Road To Perdition, The Thomas Newman

To be brief, and yet ultimately to the point, if you enjoy listening to classical musical/instrumental ensembles, I would heavily recommend at least glancing at this product. If you enjoy, with even more defined parameters, the ability to enjoy the interestingly-beautiful, and often neglected, sound of the oboe this will be for you.NOTE: This is a LOT better than the available itunes track. I bought my copy, here, for a lot less and it also included the FULL track list/song set compared to the limited version available on iTunes. Just buy it/wait a few days for it to come in (learn some patience to get more than the 'minimum but want NOW' American mentality we've grown!), and import it into your library.To be a bit more thorough,I will make it into an easy to read memo format of text, hopefully that will reduce clutter/otherwise.On Thomas Newman: The reality is that, albeit my utterly biased opinion, Thomas Newman is one of the greatest composition writers for films of our generation. I would argue he is the best, but we are lucky to have quite a few to choose from. He has written scores and pieces for a variety of movies including The Green Mile, Fried Green Tomatoes, Cinderella Man, WALL-E, and tons more. I would heavily recommend looking up his style of music. He also performed musical numbers for Angels in America and the introduction theme for Six Feet Under (you can actually tell the distinctive use of the oboe as his almost "signature"). WALL-E deviates from that norm, but still performs an amazing package. Thomas Newman has delivered time and time again on dramatic, emotional tales. To be honest, I am not sure what impacts me more in some of the films: the beautiful music correlated with the tale, or the tale with music in the background. I sometimes feel the predecessor...On this title: What an amazing collection of emotionally-raw and inspiring music. I have endured the suicide of a parent, the loss of two brothers, the failure of a marriage, and a slew of other events in my life. I would like to consider myself, in some capacity, hardened of spirit and heart. However, this track has brought me to tears on an untold number of occasions. It can be your own, or it can be directly correlated to this wonderful movie.->Personalized: On personalization, I find Rock Island, 1931 to be a great way to start my morning jog. I start around 5:30AM, just as the shades of gray begin to accumulate the blue coloring. While not a religious individual, I sometimes wonder if there's not someone above listening to this very song with a large brush of oil paints at their disposal. This song will get listened to at least three times before I complete my running.->Music related: Watch the Tommy gun scene with Mr. Rooney, and pay attention closely to the musical score. "Ghosts" song. Battle of blue eyes. You are introduced to an entire environment saturated with water, the soft piano drifts displaying trickling water...it contains a beautiful, repeating song score that is interrupted twice. Consider the main song to be a drone of sorts, and at two specifically placed intervals the abrupt change in the song signal two extremely important events. The first: Paul Newman opens his eyes at the exact time in which you hear it. It's intentional, but it's powerful. You have no sound to this point except this song to keep you at bay...the buildup has been intense in the scene itself, but it's not until the music changes that I feel true solidification of an abrupt change in the story. This occurs at 1:34. At 2:00 you are introduced to the voice of a man that understands the situation, the circumstances, and the only viable remedy. In twenty-six seconds I've just felt heartbreak, satisfaction, awe, woe, sympathy, and ultimately sorrow. The sense of what these characters once represented to each other versus what must be done is so magnificent. If I knew nothing else of this album/song, this would be enough.I hope you've enjoyed my review, it's the first I have written.PS. I would suggest checking out other Thomas Newman related soundtracks/scores/etc. I have yet to find one that has not been topnotch.Regards,K.

If you are a 'soundtrack junkie' like me, then you will not want to be without this one. I spend a good part of my time hunting for great soundtracks that I can listen to while I read or study. This is one of the better ones I have a found in a long time.There are several features that set this soundtrack apart from others that I have collected:First, it has a lot of music. Many soundtracks have little music and the songs are short, making the soundtrack even shorter since the selection is slim as well.Second, it has a good variety of music. I have purchased or heard soundtracks where there is one song used but played or arranged a dozen different ways. That gets boring quite fast.Third, (and this is merely a personal preference of my own), the songs are emotional and moving. Many of the these songs are very emotional, soothing, or have a cajoling effect.Having collected many different soundtracks over the years, I can safely say that this one is a very nice addition to my collection. By the way, especially good tracks on this collection are, 2 - "Wake;" 13 - "The Farm;" 16 - "A Blind Eye;" 22 - "Cathedral" (a scene in the movie which convinced me to get the soundtrack), and 26 - "Road to Perdition."Other suggested soundtracks - "My Dog Skip;" and "A Map of the World" (which is probably my all time favorite).

Thomas Newman has gotten better each time I have experiened his work. The "Road to Perdition" soundtrack is absolutely amazing. The haunting piano melodies mixed with the sounds of Irish folk take the listener on a journey far beyond the movie itself. This is truly one of the few soundtracks I can listen to all the way through without skipping a track. The only work I would compare this to would be the music Thomas Newman composed for "Meet Joe Black" which is another superb soundtrack that I highly recommend. My personal favorites are track 2, 7, 22, 24, 25 and 26. This soundtrack even comes with a piece performed by actors Paul Newman and Tom Hanks. Overall just a splendid compilation.

This is Thomas Newman's best motion picture soundtrack to date. It's beautifully melancholic but not depressing, rather pleasant at the same time. When the bagpipes begin and then the strings come in, it is very impactful, very moving. It is perfect for the story of Irish gangsters in Chicago during the 1920-1930s.

The sound quality is excellentWell worth the money

Thomas Newman of course!

The composer wrote music that captured the era, the personalities of the characters and the setting and events in the scenes.

If you are a Thomas Newman fan you are going to love this. I do!

I skipped Road to Perdition on its original release as I cannot stand anything at all starring Jude Law, but the score by Thomas Newman caught up with me many years later in the form of remixes by other artists. Newman has had a long and varied career scoring everything from The Lost Boys to James Bond. This score got an Oscar nomination, losing to  Frida  by Elliot Goldenthal, of all things, and I was hoping that, based on the new mixes I've heard, it would be among his best work, but it's very "meh".Often sounding like passages from Dances with Wolves, there are some nice individual moments in this score without there being one standout, defining track, leading to the entire album feeling rather boring and frustrating, with no special moments to pinpoint or come back to. The best track is Ghosts, but Newman squanders the potential by keeping it far too subdued, a fault that applies to pretty much every track.There's a couple of Jazz/Swing/Big Band tracks featured here, that were in the movie, that are a bit jarring and distract from the sombre sound of Newman's score. I just skip right past them. As expected, the album is completely out of order so I've arranged the correct listing below.1. Rock Island, 1931 (3:22)2. Wake (1:55)3. There'll Be Some Changes Made (Chicago Rhythm Kings) (2:59)4. Perdition - Piano Duet (Tom Hanks and Paul Newman) (1:39)5. Rain Hammers (2:41)6. Finn McGovern (2:11)7. Just The Feller (2:44)8. Bit Borrowers (2:25)9. Murder (In Four Parts) (7:54)10. Road To Chicago (3:06)#11. Reading Room (1:25)12. A Blind Eye (2:27)13. Meet Maguire (1:44)14. Virgin Mary (2:40)15. Grave Drive (1:20)16. Blood Dog (1:06)17. Queer Notions (Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra) (1:20)18. Shoot The Dead (2:25)19. Dirty Money (3:10)20. Someday Sweetheart (The Charleston Chasers) (3:06)21. Mr. Rance (1:38)22. Nothing To Trade (2:25)23. The Farm (2:09)24. Cathedral (2:40)25. Ghosts (3:40)26. Lexington Hotel, Room 1432 (1:45)27. Road To Perdition (3:55)I recommend you find the Ghosts remix by Aaron Static and Fort Road, which lasts nearly ten minutes and indulge yourself in that. It reaches emotional heights that nothing in the actual score itself comes close to. It's so strange. Newman had the power to make it so good and fell so far short of what others following in his wake would achieve. Frida

I love Thomas Newmans work and Road To Perdition is one of my favourites, possibley my favourite. Some of my favourites on the soundtrack are 'Rock Island 1931' 'Wake' 'Ghosts' 'Road To Chicargo' 'Road To Perdition' 'Cathedral' and 'Just The Feller'. The music is brilliant, it sends you drifting of to another place. It is very tranquil and beautiful. I find it hard to believe that Thomas Newman is yet to win an Oscar. In my opinion the music is better than the film itself and the film doesn't quite live up to it. If you like Thomas Newman, your sure to love Road To Perdition.

This is one of my top 10 movies of all time. Normally I'm not a fan of either gangsters or 1920's 30's genre but I gave it a watch. It's Tom Hanks at his absolute best. The soundtrack is beautiful and is Thomas Newman at his best. Despite a dark subject matter the music is soulful and at times uplifting. A perfect combination of movie and soundtrack.

I just cannot understand I missed the movie when it came out.. Tom Hanks easily challenges De Niro in his better days. But it is the soundtrack that blows me away. Masterful, worthy of the masterpiece the movie is. As someone on youtube wrote: "Thomas Newman plays the piano and the strings to death".

Have not yet seen the film but judging be this great soundtrack looks like I really should