Soundtrack Review: Sherlock Series One (2012)

Sherlock Series One Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the television score Sherlock Series One by David Arnold & Michael Price.

"This is one of the cases where the television series is better than the score itself."

Sherlock produced by BBC is a modern take on the detective made famous by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is set in the 21st century and follows Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson on their new adventures. Interesting concept and it works. The show is rated highly by most critics and fans. Silva Screen Music America is releasing this and Series Two is coming in February. The score is composed by David Arnold and Michael Price.

Track List

Sherlock is a fascinating show, no doubt about it and bound to have some interesting music in it. British composers David Arnold and Michael Price got together and created a score that isn't your typical crime score, but rather a minimalistic eastern european sounding affair. It's like a extremely light version of Hans Zimmer's score to Sherlock Holmes. No really... For me it registers, but not well enough to stick. The score feels a bit stuck with no roadmap of what's to come.

The main title 'Opening Titles' is very British sounding track, but it isn't a very good one and if this is the main theme, then what chance does this score have? The eastern european influence is interesting though and I hear it in a lot of the cues like 'The Game Is On', 'Pursuit' and others. It works, but it feels to static for me, too safe.

There's another thing that annoys me and I don't know if it's the production of the score or if the tracks are intended like this. In a lot of cues it starts off normally until 20+ seconds, then silence before it seems like another cue starts playing. That quite frankly put me off quite a bit and took me away from an otherwise ok listening experience.

Conclusion

This is one of the cases where the television series is better than the score itself. I haven't analyzed every episode and checked every cue, but I feel there's more here, a lot more good stuff that never made it on the CD. Maybe I'm wrong, I want to be wrong because I don't feel this reached a climax for me, far from it in fact. It was disappointing to me, more than I had expected. If you are a fan of the show, by all means get this. If you are looking for an interesting score to go with the Sherlock Holmes universe, you are better off looking elsewhere.

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Listen to the Sherlock Series One soundtrack by David Arnold and Michael Price below: