Eerie, cold, and yet somehow alluring,
Howard Shore's score for Crash is a perfect match for David Cronenberg's 1997 film adaptation of the J.G. Ballard novel about car crash victims addicted to having sex at the scenes of their accidents.
Shore's music is coolly, almost mechanically understated; titles like "Two Semi-Metallic Human Beings," "A Crushed Convertible," and "Chromium Bower" hint at the score's deadpan treatment of the film's disturbing themes. The wiry, atonal guitars that drive the score -- particularly on "Road Research Laboratory," "Cineterra," and "Crash" -- reveal post-rock and no wave influences, while the brooding flutes on "Mirror Image" and "Sexual Logic" recall the aloof beauty of ancient Shakuhachi melodies.
Shore adds other clever sonic twists as well, such as the metallic screeching on "Mechanism of Occupant Ejection," which sounds like a slightly more musical version of squealing brakes. The ultimate in uneasy listening,
Crash arguably captures the icy eroticism of Ballard's book more accurately than the film itself. ~ Heather Phares