Signs (soundtrack)

Signs
Film score by James Newton Howard
Released	July 30, 2002
Recorded	Todd Scoring Stage (Studio City, Los Angeles) JHN Studios (Santa Monica, California)
Genre	Orchestral
Length	45:34
Label	Hollywood
Producer	James Newton Howard, Thomas Drescher, Tom Drescher

Signs is the soundtrack to the 2002 science fiction thriller film of the same name, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, starring Mel Gibson. The score was conducted by Pete Anthony and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony.

Track listing

All music composed by James Newton Howard.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Main Titles"	1:45
2.	"First Crop Circles"	3:15
3.	"Roof Intruder"	2:20
4.	"Brazilian Video"	1:56
5.	"In the Cornfield"	5:40
6.	"Baby Monitor"	1:07
7.	"Recruiting Office"	2:07
8.	"Throwing a Stone"	5:47
9.	"Boarding Up the House"	3:00
10.	"Into the Basement"	5:23
11.	"Asthma Attack"	3:42
12.	"The Hand of Fate - Part 1"	5:32
13.	"The Hand of Fate - Part 2"	3:47

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Filmtracks
SoundtrackNet

The soundtrack generally received positive reviews. William Ruhlmann of Allmusic stated his review:

With Signs, composer James Newton Howard again joins director M. Night Shyamalan for their third collaboration following The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, and clearly the film presents another thrilling encounter with the supernatural. From his opening "Main Theme," Howard ratchets up the tension, and his music thereafter alternates only between the ominous and the suspenseful. He overloads his lower tones, employing eight basses, five percussionists, and even a tuba, but also uses a large string section for short, fast, repetitive figures meant to keep viewers on the edges of their seats. This is not particularly imaginative music, just good old Saturday afternoon scary movie fare, the only distinguishing characteristic about it -- consistent with Shyamalan's style -- that it is so relentless. There's just no let up; dread pervades every moment of the director's films, to the point of emotional exhaustion for some, and the score has to have the same uncompromising approach, which can make it a little hard to take when listened to all the way through.

References

1. Ruhlmann, William. James Newton Howard: Signs [Original Motion Picture Score] at AllMusic. Retrieved 1 March 2012.