The Season Five LOST Soundtrack Is Appropriately Action-Packed

There are so many reasons I love LOST, the epic ABC television series that just wrapped up its sixth and final season. While I would first tell you about the complex characters or the intriguing mysteries or the deep questions the show poses, one element of the series that consistently wows me is the score, which is composed by Michael Giacchino and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony. As powerful as the performances are, it’s often the music in a particular scene that turns it into a true tearjerker, particularly when some version of the theme Life and Death is in force.

Season five introduced some fascinating new musical elements and further developed motifs that have been around since the beginning. As is often the case, several episodes go unrepresented, while nearly a third of them come from the finale. While I was disappointed that my favorite piece of music from the season, the theme that accompanies Rose and Bernard’s reappearance after a much-too-long absence, is not included, the tracks selected are excellent, and the photographs inside the booklet give a good sense of some of the most significant parts of the fifth season.

Making Up For Lost Time, from the season premiere, is primarily suspenseful, carrying hints of earlier themes with it, though there are also brief moments of quiet emotion in this strings-driven piece. The Swinging Bendulum is another suspenseful track, this one accompanying Ben’s failed attempt to recruit Hurley and his meeting with Eloise Hawking in which he is told how urgent the situation is. There’s a mysterious air about this song, especially with the chimes at the end, but mostly it just feels very urgent, as does Locke’s Excellent Adventure, which accompanies our first glimpses into what befell John Locke when he left the Island.

The Science of Faith slows things down a bit for a gentle, harp-tinged track that carries tiny hints of the Life and Death theme and larger hints of Locke’s main theme. One of the prettiest tracks on the album, though it too has suspenseful moments as Eloise tries to convince Jack to go along with her crazy-sounding plan. More Locke Than Locke, Together or Not Together and Through the Window, also from 316, are more reflective than action-packed. The second includes an unusual, heavily percussive variation on Life and Death, while the third captures the exhilaration and fear of knowing an Island return is imminent.

Dharma Delinquent is another track with a lot of urgency to it, while the other LaFleur track, La Fleur, is a very quiet, soothing track with piano and violin emphasizing Sawyer’s softer side. Crash and Yearn, from Namaste, has a very ominous tone to it, with oppressive-sounding strings and mysterious percussion accompanying Flight 316’s landing on the Island, as does Your Kharma Hit My Dharma from Whatever Happened, Happened.

Alex in Chains, from Dead Is Dead, is a startling track with a sad undercurrent, rooted in the moment when Ben makes a decision that will forever change his life. I Hear Dead People makes major use of chimes as Miles first becomes aware of mysterious voices in connection with a deceased person. Another mostly suspenseful track.

For the Love of the Dame begins as a very soft, slow strings-heavy track accompanying the touching moment when Daniel warns a young Charlotte to leave the Island, but the pace quickens and the tone shifts from tender to dangerous. Follow the Leader is one of the most diverse tracks, clocking it at nearly eight minutes and including moments of suspense, action and emotion as it runs underneath several key scenes in Follow the Leader.

Sawyer Jones and the Temple of Boom starts out as one of the prettiest tracks on the album, but it soon grows creepy as mysterious instrumentation is added. Eventually that makes way for the iconic “walking music,” one of LOST’s most recognizable themes, as Locke leads Richard and the Others to Jacob. The last non-finale track, it has what is probably my favorite title on the album.

The Tangled Web is one of the shortest tracks on the album, but it’s easily my favorite, as it is the one that introduces us to Jacob, and the music does such an excellent job of evoking his antiquity and enigmatic nature. The harp and the slightly squealing strings have a beautifully melancholy edge to them that helped me to be instantly sold on this character whose existence was hinted at for so long.

Dharma Disaster is mostly spooky-sounding, with plenty of ominous percussion accentuating the sense of danger in two of the finale’s most unsettling scenes. Blessings and Bombs carries hints of Jacob’s theme before launching into tense, chase-oriented music as Hurley tries to make a getaway in the Dharma van. Jack’s Swan Song has a heroic, regal sound to it as Jack steps up to the challenge that he believes he has been given.

Dharma vs Lostaways is action-oriented and tense, with the exception of a short segment toward the end that echoes Life and Death, while The Incident is all pulse-pounding urgency, with loud blasts and swirling strings evoking the feeling of a red alert, though it becomes more emotive at the end.

Jacob’s Stabber begins with a mystical edge to it as Ilana reveals what is inside the box she has brought, and the tone grows more mysterious toward the middle as Ben finally meets the man he’s tried to serve all these years. Jacob’s theme returns, this time with suspenseful undertones, before slowing way down for one of the loveliest and saddest moments on the album The final seconds of the track have a dark, harsh edge to them, leaving the CD, like the season, on a cliffhanger.

Season five is probably the most action-oriented season of LOST. Only a few episodes feature traditional flashbacks; most focus on characters in multiple timelines working to advance the immediate plot. So it’s not too surprising that most of the tracks on this album have a dangerous edge to them. I wish a couple more purely emotion-driven tracks had been included, and I especially would have liked to hear that variation on the Rose and Bernard theme that so impressed me. Nonetheless, if you love the music of LOST, you’ll want to get your hands on the season five soundtrack.