The second most scary thing about this album is the absence of the music that opens and closes the film. There ought to be a warning to those who seek this out on the strength of Coil's "Closer" or David Bowie's "The Heart's Filthy Lesson". Instead there's a collection of songs that will never seem the same after being used for Se7en. Although they're clearly background 'filler', Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man" or Charlie Parker's "Now's The Time" have acquired an eerie undercurrent akin to Blue Velvet having been touched by David Lynch. The best reason for buying this disc, though, is Howard Shore's astonishing score. The two cues total 20 minutes, so you won't feel completely cheated. "Portrait of John Doe" introduces the wash and ebb of the composer's uncomfortable soundscape. But it's with the 15-minute "Suite" that the film's unbearably tense climax is covered with Shore's brass insisting over and over that Doe's masterpiece is just a matter of inevitability. The low register sustained by the whole orchestra makes for one of the most brilliant depictions of evil ever written. --Paul Tonks
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