Silva Screen have done a wonderful thing in releasing The Informant! on CD. Not just because it’s a marvellous effort from one of the industry’s most talented veterans, but because if they hadn’t we’d all have to go to Amazon.com and order one of their CDR albums.  If you haven’t come across this idea before, essentially the albums are made to order with the music files copied onto a bog-standard CDR disc; covers are printed and bob’s your uncle, you have a soundtrack album.  To me that’s just not cricket and in many ways a bit shoddy; sure you’d get the music on a disc to pop in your collection but the quality and longevity of said disc is way below that of a proper pressed album. Rant over.

Silva Screen have done a wonderful thing in releasing The Informant! on CD. Not just because it’s a marvellous effort from one of the industry’s most talented veterans, but because if they hadn’t we’d all have to go to Amazon.com and order one of their CDR albums.  If you haven’t come across this idea before, essentially the albums are made to order with the music files copied onto a bog-standard CDR disc; covers are printed and bob’s your uncle, you have a soundtrack album.  To me that’s just not cricket and in many ways a bit shoddy; sure you’d get the music on a disc to pop in your collection but the quality and longevity of said disc is way below that of a proper pressed album. Rant over.

The Informant! is something of an amusing caper, with Matt Damon starring as Mark Whitacre, a man with a fairly unexciting life who is tasked by the FBI to become a mole within the company he works for, helping them to uncover its illegal activities.  The trouble is his new role goes to his head and he begins to believe he is a real life spy, spinning lie after lie until reality twists into a tangled web of deceit and delusion.  Ultimately it’s an old fashioned romp and with an old fashioned score to boot, and this reasonably short album has done nothing but raise a smile from me all week.

Opening with somewhat murky piano and woodwind, the title track segues into a lilting piano refrain that seems to have come right out of a bygone age, perhaps a household melodrama. This feeling is intensified by the addition of muted trumpet, harmonica, harp and flute. It’s a simple, unfussy start which proves that less is more and it sets a mood immediately.  Following that is perhaps my favourite thread in the score; ‘Meet Mark’ is a perky little number, lightly jazzed up with some kit percussion, Hammond Organ and flute.  I was immediately reminded of Hoyt Curtin and Ted Nichols’ array of infectious ditties for The Flintstones; it’s a sprightly sound that absolutely smacks of the sixties.

Camping things up, and continuing the retro feel, is ‘Car Meeting’ which sees the composer return somewhat to Bond territory as he creates a brilliantly kitsch spy refrain with bass guitar and brass.  The brass is more Pink Panther, while the overall feel is perhaps less James Bond and more Austin Powers; whatever it is it’s brilliant and if you thought those cues were camp, there’s more to follow in ‘The Raid’ and ‘Multi-Tasking’.  The latter wouldn’t be out of place on a ballroom dancefloor, while ‘Polygraph’ is nothing short of a mini hoe-down, replete with fiddle, harmonica and guitar.  Infectious in not the word...

The melodrama of the first track – which ultimately reveals itself to be a sad little motif for Mark – is returned to in ‘Boxes’, while my favourite Flintstones-esque thread comes back in ‘After Car’ with the addition of saxophone, whistling and tambourine. Great fun indeed.

And so it goes on, with wildly colourful orchestration, overdramatic denouements, a snarling brass motif – introduced in ‘Sellout’ – and bags of crazy percussion.  Ultimately it’s a complete throwback score, mad as a box of frogs on the whole, but with something of a tender soul in places and I can’t get enough of it.

One of the further highlights sees Hamlisch reunited with his songwriting partners, husband and wife legends Alan and Marilyn Bergman.  The Bergman’s have been partly responsible for many of cinema’s most iconic songs and for The Informant! the threesome have come up with ‘Trust Me’, a cool, finger-snapping jazz ditty – performed by soundtrack favourite Steve Tyrell -  that once again harkens back to a classic sound.  The song would be a shoo-in for the Best Original Song Oscar if the category has enough nominees to be included when they’re announced in February.

So it’s quite obvious from my enthusiastic notes that this is an album to listen out for and whether you download the tracks from the Silva Screen website, order the Amazon CDR or order yourself Silva’s actual CD album, you won’t be disappointed with what Marvin Hamlisch has achieved.  While it might be a token throwback to another time, it acts as something of a reminder that the old ones really are the best.