By Jeff Russo

Lakeshore Records

Decades on, a new visitor arrives…

This is, of course, the soundtrack to the recent Showtime TV adaptation of Walter Tevis’s novel The Man Who Fell To Earth, and not the soundtrack to Nic Roeg’s 1976 movie version with David Bowie. That movie had a score by John Phillips and Stomu Yamashita, plus plenty of Bowie tracks. This one, however, has a score by Jeff Russo – most recently of Fargo, Star Trek Discovery and Picard fame. The series has plenty of classic songs throughout its ten-episode run, none of which are on the album.

That’s probably just as well, seeing as it already runs for around four and a half hours over a massive 90 tracks.

Russo’s score is very different that you might expect from his other recent work. It doesn’t have the experimental jazz sounds of the movie’s score, but it does have moments of deep piano solos, such as “Episode 2 End Titles”, and in general nicely fits the tone of the story, It wanders from drifting thematic material, through unsettling hypnotic back-and-forth notes – “Eye Of The Hurricane” being a lovely example – to single-instrument single-tone mood motifs, and Fiedel-esque ticking clocks and the like, as in “Interrogation Part 2”. There’s plenty of piano moods to be had in – the clue’s in the name here – “Piano Open” and “Base 60 Don’t Lie To Me,” while we go from a 8-bit and 16-bit sound to full electronica in “Flight To Origen”. There are also some beautiful epic orchestral tracks in there too, notably “Thorne” and the beauty that is “The Transformed Man.”

The length of the score is down to covering the main musical cues from all ten episodes, which is an admirable aim when it comes to being completist in issuing a soundtrack, but perhaps demonstrates why so many other TV show soundtracks lately – Andor, Rings Of Power, and Willow being examples – have been released as duos or trios of volumes covering their shows’ runs.

That said, there is a shorter album available for this show as well, titled Themes And Sketches: The Man Who Fell To Earth, which runs only 30 minutes. That contains the tracks “Faraday,” “Anthea,” “Justin’s Theme,” “Family Back Home,” “The Family OriGen, “Fusion,” “Pupae, “Under the Stars,” “Justin 2,” and “Justin and Faraday (Full Orch)” which, just to be awkward, are not titles from this album – with the exception of the rather bouncy “Fusion” – as they’re composite versions of cues of the main themes for various characters, rather than the in-episode cues.

Verdict: It’s a nice mix of styles and musical, really showcasing Russo’s range as a composer, as well fitting well with the alienness of the main character in any version of the story. It’s big problem is its actual size; it’s just so long, with unexpected jarring moments, that even when in the midst of an enjoyable stretch it can feel like it’s just going on forever and demands a change.

If that’s a big problem for you, you might want seek out the half hour Themes And Sketches album. Otherwise, however, this is a good release and impressive value given the amount of content… Just maybe a little too much. 8/10

David A McIntee