Oscar Nominated Scores 2013: Lincoln

 

Lincoln - John Williams

A nice contrast to the last two scores I listened to (The Dark Knight Rises, Looper). The score started out strong but had quite a large lull in the middle. There were a few styles going on in the score: modern sounding old, old, and bluegrass. Most of the album is modern sounding old and the best track for that is "The Peterson House and Finale" at 11 minutes in length it is worth your $.99 $1.29 (inflation?). The examples of the bluegrass/fiddle music can be found on tracks "Getting out the Vote" and "The Race to the House". I would recommend "Getting out the Vote" because of the paralells to "Dixie", but both serve as nice interludes to the modern. The only actual period music is "Call to Muster and Battle Cry of Freedom", but I wouldn't buy it Williams did nothing to those songs (and he shouldn't have) to make it a special purchase.

Overall a nice score but disappointing. There were some moments where you could tell they were trying to pull at your emotions but just fell flat. A perfect example of this is "Freedoms Call" at six minutes in length and prime placement on the album, this was supposed to be the centerpiece but just doesn't deliver.

The tracks that I recommend are:

Track 1: The Peoples House (3:43)
Track 3: Getting out the Vote (2:49)
Track 4: The American Process (3:58)
Tack 16: The Peterson House and Finale (11:00)