In Like Flint / Our Man Flint

The first thing I noticed about the theme from IN LIKE FLINT is how much it reminded me of the song "Call Me". Now it is completely different, of course, but stylistically I kept finding myself reminded of this song. The orchestrations are filled with your typical retro 1960's groovy guitars - this is not surprising since the film was capitalizing on the success of the James Bond franchise. Also out around this time were the PINK PANTHER films (at least the first two), and it is interesting to note that the scores to IN LIKE FLINT and OUR MAN FLINT have a Mancini-esque feel to them, almost a quasi-European edge, if you will. Some tracks have orchestrations which are no stranger to recent Goldsmith scores. Even LA CONFIDENTIAL seems to have some echos of FLINT.

What 1960's spy film would be complete without a song which is so dated that to play it today in the 1990's would cause the average user to either burst into laughter or quickly move on to the next track? Not this CD! We are presented with "Your Zowie Face" - a song which feels like it belongs in Mancini's repetroir more than Goldsmith's, in addition to the occasional performance on Dr. Demento. The lyrics are so attrocious that it certainly stands out as a very dated song that doesn't retain its strengths (whatever they may have been) over the years.

It is also interesting to note that it seems that the score to AUSTIN POWERS now appears to be more of a satire on the FLINT scores than the BOND scores. The only reason I had not noticed that beforehand was due to my lack of exposure to the FLINT films prior to the release of this soundtrack.

Varese Sarabande has provided us with a real treat - two scores for the price of one. Oddly, the score to the sequel (IN LIKE FLINT) is presented on the CD before the first film (OUR MAN FLINT). It seems that this was done because the score to IN LIKE FLINT is much more exciting to listen to than OUR MAN FLINT, and the listener is more likely to continue listening to the CD if it's interesting. Before this CD came out, the scores were only available as re-recordings on LP. There was a bootleg CD, which contained the contents of the LPs, but now that this official CD is out, it's definitely worth having, especially if you're a Goldsmith collector. But even if you're just interested in the cliched sounds of the sixties spy scores, this is the CD for you.