Mad Men: Original Score Volume 1 (2008)
The first release of David Carbonara's original score for the television series Mad Men features music from a number of key scenes in the first and second seasons.
The album opens with The New Girl and The Men of Sterling-Cooper, two mini-suites of music related to specific story threads and characters within the show. The mix of styles and the interesting arrangements in these tracks instantly draws you into the world of the show and reminds you of some of its lighter moments. The New Girl even includes some jungle sounds towards the end, a funny allusion to some of the behaviour of the characters at Sterling-Cooper.
Other tracks such as How Many Get Sable and Betty's Ride may not have been featured extensively in the episodes but they do reflect aspects of its period, location, and atmosphere.
The interpretation of Rimsky-Korsakov's Song of India is a highlight of this release and featured in For Those Who Think Young, the first episode of the second season. It catches Don Draper's ear as he waits for his wife Betty in a hotel lobby. The main theme of the piece swells just as he catches a glimpse of his wife coming down a flight of stairs.
The show's darker tones can be found in the tracks Don's Meeting with Adam and I'm Not Going to Fight. These contain themes and motifs which appear in a number of episodes in various forms. The Carousel, the penultimate track, brings many of these to a head as Don makes his presentation for Kodak's new slide projector in the final episode of the first season. This music is reflective, solitary, and often distant.
The album closes with A Beautiful Mine, a jazz rendition of the music that is heard in a more modern styling in the opening titles.
Conclusions
I enjoyed this CD and felt a good variety of music was presented. Carbonara has succeeded in expressing the principal character's confusion and solitude amid the energy and colour of the show's setting.
The other soundtrack releases for the show focus more on the source music but they also contain some of Carbonara's work which is not on this CD, an example being the music heard during the lipstick survey scene in the first season.
Links
- Lionsgate Music & Publishing On-line Store: includes full previews of all the tracks.
- Q & A - Music Composer David Carbonara
- The MusicBrainz entry for this CD release
- The music section of AMC's Mad Men blog includes information on all the source music used in each episode.