Soundtrack Review: Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World (2012)

Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the film score Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World by Rob Simonsen and Jonathan Sadoff.

“This score does exactly what it’s supposed to but not much more.”

In the comedy Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World, an asteroid named “Matilda” is about to hit the earth in three weeks and it’s a planet killer. One man decides to spend his time searching for his long lost love from high school during the catastrophe. It’s directed by Lorene Scafaria and starring Steve Carell, Keira Knightley and Melanie Lynskey. The score is composed by Rob Simonsen and Jonathan Sadoff.

Track List

1. The Beginning	60
2. Dodge Walks Home	80
3. Penny Sleeps	40
4. Flossing Spider	60
5. Box of Memories	80
6. More Windose	60
7. Home With Sorry	60
8. The Riot	60
9. Jailed	80
10. Phone Call	100
11. Upstairs at Olivia’s	80
12. The Beach	60
13. The End	80

Rob Simonsen is most known for his work on “(500) Days of Summer” with Mychael Danna while Jonathan Sadoff is less known. He has been composing for film since 2006. This film with the awkward title Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World is a dark comedy that asks the question: What would you do if you knew the planet earth was coming to an end? There’s drama and there’s romance. How does Simonsen and Sadoff solve this? By writing a bog standard dramedy score. Now my definition might vary from your opinion so let me tell you how it sounds.

The main theme as heard in ‘The Beginning’ (and pretty much every cue) is a decent theme that is not very hum-worthy but not bad as far as themes go. It’s short and straight to the point. I can definitely see it working well for the film. The various versions of it are sometimes fast-paced for comedy sequences and then there’s a more darker drama version. The whole score sounds a bit like the main theme, decent but not particularly good. It chugs along at a decent pace but the cues that I like the most are the ones that sticks out a little bit like ‘Jailed’, ‘Phone Call’ and ‘The End’. Particularly ‘Phone Call’ stands out with it’s emotional hook.

Conclusion

This score does exactly what it’s supposed to but not much more. It works as background music to the story, but very rarely I heard something that made me connect to it emotionally. It is all a very standard affair. As a companion to the film, it works, as a standalone listen, it requires a lot more for it to work.

GEEK SCORE: 69.2

Listen to Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World by Rob Simonsen and Jonathan Sadoff:

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