THE NAKED GUN 2½ - THE SMELL OF FEAR

IRA NEWBORN

Rating:

Original Review: Music from so-called 'stupid comedies' such as The Naked Gun, Police Academy, Airplane! and the like are regularly overlooked by fans of the genre, as are the composers who work in them, like Robert Folk, the late Miles Goodman, Sylvester Levay, David Kitay and the composer of this music, and for all three Naked Gun movies to date - Ira Newborn. Newborn's career to date has not been, shall we say, outstanding, but the man obviously has talent and knows how to write excellent music. Although the music from Naked Gun 2½ is hardly of Oscar calibre, it is rather clever in its mimicry of well known genre styles: The Frank Drebin theme, 'Drebin - Hero!' is a great, bombastic fanfare; the two main themes featured throughout the score are perfect homages to all the lowbrow cop shows of the sixties and seventies with a sleazy, jazz/blues combination featuring alongside a prominent brass section; and the love theme, featured in the cues 'Meat Miss Spencer' (yes, 'meat' is spelt correctly) and 'Miss Spencer' is a typical sexpot piece, with a trashy muted saxophone solo conjuring up images of a smoky, decadent atmosphere. The real surprise, however, is the exquisite love theme that Newborn has composed for the cues 'Meat Miss Spencer', 'Thinking of... Him!' and 'The Date': a light, airy, graceful flute/string theme that builds to a wonderfully romantic climax during the ending of 'I Must Kill Frank'. It has to be said, though, that 'The Exciting Chase' isn't particularly exciting really, with Newborn replacing style with speed, and that throughout the album there are never really any tracks which make you sit back in awe at the beauty of the music. What it is, though, is a commendable effort on Newborn's part of rising above his film's subject matter and writing something worth taking the time to listen to.

Track Listing: Running Time: 30 minutes 26 seconds

Varèse Sarabande (1991)

Music composed and conducted by Ira Newborn. Orchestrations by Alf Clausen and Don Nemitz. Recorded and mixed by Gary Ladinsky. Edited by Jeff Carson. Album produced by Ira Newborn and Robert Townson. Includes music from The Naked Gun! From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) (*), also composed by Ira Newborn.


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