If Battle: Los Angeles was the first Brian Tyler score you've ever listened to, than you'll likely be blown away by it. However, if you're already familiar with the composer's work as a regular customer, so to speak, than you will find this album to tread on ground that is all too familiar with what we've already heard from him. This album is a disappointment for me.

For the past couple of years, there has been some positive buzz about the prospects about a Battle: LA score. While the film is anything but original in its premise, one would have hoped that this outing would have set up Brian with an opportunity to dabble on the grounds of greatness as with his Children of Dune soundtrack. Instead, there seemed to be few creative inspirations along those lines within the context of this score. One can liken it to a greatest hits album of sorts, where Brian played to his strengths in a fairly conservative manner, limiting the scope of the thematic material to rely more on an energy than by memorable motifs.. In fact, the only thematic identifier that worked for me is the heighted use of military percussion, first heard in track 2, which is a simple and engaging touch that helped brand this score. Other than that, it seems as though the bulk of this album is best compared to the action music from the latter cues of Eagle Eye, a pattern which I'm sure was guided forth by the director and producers.

And on the topic of producers -- many excuses have been made of late that composers are boxed in to deliver precisely what the powers that be ask for and nothing else. While this limitation is probably universal to varying degrees, I maintain that there is some wiggle room within these constraints for a composer to lend his or her personal voice to the proceedings, especially when you're dealing with a known talent who can be considered a veteran of the craft. In Battle: LA, it felt to me like this score was guided forward like a missile with little deviation from it course. Does that mean that the temp track won? Perhaps. But I also hoped that Brian could have blended in a bit more originality into the final output.

The Battle: LA soundtrack was perhaps also doomed by my expectations. Had I ventured into this score with moderate hopes, than I probably would have walked away feeling a bit more satisfied with what I heard. Instead, and compared to what I was hoping for, the basic nature of its themes fell flat, the energy of the music tired me, and the lack of originality was disappointing. The album also runs far too long, which is a recurring issue with some of Brian's other scores as well.

I suppose one key question that comes to mind is about the nature of this type of film itself and how it releates to what music we hear. For instance, has the repetitious nature of remakes, reboots, and dull storylines finally bled its way into the scoring process in full? Given the vast number of "safe" scores we've heard in recent times, it sure sounds like we're headed in that direction.