Christopher Young - Set It Off - Original Motion Picture Score (1996)

With its jazz-inspired melodies and crisp Jamaican rhythms, Set It Off represents a strikingly original variation on the action movie score. As usual, composer Christopher Young favors subtlety over bombast, but what's most impressive is how effectively the approach works in such a straightforward genre context. Each theme buzzes with energy and creativity, stuffed full of canny ideas that threaten to take the music in new and unexpected directions. Young employs orchestral, electronic, and vocal elements in roughly equal measure, but despite its structural breadth and complexity, Set It Off never feels overdone or fussy. Its kinetic intensity is relentless.~ Review by Jason Ankeny