In their background score for director/star/co-screenwriter
Ben Affleck
's crime thriller The Town, composers
Harry Gregson-Williams
and
David Buckley
combine a large string section with a lot of percussion programming to create music that alternates between fast, pounding cues and slow, eerie ones. They match the film's action sequences, starting with
"Bank Attack,"
with low-frequency electronic throbs taken at racing tempos, only to pull back on the appropriately titled
"Doug Reflects"
to a deliberately paced electric guitar strum or, on
"Healing and Stealing,"
a solo piano passage (played by
Gregson-Williams
). But even in these contemplative moments, the strings trace ominous high notes in the back, as if there isn't going to be much time to think before violence erupts again. This is music to keep an audience on the edge of its seat, as expressed on a soundtrack album listeners will be able to use to test their woofers. ~ William Ruhlmann