Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
White Lunar - MUTE
FILTER Grade: 92%

Forgetting the clichés of Morricone-themed Spaghetti Western rehashing, White Lunar showcases the tracks responsible for setting the scenes in 2005’s The Proposition, 2007’s lengthy The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and the much anticipated film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road. Disc one focuses considerably upon gentle piano strokes that match gray skies, while string orchestrations mirror the dust barren hardships from a life spent traveling on foot and in the saddle. Cave and Ellis’ score is often the only audible event coming from 2007’s epic tale of Jesse James’ murder, whose largely dialogue-free script left the music to do much of the communicating. The initial rising climax of “Song for Bob” is shadowed tenfold by a feeling of unmistakable defeat, transparent to the storyline that unfolds onscreen, while the bells and mallets of “Song for Jesse” reflect the idealism of 19th century America’s version of Robin Hood. Drawing the deepest from disc one’s dark themes, “The Journey” paints an audible picture of how hope in a post-apocalyptic world has to appear: hopeless, just as in McCarthy’s novel. While disc two rounds out the duo’s footprint upon several documentaries, what makes Cave and Ellis’ scores unique is their doppelganger ability to stand alone without the films, while the films largely lean upon these audible landscapes as a means of storytelling.