The Mysteries of A.I.

The Mysteries of A.I. - The Music

A.I. features a riveting score composed by John Williams - perhaps, one of Williams' greatest scores. While not overly detracting, like many of his other scores (Though they are great), his score for A.I. uses a blend of modernistic, almost "electric"-sounding instruments, and minimalism.

Setting the tone of the film's robotically enhanced not-so-distant future, "The Mecha World" crackles and glistens with Steve Reich's rhythmic urgency and John Adams's dense coloration, while "Abandoned in the Woods," "Hide and Seek," and "Rouge City" succeed by setting Williams's more traditional sense of melody against Phillip Glass's hypnotic arpeggios. There's also a sense that the composer has craftily evoked the ghost of Kubrick music past and 2001 in particular; "Replicas" and "Stored Memories" bring to mind Ligeti, while the mournful strings of "Cybertronics" seem a ghostly echo of Khachaturian's "Gayane Ballet Suite." David Foster's ballad "For Always" (in a solo rendition by Lara Fabian and a duet between Fabian and Josh Groban) seems twice-included strictly to enhance the album's radio allure. Completists should also note that Ministry's dark contribution to the film's Flesh Fair sequence, "What About Us?" is not included on this soundtrack, but is available on their Greatest Fits compilation. Arguably Williams's most musically adventurous score since his landmark Close Encounters, A.I. should take its place among the most distinctive of the composer's long and bounteous collaboration with Spielberg. (Partially from Amazon.com's Jerry McCulley)

The commercial soundtrack listings for A.I. are listed below. Audio clips for you to listen to will be included shortly.

However, as James Luckard, an Amazon.com customer, points out, if you want a chronologically correct listening experience, listen to them in this order.

6. Cybertronics

4. Hide and Seek

2. Abandoned in the Woods

7. The Moon Rising

1. The Mecha World

3. Replicas

11. The Search for the Blue Fairy

8. Stored Memories and Monica's Theme

12. The Reunion

9. Where Dreams are Born

Track numbers #5 and #13 are vocal versions of Monica's theme, and not played anywhere in the film. (Except for the end credits, I believe.) Track #10, "Rouge City," does not, in fact, appear in the film in this form. The first half of the track is just a repeat of "Abandoned in the Woods," a piece not heard anywhere else but in that earlier scene, and the second half is the opening of "The Mecha World," as David and Joe fly out of Rouge City, but it crazily fades out just before the music reaches the climax as they find the weeping lion.

The A.I. Artificial Intelligence Soundtrack can be purchased at Amazon.com. Also more information will be available shortly about the exclusive 2-CD set being distributed by Warner Brothers to Academy members, as a "For Your Consideration" Oscar publicity push.