Homecoming Season 2 Soundtrack | Album Review

Track Listing

Calico
Motel
The Giant
Suddenly Temple
Beyond The Valley of The Berries
Leonard’s Theme
Redwoods
Melon
The Orb
Blue Peach
Alex and Temple
What If
Prophylactic
Geist Maze
The Toothpaste Is Out Of The Tube
Bunda
Lord of the Berries
Rock Hammer
Calico’s Needle
Leonard’s Reprise
Middle Of The Lake
Drink Up
Aromarama
Casing Temples House
Ice It Before It Swells
Jackie Goes Shopping
Calico Reprise

One of the more iconic and memorable parts of Homecoming’s second season comes from its musical score. Composed by Emile Mosseri, who also scored the feature film Last Black Man In San Francisco, Homecoming’s score is a wonderfully crafted and magical ensemble of tracks that play off the mystery and intrigue of the puzzle-box elements while adding layers of depth over time. With a consistent motif first heard in “Calico” and repeated throughout the mix, Homecoming Season 2’s music is certainly the strongest part of the series and this album only reinforces that.

Beginning with “Calico”, Emile begins with a very simple piano motif before quickly adding layers, crescendoing into a final act that brings with it some distortion and a really interesting composition that reinforces the theme of this second season – retreading familiar ground and piecing everything together. From here, the tracks begin lacing in some progressive notes that use simple but effective compositional techniques to give the effect of constantly moving forward at pace.

There’s an almost Hitchcockian magic with some of these tracks and one particular highlight comes from “Geist Maze”, which really plays on that build-up of suspense while underlaying the track with several string pieces that work so well against the big brass instruments. This two-piece harmony is partly the reason the soundtrack works as well as it does and each track feels unique in the way it portrays this. The rising chords and repeated phrases play off that motif mentioned earlier and the evolving main piece of each song, changing between a piano, strings and brass helps to prevent the album ever feeling too stagnant or samey.

That motif mentioned earlier is all the more effective when you go back in and listen to the way it evolves and distorts over time, reflecting the way Alex and Walter start to piece together what’s happened to them. “Calico”, “Calico’s Needle” and “Calico Reprise” not only sandwich the emotions of the series together, they also reinforce that changing state, with the final piece stripping away the distortion and piano to produce something much more melodic and uplifting, complementing Walter’s journey to redemption at the end of the series.

Homecoming Season 2 may have failed to live up to expectations but its tense and atmospheric score certainly has not. This beautiful 27 piece album has some great instrumental numbers in that feel like natural homages to some of Hitchcock’s films. As a straight forward listen, Emile Mosseri’s score works to retell the musical journey of our characters, beginning simply enough before adding lots of distortion and cacophonic elements to the middle portion of the mix and stripping all of that back for the final piece. A great soundtrack for sure, Homecoming Season 2’s music is well worth a listen.

Published: 24 May 2020 at 3:28pm on TheReviewGeek.com 

Click Here To Go Back To Our Music Reviews