Movie Music and More 28# : "Conspiracy Theory" (1997)

This is your friendly neighborhood Hamlette, here to discuss another beloved soundtrack with you.  Today, it's Carter Burwell's score for Conspiracy Theory (1997).  This is one of those albums that I have listened to so often, it's ingrained in my brain.  I don't actually listen to it that often anymore because I can pull up my favorite cues in my memory and listen to them there.

I'll start with the main theme, listed as "Conspiracy Theory" on the soundtrack.  It gives you a great feel for what the movie is like:  relatively cheerful, with a lot of energy.  The part that kicks in at 1:48 is my favorite -- that theme makes my consciousness soar.

That theme gets repeated in the score's final cue, "Riding," beginning right around 2:00.  I actually bought this score just for that theme, and I recorded just that thirty seconds or so on a cassette tape (yes, I am that old) over and over and over and over so I could listen to just it.  The rest of this track is nice too, beginning with a gentle tenderness that builds to a sort of peaceful anticipation, then explodes with joy.  But those trumpets are what really hit my sweet spots.  I see that whoever put this track on YouTube agrees, since they added that little tag to it, hee.

I also quite like "Turning into a Jerry" because of how it opens with tender simplicity, then switches to a nice jazz beat with an off-kilter and slightly menacing melody played over it.  It's short and tantalizing and leaves me wanting a bit more.  It's also a great musical depiction of the main character, Jerry Fletcher, who is also tender, off-kilter, and slightly menacing.

I wish YouTube had more tracks from this soundtrack for me to share with you, but those are three they do have that I really like, anyway.  I think they give you a pretty good taste for what the soundtrack as a whole is like, anyway.