Buddy Holly - Everyday

Director Tim Burton's adaptation of author Daniel Wallace's bittersweet Southern Gothic novel has been billed as his first mainstream character drama, a notion that conveniently ignores the story's inherent fables and flights of imagination. But composer Danny Elfman understands their every dark nook and murky cranny with this magical, often deftly understated score. While the epic melodrama of his comic book scores (Batman, Spider-Man, The Hulk, et. al.) have made him a mainstream Hollywood music star, longtime fans know that the composer's true emotional range is seldom tapped as well as it is working with longtime collaborator Burton. His music here bridges the delicate pastoralism of Rachel Portman and restless, rhythmic mysteries of Thomas Newman, seasoned with twangy fiddles and bowings to the film's occasionally Gothic turns and concludes with the deliciously loopy "Twice the Love (Siamese Twins Song)." Anchored by Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam's wistful theme song "Man of the Hour" and a half-dozen pop chart nuggets than span half-a-century, Elfman's work here (as well as Pearl Jam's) received a much-deserved Golden Globe nomination. --Jerry McCulley