The Whale Soundtrack

For sci-fi lovers the world over, Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is sacred text, so it comes as no surprise that its arrival on celluloid has been met with considerably furrowed brows, especially in the wake of its author's death – Adams suffered a fatal heart attack in 2001 in the midst of writing the screenplay. However, if the film's gloriously skewed and occasionally beautiful soundtrack is any indication, the Guide is in good hands. Director Garth Jennings tapped the considerable talents of award-winning U.K. composer/arranger and Divine Comedy member Jobi Talbot to swing the baton, and his reverence for the source material is evident from the very first note. Using Stephen Fry's wry summary of marine life's misunderstood intelligence to set the stage, Talbot unleashes – along with a chorus that includes a bawdy choir, a little girl, and an opera singer – "So Long & Thanks for All the Fish," a rousing, Broadway-style farewell to the planet (and its befuddled citizens) that's equal parts Rocky Horror and Monty Python. Mischief and Creativity are the muses here, as Talbot makes the "Destruction of Earth" sound both terrifying and irreverent – it launches into the banjo-led "Journey of the Sorcerer" that sounds like an updated version of "Classical Gas" – before introducing "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in a swirl of electronic melodiousness.

This soundtrack album to the acclaimed BBC television series Blue Planet – Seas of Life is by George Fenton. Isolated from their accompanying videos, soundtrack albums often just don't hold up. Even if you haven't seen this television program, however, that is not the case with the Blue Planet CD. Indeed, the music here works quite well as a "sit down and listen" album. It also seems that the neo-classical arrangements surely capture the mystery, majesty, beauty, playfulness, power, and even terror of the ocean world very well. You may be reaching for a towel after listening to this one.