All very nice, although it sometimes seems like the score takes itself too seriously for its own good. The rest of the score is dominated by long, drawn out cues, performed by soft, muted strings. These two cues are the highlights of the album. Available for the first time in a single release - and also for the first time on vinyl - the soundtrack and score to MAGNOLIA is spread across three LPs (Disc. This is especially true in the two long - ten minutes! - cues, which revolves around ostinatos and very rythmic staccato figures. It's at times a very classical score, with traces of Philip Glass and John Adams. It's fully orchestral, performed by a decent sized orchestra.Īimee Mann's songs is an important part of the film, and this is often the only music people remember after having seen the film, despite the fact that Brion's score is at least equally important and often very prominent in the film, with long, beautiful cues. Which also happens to be Jon Brion's best score to date.Īlthough the score has some serious temp track problems - parts of the score sound really close to Hans Zimmer's music for The Thin Red Line, while other cues are quite similar in sound to "Schindler's Workforce" from John William's Schindler's List - this is a charming and very beautiful score. So far, Brion has written the music for three of Anderson's films - Sydney, Punch-Drunk Love and Paul Thomas Anderson's best film, Magnolia. When he's not composing music for Paul Thomas Anderson films, that is. Every Friday night, Jon Brion performs a reportedly rather popular cabaret act at a nightclub in L.A.