My Thoughts On 'Drive' Rescored

Or perhaps that should read ‘retuned’… geddit? If you, like me, are a lover of Nicholas Winding Refn’s contemporary cult classic Drive, then chances are you consider its superb score & soundtrack to be one of its finest elements.

Quite right to! Cliff Martinez’ score is a furious beast that’s unleashed as the atmosphere intensifies and the odds stack up against Ryan Gosling’s nameless Driver. And like the Driver, the score is a beast with a gentle core; the quieter moments between Gosling and Carey Mulligan’s Irene imbued with a gentle, dulcet tone that supplements the nuanced personalities of the two characters. Meanwhile, the brilliantly orchestrated electronic tracks from Kavinsky (‘Night Call’) and College & Electric Youth (‘A Real Hero’) augmented Refn’s pulpy modern-set thriller with a 80s neon sheen that allowed the film to composite the old with the new.

Well now DJ Zane Lowe, with the help of BBC Radio 1, has rescored (read: retuned… geddit yet?) Drive with a host of original music that has been created by the likes of Bastille, Bring Me The Horizon, and The 1975. Of course, as soon as it was announced, many furious (and no doubt sun starved) bloggers took to the web & vented their fury at the idea. All this without hearing the new beats & despite the fact that the new score had been made with the approval of Refn himself. Well last Thursday night on BBC3, Drive was aired with this new soundtrack, which is still (at the time of writing) accessible on the BBC iPlayer, and is also available through the iTunes store.

I myself approached the new sound with a mixture of apprehension and anticipation. On the one hand, for the reasons listed above I adore the score, and I was more than a little uneasy about the idea of someone tampering with a film I feel very close to. But on the other hand, the idea of seeing how someone else would harmonically interpret Refn’s menacing milieu was undeniably intriguing to hear.

As it happens, the result is a mainly negative bag. Unfortunately, it hits more Lowe notes (you must get that one) than it does high ones. The main problem, without doubt, is the score, which is little more than an extensive labyrinth of Drum ‘n’ Bass. From the opening scene (that’s scored by Eric Prydz), it’s clear that the effect is distracting, diminishing the tension suffused in to such set pieces by Martinez’ superior effort. The boosting of the volume is annoyingly heavy-handed, a perfect case in point being the getaway chase following the botched robbery that’s loudly played over by Bring Me The Horizon, who seem to think they’re making music for an entry in the Fast and the Furious franchise. And throughout, Lowe seems insistent on using as much music as possible, which takes away a lot of the subtlety instilled in to the original.

The soundtrack fairs better. Kavinsky is replaced with ‘Get Away’ by Chvrches, a song that makes a decent stab at embodying the same authentic 80s polish, but, unlike ‘Night Call’, lacks a relevant lyrical quality. Best of the bunch is The 1975, whose gorgeous song ‘Medicine’ perfectly encapsulates the same magical dreamlike quality of ‘A Real Hero’, nicely complementing the scene in which the Driver & Irene take a trip along the paved bed of the LA River.

By the time the end was reached, I was left with the same feelings as I had going in. There are positives in the rescore, but there’s also a tankful of negatives. Thankfully, the film is no less brilliant, so watching it didn’t feel like a complete waste of time, more of a missed opportunity.