Craig Armstrong
Film Works 1995-2005

For the second time, I take on the burden and honor of giving my opinion on a record by Craig Armstrong, who, despite a few slight missteps in style, has always managed to maintain the high artistic quality of his work.

This newly released album is varied and colorful, presenting us with the sum of our artist's work through numerous collaborations on various soundtracks created for films of varying fame among the general public: I'm talking about movies like "Pinkett & McLean," "Moulin Rouge," "The Negotiator," "Cruel Intentions," "Ray," etc. The dreamy and poetic touch of our Craig is not always evident (listen to the easy-listening track "One Day I'll Fly Away" from the movie Moulin Rouge, sung by Nicole Kidman (!!) — a track that seems to be written by any good American composer of the '50s). However, when we hear the hypnotic notes of tracks like "Rise" or "The Ball," attention rises, and we return to the former glories. Among the various transitions, one can hear ambient and visionary compositional elements, like the track "Will You Come Back To Me" (from The Quiet American) or the splendid "This Love," truly a cut above the rest, with its languid and seductive progression, sung by an Elisabeth Fraser in a state of grace. An album diverse and never uniform, which casually moves from classical music (the album's opening "O Verona" almost reminiscent of Beethoven) to ambient ("Della's Theme" from the film Ray) to soft tracks I would dare to call Brechtian (the splendid "Nature Boy" from Moulin Rouge sung by a charismatic and convincingly more than ever David Bowie) to almost trip-hop experiments (the already mentioned "Rise").

Certainly, we are always in the vicinity of refined music, written with a fountain pen, hence not recommended for those looking for crude danceable tunes (even though, if desired, there is rhythm here on a couple of occasions) or the hit of the winter. But this, I imagine, was understood. A record of great class, an authentic forge of emotions, difficult to label but indispensable for lovers of the genre (from Morricone, Satie, Brian Eno, Jan Garbarek up to Massive Attack, Portishead, and company splendid).