Anything an alternative rock magazine is going to report about the new ‘Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire’ soundtrack is likely to be monopolised by the inclusion of three new Jarvis Cocker numbers and the performances of Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood, sticksman, Phil Selway plus Add N t (X)’s Steve Claydon, Pulp’s Steve Mackey and Jason Buckle – a shame given the subtle magical majesty of Patrick Doyle’s score and the affectionate performance of the orchestral crew who mesh all the familiar sonic references from the previous three Potter films with a more personal and warmer soundtrack. Not hard when you consider that the brash and predictable John Williams scored the bulk of the Potter canon. And it’s a wise-move indeed given its context within the series as Potter develops from two-dimensional neo-hobbit into a complex, hormonal teen, the soundtrack lending, as it does, a necessary gravitas to his customary fantastic adventures. None of this should come as any surprise though; whilst John Williams was responsible for an insufferable body of kiddie-scores that included the nauseating ‘ET’ and horribly uplifting ‘Star Wars’, Patrick Doyle cut his trade on a more sophisticated body of work that yielded ‘Donnie Brasco’, ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary’, ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Sense And Sensibility’.
With orchestral moods ranging from the tender and romantic (‘Harry In Winter’) to the flirtatious and mildly erotic (‘Underwater Sectrets’) and through the now customary gamut of oppressive and foreboding (‘The Black Lake’, ‘Voldemort’) the score takes us on a sweeping waltz through a strange and refracted otherworld of beasts and prodigious boffinry that boasts the occasional appearance of nature and humanity as reflected in the recurring Celtic and Gaelic motifs (‘Quidditch World Cup’).
But you don’t really care about all this, do you? You want to know whether or not the similarly be-spectacled Cocker pulls it off. Well the answer is yes and no. For those who remember Jarvis as Prince of preening retro-pop in the mid-nineties then you’ll be sorely disappointed by the corny, monster rock of songs like ‘Do The Hippogriff’ and his decision to pursue a potentially hazardous Billy Idol impression, but you might like ‘This Is The Night’ as his customary wit and weirdness return in a tangle of creepy beats and discordant riffing. ‘Magic Works’ even manages to be a complete return to form in a vein reminiscent of Pulp’s ‘Something Changed’ or ‘The Trees’.
See the film, try the tricks, buy the soundtrack. You know you want to.