Soundtrack Review: The Sweeney (2012)

The Sweeney Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the film score The Sweeney by Lorne Balfe.

“It feels tight, it feels well produced and most importantly it sounds really good.”

The Sweeney is an action crime drama directed by Nick Love and starring Damian Lewis, Hayley Atwell and Allen Leech. A hardened detective in the Flying Squad of London’s Metropolitan police. Based on the ’70s UK TV show. The score is composed by Lorne Balfe.

Track List

1. Opening Titles	80
2. Regan’s Beginning	80
3. Country Surveillance	100
4. Put Your Trousers on, You’re Nicked!	80
5. Makin’ Trebolt	80
6. Trafalgar Square	100
7. Fog Horns	80
8. You’re Extinct	60
9. Couldn’t Help Her	80
10. Regan Rebels	60
11. In Prison but Out for Blood	60
12. Carter Solo	60
13. End	80
14. End Credits (Sweeney Remix)	100
17. Doctor P – Sweeney Theme	80
18. Barry Adamson – Sweeney Theme	80

Lorne Balfe is now firmly out of Hans Zimmer’s gigantic shadow and are doing a lot of things on his own, but he hasn’t forgotten what Zimmer taught him. That, according to some people, is not very good, but I see great potential in Balfe and what I have heard of him so far has always impressed me. Sweeney is a new action score from him and it’s pretty good.

‘Opening Titles’ is a tense thriller/action cue that plays heavy on rhythm, but not so much on melody. This score is certainly not melody driven, but as you listen to it, you can feel the presence of something more than just rhythm and music. There’s a real force here. Whatever it is Balfe is doing, it’s working for me. Cues like ‘Country Surveillance’ is very exciting with it’s percussion and bass opening before the big drums hit you and there’s a massive action cue opening up with big horns and a string section. There’s ‘Trafalgar Square’ that starts off like any old cue, but there’s a great synth section in there. Sounds a bit like Mass Effect when I think about it and specially the part from around halfway through and to the end is impressive. ‘End Credits (Sweeney Remix)’ is pretty awesome as well. Different than the rest of the score due to it being a remix, but it’s pretty rad.

Conclusion

Sweeney is yet another Lorne Balfe score that I’ve been impressed by. There are sections in here that doesn’t work quite as well, but overall, it feels tight, it feels well produced and most importantly it sounds really good and it invokes some kind of emotion. This will probably be an action score most people won’t get a chance to listen to, but everyone should.

GEEK SCORE: 78.7 (SGI: 532*)

*SGI is the current placement in the overall Soundtrack Geek Index (Lower number is better…)