LOST: Season 5 by Michael Giacchino (Review)

People who have stuck with LOST all the way through have witnessed something special. They witnessed THE greatest television score start, develop and ultimately bring us to its emotionally walloping end. When that first episode of the pilot aired it had such a visceral impact because of the music. The danger, the isolation, the hope and the mystery of the entire show flooded into us through Giacchino’s score. It can be intense, it can be tragic, it can be heartwarming but most of all it’s thematically grounded.

Season 5 was an amazing emotional accomplishment, and before seeing the final season I was dubbing it his greatest work on the series thus far. Although now I can say season 6 his is true master brushstroke. In this season the score is heavily influenced with Benjamin Linus’ theme. It pretty much takes its stake as the main theme of the season since so much revolves around that character. Towards the end of the album we get introduced to Jacob's music and some new thematic material while familiar themes pop in and out through the journey.

The only problem I have with these LOST score releases is how they’re mixed and recorded. What we have here on these discs from Season 2 beyond are live recording sessions (season 1 clearly was studio mixed for the final dub). Now again, I don’t know what the decision is behind this but it leads to some distracting “air” in the tracks. By “air” I mean all the sounds of the musicians. You hear rustling, breathing and moving around. For instance at 1:17 in the track “For Love Of The Dame” you get a full blown sniffle from someone. The fact that got recorded in the final mix is kind of mind blowing. Now, I know I’m nitpicking here and these are really minor distractions, but they are distractions nonetheless. If I were sitting and watching a movie and someone was sniffling and rustling behind me I would turn around and tell them to pipe down. Same goes for my score listening experience, except I can’t tell the musicians to stop knocking about.

In the long run the fact that I am listening to another chapter in the greatest television score ever composed makes me forget about the rush mixing job. It’s a must buy and will give your tear ducts a good draining.