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"The Assassination of Jesse James"
by the Coward Robert Ford Soundtrack
Label: Mute
Release Date: February 5, 2008
For other likeminded songs, check out WebJockey Flur's Rifflist "The Old West"
Sure, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" soundtrack is an album that has been shunned by the Oscars, Golden Globes, and—until its recent release on Mute—American storefronts. In fact, the latter can hardly be blamed. Unless the songwriting is on par with "Purple Rain" or "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtracks generally don't get the attention they deserve. It's a shame because "The Assassination of Jesse James" soundtrack is perhaps one of the most poignant scores ever released.
Written by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, The Dirty Three, and Grinderman), the soundtrack is as brilliantly morose and sentimental as any of the duo's other works. The closest comparison musically comes to Cave and Ellis's prior collaboration scoring the Australian Western "The Proposition," a film written by Cave himself.
Every song on the album remains as more than incidental music. Perhaps this is because, as they did while writing "The Proposition," Cave and Ellis wrote a majority of the music before ever seeing "Jesse James." According to Cave's own philosophy, "It's not just supposed to be some kind of merchandising thing that you listen to and that you remember the film through. It should be a work that stands up on its own."
Feeling at times near transcendental, the soundtrack is comprised of a blend of piano, fiddle, viola, celeste, guitar and cello. The first track, "Rather Lovely Thing," creates a motif echoed time and again throughout the rest of the album, in a fashion feeling more meditative than repetitive.
Another song coupling with similar rendition, "What Must Be Done" and "Song for Bob," are the most breathtakingly reflective tracks on the album. "Moving On" and "The Money Train" are also contenders for this title of depressive beauty. Less somber tracks such as "Cowgirl" and "Carnival" also help round out the album, even if feeling a bit less noteworthy.
While going in a different direction than the Western maverick, Ennio Morricone, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have solidified with this soundtrack their ability to paint their own portrayal of the Western landscape.
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