Cowboys & Aliens Varese Sarabande ***

The composer Harry Gregson-Williams is a smart composer with a recent hit and ho-hum series of scores, from the triumphant Prince of Persiaand the rousing The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspianto the noodlingly generic Unstoppable, Twelveand The Taking of Pelham 123.In his score to Jon Favreau's genre mash-up Cowboys & Aliens, he deftly combines strong melodic lines and dynamic polyrhythms with spare orchestration and brooding electronica to create a contemporary Western score (with plenty of acoustic and slide guitar) with very little sci-fi strangeness. Moments of vintage Gregson-Williams originality (particularly Ella's Missionand Return to the Cabin) are few, however, so Cowboys & Aliensnever delivers in the way it promises. See cowboysandaliensmovie.com

Download tracks: Ella's Mission, Return to the Cabin