Music for Imaginary Films

Album Review

The sugary Music for Imaginary Films should have been packaged with a toothbrush and a pack of dental floss. French pop, spy themes, sub-Basement Jaxx/Faze Action nu disco, horn-filled instrumentals, neo-Timbaland production, Old Navy house, nods to Bernard Herrmann and Bollywood — everything but ambient seems to be tackled by Arling and Cameron on their appropriately titled second disc. It comes off a little too sweet, much like running through an ice cream shop and sampling all the flavors rather than eating a proper dinner. It might give you a bit of a bellyache. You can't deny the fun in it, but goofy songs like "Hashi" — about a drug sniffing canine — won't demand repeated listens. The lighter-than-a-feather "W.E.E.K.E.N.D." sounds like one of those station IDs with a melody that irritates for days; odds are you'd rather hear "Manic Monday." Nonetheless, it sounds like A&C accomplished what they set out to do. For all the styles it mimics, it might not come near to challenging any of the predecessors, but they likely weren't setting out to do that. It's just mindless fun, so none if its downfalls should affect your ability to enjoy it. If you want more stick-to-your-ribs, cinematic genre-hopping, you're better off with the grittier Barry Adamson. True, Music's peppy juvenescence is more ideal for preschool tumbling exercises or pouncing on a pile of leaves than anything else, but who's to say that's a bad thing?