Yes, it know that it's sad but there is a distinctive lack of "popular music" on my iPod, populated as it is with BBC AUDIOBOOKS and BBC MUSIC releases that have been exorcised from DOCTOR WHO. A hand hides the inch-square display screen as the other circumvents the menu to avoid colleagues and friends mocking my downloaded playlist.
Yet, no longer should I be embarrassed with an endless list of DOCTOR WHO displayed.
I'm out and proud - yes, I listen to WHO.
Murray Gold's third outing, courtesy of SILVA SCREEN RECORDS, demonstrates a masterful understanding of the very DNA that created DOCTOR WHO. Only the legendary Dudley Simpson knew what orchestral accompaniment attributed to making the drama successful but, with the music for SERIES 4 Gold (under Ben Foster's instruction of The BBC National Orchestra of Wales) has attained a new level of creativity, soul & heart and cinematic professionalism for the small screen.
Like the H5N1 strain coursing across Asia & India, the DOCTOR WHO SERIES 4 OST is rampant, infectious and debilitating; slump back into the sofa and chill.
The first "cut" for this album ran to over two-hundred minutes, resulting in a considerable about of work (a labour of love no doubt) to reduce it to just a mere celebratory 78 minutes. Like the first two DNEW SERIES OST releases, there are a number of key tracks that are a remarkable, unforgettable and timeless (SERIES 1's BOOM TOWN SUITE and SERIES 2's THE CARRIONITE'S SWARM ). Which are they for this OST? Well, make up your own mind but here's a few.
A NOBEL GIRL ABOUT TOWN is like slipping into your favourite cotton pyjamas that have been warmed before bedtime. It's reassuringly familiar with a hint of SEX IN THE CITY shimmy sprinkled throughout that brings a smirk to your face, for, as we know, Donna is back with a relaxed vengeance of sarcasm, and we love it.
Perhaps, SONGS OF CAPTIVITY AND FREEDOM is the iconic elegiac track on SERIES 4 OST, and if it is not it is outstanding noentheless. A lament for the "working class" (the Ood) presented as a 16th century religious chant that echoes throughout time itself. Brave. Genius. Sombre yet taciturn, underscored & naked. Rewind the track and listen to it again, and count your heart beats; there will be less of them than normal.
Whilst it was nominated for a 2008 BAFTA, VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED SUITE is, strangely, innocuous verging on the bland or heart-less, devoid any perfunctory challenges. Was it trying too hard to be the bastard Son of a John Williams' film score? Sadly, I was expecting more.
SILENCE IN THE LIBRARY/FOREST OF THE DEAD is treated to five tracks, all of which stunningly personifies orchestral inquietude, whilst ALL IN THE MIND (track 15) seemingly pays homage to WG Snuffy Walden's thirtysomething main theme and that's fine by me.
Discordant, finger-tip chilling and damning, MIDNIGHT is television's version of BIG FINISH's DOCTOR WHO - THE CHIMES OF MIDNIGHT score. A musical SOS that scrambles one's perception of "where, when, who, what" and one that could be incorporated within Jerry Goldsmith's score for the 1968 PLANET OF THE APES without anyone noticing.
Flanging that disassembles your aural capacity for reasoning, judgement and reality itself, with a translucent echo of an alternate universe as it attempts to assail through a time-space back-alley, TURN LEFT is a hauntingly depressing pseudo-vêrité soaked in Jim Beam "Sour mash".
HANGING ON THE TABLAPHONE is like time travel itself. It is back to the 1980's, the halcyon days of Moog synthesisers and ERASURE (with a hint of SERIES 2's TOOTH AND CLAW and Bangla-beat). Just smile - you can't help it.
The juxtaposition of A DAZZLING END and THE RUEFUL FATE OF DONNA NOBLE is genius and like all genius composers, Gold tempers the dream of hope & redemption with a desperate wrenching of loss & death.
With DAVROS, we hear for the first time the CLASSIC SERIES "sound" permeating through to the NEW SERIES. Take this track and digitally splice into 1975's TERROR OF THE ZYGONS' "barn scene" as Sarah Jane Smith is stalked by a wounded shape-shifter. It works beautifully. Unfortunately, this track will find itself transported into the next series of the BBC's THE APPRENTICE or TOP GEAR . But it's that compelling, that haunting, and that exquisite.
DOCTOR WHO SERIES 4 OST is essential. iPod or no iPod.
A siren call to all DOCTOR WHO fans - don't wait for Father Christmas (yes, we all know who he is. "Red bicycle aged seven") to deliver this CD or download.
