Frost/Nixon (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Hans Zimmer has written scores for more than a hundred movies, including Rain Man, Driving Miss Daisy, Thelma and Louise, The Lion King, and Gladiator. (One of his best scores to date is the brooding music he composed for Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line.) Ron Howard’s 2008 feature Frost/ Nixon focuses on the story centered around the famous 1977 series of television interviews that talk show host David Frost did with ex-President Richard Nixon three years after the Watergate scandal. Clock-like rhythms add urgency to several of the tracks, including “Watergate,” “The Numbers,” and “Pardon the Phlebitis.” Minimalism colors “Hello, Good Evening and Welcome,” which, by turns, conveys a sense of excitement and mystery. The somber “Status” opens with a handful of piano notes and a bed of brooding strings, but insistent marimba and chugging fiddles appear later. “Beverly Hilton” is marked by gamelan-like percussion and assertive, pop-flavored string writing, while “Frost Despondent” features glassy strings hovering above piano. The album closes with the ten-minute-long “First Ideas,” a quiet piece nicely shaded with muted drama.