Town [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

In their background score for director/star/co-screenwriter Ben Affleck's crime thriller The Town, composers Harry Gregson-Williams and David Buckley combine a large string section with a lot of percussion programming to create music that alternates between fast, pounding cues and slow, eerie ones. They match the film's action sequences, starting with "Bank Attack," with low-frequency electronic throbs taken at racing tempos, only to pull back on the appropriately titled "Doug Reflects" to a deliberately paced electric guitar strum or, on "Healing and Stealing," a solo piano passage (played by Gregson-Williams). But even in these contemplative moments, the strings trace ominous high notes in the back, as if there isn't going to be much time to think before violence erupts again. This is music to keep an audience on the edge of its seat, as expressed on a soundtrack album listeners will be able to use to test their woofers. ~ William Ruhlmann