Canter Bridge

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James Newton Howard’s preternaturally spooky sound track to the Mel Gibson move Signs is worth its weight in the corn carved out and wasted by those damned aliens. Having grown up in Pennsylvania corn country, I can tell you that corn is heavy.

Howard crafts his soundtrack using ingenious variants on a three-note theme that is even eerier when listened to sans video than during the movie itself. It is astonishing how powerfully a soundtrack like this evokes the fear and anticipation of the movie’s plot line.

The bulk of these tracks set your teeth on edge, making the occasional harmonic resolution akin to a warm bath or jumping off a bridge and discovering that they remembered to attach the bungie chord after all.

The composer’s weapon of choice for this gloriously conceived assassination of good feeling is the humble flute. Howard takes a page from ‘Tubular Bells’ to pull it off, triumphantly chipping away at security with this simple wind pipe.

Signs is one amazing anthology of tightly themed and emotive music. It’s a brilliant listen even without reference to its fun parent, the movie.