2 out of 5

Label: Sony Classical

Produced by: Jason Markey and Bob Bowen (soundtrack producers); D. Sardy tracks recorded by Ryan Castle

While a precursory listen of his ‘Sabotage’ soundtrack suggests that might fulfill my following wish, I do hope that Dave Sardy, at some point, switches his score approach to full songs instead of the snippets that have appeared on 21, Zombieland, and End of Watch (I have Ghost Rider but haven’t listened to it much yet).  Because it’s apparent that his years in the industry – combined with already proven songwriting chops via Barkmarket – produces some really impressive ideas for these soundtracks.  21, snippety as it was, was also an impressive display of various genres at which Dave proved equally adept; the lack of theme definitely hobbled the disc’s relistenability, but it was interesting nonetheless.  ‘End of Watch’ is actually very thematic, and impressive in how many different sounds and layers Sardy crams into a few minutes: the clanging percussion and sudden bursts of distortion match the flick’s perceived somber, ready-for-violence tone.  Unfortunately, the album is dumb short – 12 tracks, only 9 of those actual score and the majority of them under 2 minutes – and excepting the Public Enemy track which leads the disc and fits with the vibe, the other two non-score tracks absolutely kill the vibe.  I can totally get how Delfonics and the over-long funk of Latin Rascals’ ‘Lisa’s Coming’ would fit within the film, but in terms of soundtrack sequencing… man.  And as Sardy only actually delivers a few fully fleshed out tracks – note that they are excellent, especially ‘I Am The Police’ and ‘Minivan Tail’ – it means that out of like 30 minutes of music or whatever, we get those short snippets of a moody sound, then a non-album track that completely clashes with moody snippet, then more moody snippets – for, like, 20 minutes straight.  It’s… off-putting.

So if we could gather the 4 legitimate Sardy songs and call that the soundtrack, this rating would be a bit higher.  But alas, t’aint how this disc is put together.