The Music of Westeros

The Game of Thrones TV series just wrapped up a few weeks back. The fifth book in the series of novels, A Dance With Dragons, is finally -- unbelievably -- due to arrive on Tuesday. And right in the midst of this Song of Ice and Fire feast (that had for years been a famine), the soundtrack album to the first season of the show arrived.

The music for the series was composed by Ramin Djawadi. He's not an especially well known composer in film or television, but he's just starting to break out. I first became aware of him for his work on all four seasons of the show Prison Break. That series went from awesome to disappointing to lame to "interesting again?" to "oh God, it's still coming, kill it, kill it!" But through it all, Ramin Djawadi was doing top notch work on the musical score.

I felt that he once again did good work on Game of Thrones. However, as I've listened to this soundtrack album more and more, I've decided that the music doesn't stand as well on its own as his work on Prison Break. That's not necessarily a criticism, seeing as how the music wasn't meant to be taken on its own -- it was composed, designed to be taken in tandem with the series itself. And it worked admirably in that context. Played solo, however, it's a bit of a mixed bag.

Much of the soundtrack is quiet, moody string music. It's literally "underscore," meant to draw up tension with an insistent but non-invasive drone. I find that most soundtracks featuring this kind of music tend to be too soft and downbeat to be effective without the visuals, and this soundtrack is no exception. With more than half the album given over to these kinds of tracks, I find my attention wanes at several points during the listening experience.

But there are still several gems. That main title is still wonderful, setting the stage with a brilliant mix of adventure and melancholy. Other tracks that deftly blend these lighter and darker tones include "The Pointy End" and "Things I Do for Love." A very Lord-of-the-Rings-esque, Howard Shore style majestic scope is invoked in "The Kingsroad." And of course, there are a few pulse-pounding action cues, like "North of the Wall" and "Fire and Blood" (the latter full to bursting with Dothraki percussion).

In all, I'd call it an album to cherry pick rather than listen to in its entirety. But then, song ratings on your MP3 player let you do just that quite easily. It's still an album I'm glad to have in my soundtrack collection, which I think means I rate it about a B overall.