This is a truly exceptional score to a likewise exceptional film. It captures the mood of the film beautifully, which in fact is more like a Greek tragedy than a typical western. It's haunting, pulsating violins and keyboards are so stirringly beautiful that it has a truly visceral effect, and could be enough to move one to tears if one is so inclined. This might sound a bit overdramatic, but that's how much of an impression it made on me.

It seems that many soundtracks have a core theme, with a number of tracks being variations of that theme. This is one of those scores, but it was so good that almost all of the tracks stand up on their own. Out of the 14 tracks, I thought all but 4 to be fantastic, which for soundtracks, is quite significant I thought.

In conclusion, I will concede that I am no musical expert, but my ears and soul tell me that this is one of the most profoundly beautiful scores I've ever heard.

....this soundtrack would not only have been nominated for an Oscar, it would have been the clear favorite. Along with the appropriately nominated cinematography, this music gave the movie an authenticity and flavor most composers only dream about achieving. Truly, together, they formed the underpinning for an elegiac, mournful, poetic masterpiece of a film. Without this music, it is unthinkable that this misunderstood masterpiece could have succeeded in making of these characters what we come to think of them by the end of the last reel: Jesse as a haunted, nearly deranged soul, torn between the demons of his past and an ever more bleak future, and sad, folorn Bob Ford, who only wanted some respect and recognition, especially from his idol. Powerful stuff, encapsulated in music that stands for and speaks for itself. Like the film, it will never become dated. Its themes are universal and original.

I must wag my tail on this one. The instrumentation of piano, violins, cello, violas, Celeste, triangle, Hohner guitaret, electric bass, and drum filled me with satisfaction. Put on your headphones, close your eyes, sip some wine, and allow the flickering of a candle in a darkened room dance across your eyelids as this music takes you to another time in space. I found the compositions to be dark and moody, rich, vibrate, soothing, and wonderfully disturbing. Music like this is hard to find. The arrangements and the orchestrations have a timeless quality about them. They're simple, yet complicated, much as I imagine Jesse James was. I highly recommend it.

Such a beautiful, haunting, touching score. Strangely enough it doesn't really remind me of the movie, which isn't a bad thing. These compositions stand on their own. I have this on high rotation.

The haunting heart pounding Nick Cave music will stay with you for some time. I initially saw the movie when it came out, and a few months later I was unable to forget the "Rather Lovely Thing" theme music. I had to get the music and I was not disappointed.