Zanobard Reviews

Jeff Russo’s Alien: Earth offers an extensive and intriguing take on eerie orchestral atmosphere with stylistic references to Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner abound, but a general lack of interesting new themes sadly keeps this Alien entry from being particularly standout overall.

Deep, dark, moody and at times intriguingly emotional ambience seems to be the focus of Jeff Russo’s Alien: Earth. The first glimpses of it appear in first track “Zaveri”, which opens quite literally with a ‘drop’ as dripping plinks of water kick off the cue, soaking the music in atmosphere in doing so. Eerie high-pitched strings then follow with foreboding brass repeating a three-note motif rising in pitch and intensity, with backing strings and gentle piano notes going on to evoke quite a solemn and pensive tone for the remainder of the track. The subsequent and six minute “Weyland-Yutani” then twinkles with light percussion and whistling woodwinds that play opposite tense bursts of brass and wary strings, establishing a rather unnerving and indeed unpredictable (as you never quite know where the track is going to go next) sound for the titular corporation overall – which is rather fitting really. The music then calms somewhat for the serene “Wendy” with wary strings introducing another recurring motif, this time for the titular hybrid (a synthetic person with a human consciousness) and main character of the series, played by Sydney Chandler. Much like with the opening cue this also has a bit of a sorrowful quality to it, leaning almost toward Elliot Goldenthal’s ALIEN³ in its murky tone.

The instrumental horror dials up dramatically in “Tipping Point” with aggressively high-pitched strings rising and falling, practically causing the hairs on the back of your neck to stand on end alongside some particularly creepy electronics. The unnerving woodwinds of “Weyland-Yutani” then reprise in the back half before eerie strings take centre stage in “Alien – Earth”; the high-pitched nature of the aforementioned instrumentation keeps things plenty ominous and deeply atmospheric through the first half of this two and a half minute track, with some stylistic hints and echoes toward Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic Alien occurring in the back half before a finale of angry bursts of brass and frantic drums (paying homage in style to James Horner’s Aliens, I might add). An air of mystery then encompasses “The Orchid” with percussive clangs and dread-inducing strings occupying much of its four minute runtime, before the plinking water droplet atmospherics return in “The Apartments” alongside eerie strings and woodwinds. The mood then shifts to much lighter territory in “Siblings”, with leaping woodwinds and hopeful strings providing a welcome break from the musical darkness until “Alien – Earth Pt. 2” sinks right back into the murkiness with foreboding hits of low-pitched brass and strings. Eerie echoing Goldsmith hints then open “Crew Status”, with the two-note secondary theme from Alien making brief cameo appearances alongside tense strings.

The rising motif from opening track “Zaveri” returns in “Move Your Ass”, with low-pitched ominous brass driving the wary theme forward together with strings and percussive echoes toward Goldsmith. Dramatically chanting vocals then occupy “Hermit Enters” before a surprisingly western-styled vibe overtakes “Procession”, with a series of guitars establishing a rather tranquil tone alongside echoing percussion throughout. “Xenomorph” then pulls us straight back into the eerie Alien ambience, this time with a surprisingly forlorn new motif for the titular terror that plays alongside the eerie high-pitched strings that have occupied much of the album already as well as creepy brassy bursts. The two-note secondary theme from Alien then reprises in tense brass-based form in “To Be An Animal” alongside similarly worrisome strings, with the militaristic drums from Horner’s Aliens also making an appearance in the back half. The solemn motif for the Xenomorph then returns in “Xeno (Quintet)” before “Voices” does exactly what it says on the tin, featuring an abundance of eerie chanting vocals alongside some rather unnerving electronics. “Wendy’s Transition” then harkens back to the gentler tone of the main character’s motif from earlier with serene woodwinds and strings, before “Lost Boys” starts to slide back into horror territory with high-pitched strings.

With the album starting to near its end, “Crew Dead Pt. 2” (what happened to Pt. 1?) continues in much a similar stylistic vein as the prior cue with hair-raisingly creepy strings work before “Gear Up” then explodes with tension as bursts of aggressive brass and thundering drums kick off ninety seconds of action. “All Aboard” then slows things back down with a malevolent reprisal of the Xenomorph motif on its dramatically high-pitched strings, and the album overall then wraps up with two further quintet cues; the first is “Transition” and reprises the more serene stylings of the track from earlier, with the subsequent “Wendy” also following suit with one final rendition of the main character’s rather sorrowful theme to close out the score.

Overall, Jeff Russo’s score for Alien: Earth is an intriguing study in darkly ominous atmosphere, if nothing else. The ambient worldbuilding that it achieves through its eerie elegance in tracks like “Zaveri” and “Weyland-Yutani” (with shrill woodwinds and high-pitched strings abound) is very interesting to listen to, and fitting too for the ever-foreboding sound of the Alien franchise. That said while Alien: Earth certainly achieves in its atmospheric work, it’ssadly a little lacking when it comes to new themes. They are present, for example a recurring and intriguingly sorrowful motif for the Xenomorph itself (“Xenomorph”, “All Aboard”) as well as a slightly more upbeat piece for main character Wendy (“Wendy”, “Wendy’s Transition”), but they aren’t really very memorable, and so make little impact on the album overall which I feel is a bit of a shame. In terms of thematic reprisals from the franchise overall we do get a few hints toward Jerry Goldsmith’s 1979 original in echoing instruments and the ocassional cameo from the secondary main theme (“To Be An Animal”), as well as some stylistic references to the propulsive percussion of James Horner’s Aliens (“Alien – Earth”) which do help to firmly ground this new soundtrack entry within the expected sound of Alien.

All-in, the atmosphere of Russo’s work here is solid but thematically it’s a bit lackluster, which if we’re doing recent comparisons – in my mind puts Wallfisch’s Romulus solidly above this.

Score: 6.5/10

Standout Cues: Alien – Earth/Weyland-Yutani

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