Music from The Motion Picture Ocean’s Eleven

For all its cutting edge background and associations, David Holmes’ soundtrack has actually far more in common with the golden age of the genre than Songs Inspired By The Nutty Professor 8 or whatever. Devoid of the big budget ballad or all-star collaboration, Holmes has worked a mixture of the old (Perry Como) and the new (Handsome Boy Modelling School) alongside his own, jazzy score. Given that the film is a remake of the rat pack classic, Holmes has gone for that much-abused ‘cool’ vibe (calling Mr Williams), but with a style and a panache not often captured.

Keeping his ego admirably in check, Holmes has given own music a backseat to the likes of Percy Faith, Quincy Jones and a marvellous Elvis Presley curio, ‘A Little Less Conversation’. Much of it is instrumental, weaved seemlessly with dialogue from the movie, meaning that it probably works better in conjunction with the film than as a stand alone piece of work.

As for his own contributions, there is ample proof that, for a boy from Belfast, Holmes has got his finger well and truly on the pulse on the music of the period. Aside from the jazz, there are some invigorating bursts of funk and, in the shape of ‘Boobytrapping’, the pulsating electronica with which he has made his name.

Most encouraging of all is the fact that by far the best track on offer is his gem ’69 Police’, given a new lease of life by it’s segue into Debussy’s ‘Clair de Lune’.

Not quite in the league of Pulp Fiction or Trent Reznor’s astounding Natural Born Killers but a huge improvement on most of the cinematic tosh on offer.