4 out of 5

Label: AMC? (digital only)

Produced by: Kevin Kiner; Gustavo Santaolalla?

Hell On Wheels has one of the best openings in terms of how visually grabbing it is, how concise it is, how memorable and original the accompany theme – by Gustavo Santaolalla – is, and how well both the visuals and music represent the show.  The commercials never made me sure I wanted to watch HoW, but the title sequence guaranteed that I did.  The soundtrack is bookended by a TV-edit and extended cut of the film, with 32 score tracks – which we’ll presume are all Kevin Kiner – nipping elements from this theme for an exciting journey of cues or two minute tracks that walk you through the first season.  While film scores generally offer the composer some more flexibility in terms of whether to go the full song route or just zero in on the moments the director needs, TV soundtracks are almost always snip-and-cut-and-move-on affairs, presumably required by the episodic nature of things requiring that many more cues as well as, perhaps, a shorter time frame in which to work.  Listening to these scores, then, requires a bit of an adjustment in expectations, as you can’t expect an “album” experience so much as a collection of moments.  And while that’s true of this score as well, the elements Santaolalla interspersed into the theme – banjo, thumping drums, aggressively strummed guitar – are so primal and yet expressive that it allows Kiner to tie a lot of his snippets together effectively while also allowing for enough range such that the music doesn’t just blend together.  True, we’re mainly switching between three emotional concepts (sort of like the show…) of aggressive / mysterious, moody / contemplative, and lonely plucked strings for those quieter moments, but good fortune allows the sequencing to spread out similarities such that the listening experience feels constantly on the move.  And, just as with the theme, perfectly representative of the dusty gruffness of the show’s first season; one glance at a descriptive song title and the music brings to mind scenes I would’ve watched a couple years ago.

While this will mostly be of interest to score-purchasers who already dig the show, the more fleshed out tracks that break the two-minute mark are certainly notable enough for any folk / folk-rock fan.  But who cares about crossover appeal: if you can’t get enough of that theme, support the composers and buy this digital soundtrack, and enjoy plenty of goodness along the same lines.