Safe House [Soundtrack, Import]

Ramin Djawadi has been busy doing television recently with shows like Game Of Thrones and Person Of Interest. Last year he did the Fright Night remake, which was an enjoyable score. So, what do we have from Ramin for Safe House? Surprisingly this is a really great and well rounded score. Immediately I was thrown back to the 90's where great action scores lived. This is definitely a great action score with graspable themes and motifs. Ramin did a great job with the Medal Of Honor game in 2010, but here he hones his craft to make a much more tightly composed action score.

We start off with a great opening and immediately he sets up the narrative. There's a significant amount of character behind the music too. The movie is your essential cat and mouse game like The Fugitive or Enemy Of The State, but the music definitely has a smirking smart-ass undertone to it that echoes Denzel's character. What I love about the score is that Djawadi utilizes percussion extremely well. It never becomes too much or too loud. We have just the right amount of rhythm to keep the music flowing. The score has some quiet parts that build slight tension. It's not tension in the sense of a thriller or anything like that, but rather tension along the lines of something exciting is about to happen. Then with slow builds the music will pick up tempo and come back down. The structure is great and it never loses you as a listener. You won't get bored with it because he crafted such a great and distinct soundscape for the story. Surprisingly there is a bit of emotion behind the music too. It doesn't try to get too touchy-feely, but the right amount of humanization is put into the score so it's not a mind-numbing experience.

Safe House is a great score from Ramin Djawadi. It has a style and a purpose from the get go and never fails to hold the listener. Even in the quieter tracks you are hooked into music and the story it's telling. The action is never crazy, but it's thematic and entertaining. The percussion helps the action tracks excel and makes this score an all around entertainer. No hollow scoring here since the music actually has substance. So, go take a listen and enjoy this fun action thriller score from Djawadi before you settle in for season 2 of Game Of Thrones.

This is all instrumental music. It's okay but doesn't have some of the other songs that were in the movie on it.