solid, respectable work, but it doesn’t tell much of a story. …There is the remaining 25% or so, during which J.G. leans heavy into the genre influences, and pushes the jazz adventure style into areas that are more daring – more emotional, even. Meaning there is some stuff on here that’s really, really promising, both in terms of Thirlwell’s discography (which has often avoided the linearity of the stronger work on this score) and in terms of Archer, but it’s spread pretty thin.

An additional oddity: going by the track titles, the songs don’t appear in chronological order. On the one hand, I can guess that may have been done to add structure, allowing more playful stuff to start us off, before we dip into the varyingly standard and more exciting works; but on the other hand, this surely impacts that aforementioned lack of storytelling, as elements that may have been suggestive of the themed seasons are spread apart. And let’s say they are chronological – then that’s even more evidence of the relative facelessness of the show at this point.

Lastly: presentation. Iam8bit’s recordings are normally “good enough,” and this is about that bar. Thirlwell produced the music, but the vinyl is pretty flat sounding, with some surface noise (perhaps just my copy) on the start and end of the B-side. And piling on to the ‘identity’ swipes I’m making, the designer chose a kind of blase mish-mash look / color palette to represent the three seasons covered here.

As a collector, I’m glad this made its way to wax. It would be nice(-r) to have it fully situated within every season Thirlwell covered, as, just like the show, perhaps revisiting it with more of it to review – and ideally in order – will allow me to appreciate the way it evolved and added to the atmosphere.