Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Often, the best movie soundtracks and scores are those that accompany historical pictures. Western movies have always given composers ample room to flex their musical muscles and create mesmerizing odes to the prairie land. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, an underrated movie that arrived in and left theaters in a few days this past fall, is one of those expansive movies of Americana landscapes and frontier magnitude that lends itself to a good score. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis do not disappoint. Each of their ditties is heartfelt and simple, evoking images of not the film’s stars, Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, but of the film’s breathtaking cinematography (recently nominated for an Academy Award) and beautiful locations.

The first track, Rather Lovely Thing, is something special. It meanders along with entrancing piano and string work. It never speeds up or gets too slow, it simply exists as a welcoming to the story of Jesse James. Moving On, the second track, does likewise.

This is not to say that the whole album sets out to accompany large landscapes. Some selections, especially Song for Jesse, seem more personal and doting like a mother and child were nestled up against each other. There is haunting piano work at play in Song for Jesse. It reminded me of a baby’s crib toy spinning ever so gently. The bells in the song are also beautiful.

It could be said that the score is a bit slow. It never truly takes off. My answer would be to watch the movie, which is extremely contemplative and evolving. This is the American West of yesteryear, and thus it doesn’t need crazed renditions where the whole band chimes in. Instead, Cave and Ellis choose to stick with a few instruments, notably the strings, and make them sound sorrowful. Cowgirl and Carnival, both of which don’t become too fast, are probably the only songs where the composers appear to be having a little more fun. Carnival in particular is extremely nice, with the string work resembling a snake charmer’s come-hither nature.

I wouldn’t purchase the score if you weren’t a lover of the movie, or a lover of orchestral music. It takes a fine ear, finer than myself I admit, to truly appreciate every single nuance of the instruments selected and compositions written. But even with untrained ears, Cave and Ellis mesmerize. The highlight of the 14-track album is the closer, Song for Bob, which breaks my heart each time I play its sweeping and sad melodies.