David Arnold - Baby Boy: Original Motion Picture Score (2001)

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David Arnold - Baby Boy: Original Motion Picture Score (2001)

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Through the decade of the 1990's, director John Singleton was known best, of course, for 1991's Boyz N the Hood, and his 2001 companion film Baby Boy is a similarly structured urban drama involving the disadvantages and trials of African American black men in urban settings. The film is once again a challenging look at the central themes that Singleton often raises in his projects, and while critics praised his ability to maintain a realistic perspective within the genre, many black audiences were less than pleased about the stereotypical portrayals of gang-tempted blacks in predictable and disappointing situations. Many viewers agreed, however, that Singleton's film presented far more questions than answers. An interesting answer to one question was David Arnold, whose hiring to write the music for the project was considered a curious move by the fans of the composer only familiar with his small body of soundtrack work. The British composer was widely recognized as the composer of several very large-scale orchestral film scores of the 1990's in America, and the last genre that came to mind when most fans thought of Arnold was rhythm & blues. And yet, Arnold's fans should never have been surprised that he could pull it off, because his ability to adapt his talents to several different genres, whether pop, electronica, jazz, or orchestral, is well established. He was already better known in the United Kingdom for his pop arrangements and the production of albums across a variety of genres. For Baby Boy, Arnold would venture successfully into the troubled territory of black urban drama, and Singleton's risky choice would be rewarding for both the composer and the film. It is important to remember that Arnold, at his very core of talents, has a keen sense of style, and it is that style that allowed him to step into this new genre like a veteran with all the right tools in the shed. While some of the flashier elements of the James Bond scores have helped to illuminate the edges of these talents, fans of Stargate and Independence Day should be aware that Baby Boy couldn't be more strikingly different from those works.

Although much of the attention paid to the music of Baby Boy was due to famous rapper Snoop Dogg's involvement with the picture, Arnold's score contributes most of the dramatic weight of the project. The film made use of rap song selections for its outwardly hip, attitude-driven scenes, and many of these songs appeared on the first soundtrack album that hit the stores two months before the score-only product. The mass of the film, though, is devoted to the personal development of its principle characters, and these lengthy scenes feature Arnold's stylish R&B material. Devoid of a title theme, the score instead serves its purpose by establishing an appropriate atmospheric mood with R&B rhythms and instrumentation, allowing itself to sink into a relatively soft and inglorious role. The rhythms are performed by drums, a bass, guitars, keyboards, various other percussive elements, and a solo female voice for two highlighted cues of nightmarish sequences. These easy-going rhythms persist for most of the album, with a hip and lazy swing that often continues for several uninterrupted minutes (rearranging this material for the film must have been a piece of cake). You don't have to be an R&B fan to enjoy easy cues such as "Sweetpea's Yard," though to fully appreciate them, you need to approach the listening experience expecting that very specific mood. Ironically, the inclusion of a studio string section of moderate size breaks from the normal boundaries the genre and carries portions of the score into the more demanding and dramatic realm. While these cues appropriately address emotionally charged sequences of tough decisions and extend into threatening tones for the pivotal suspense portions of the film, they unfortunately disrupt the listening experience on album. To his credit, Arnold integrates the strings well with R&B band elements, begging for even more integration of the strings directly into the hip rhythms. Even as it is, though, Baby Boy is an effective mood-sustaining score by Arnold for a very specific genre. Collectors of his scores should know that Baby Boyis quite a subdued work as well, so even if you enjoyed his music for Shaft (which obviously approaches the genre from an entirely different direction), you won't hear the same spirit here. Approach with cautious optimism.

Editorial Review by FilmTracks.com

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David Arnold - Baby Boy: Original Motion Picture Score (2001)

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David Arnold - Baby Boy: Original Motion Picture Score (2001)

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David Arnold - Baby Boy: Original Motion Picture Score (2001)

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