''X-Men: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' is the soundtrack to the 2000 film ''

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, the team first appeared in Uncanny X-Men, ''The X-Men'' #1 (September 1963). Although initial ...

'' featuring the original score written and composed by

Michael Kamen Michael Arnold Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, songwriter, record producer and musician. Early life Michael Arnold Kamen was born in ...

. It was released by

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

on July 11, 2000 featuring 12 tracks. An expanded edition containing the full score and unused cues processed during the composition and alternate themes, released by La-La Land Records under the "

limited edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, collector's edition or expanded edition are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as b ...

" of 3,000 units on May 11, 2021.

Background

For the film's score, Singer approached

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (November 15, 2022)Classic Connection review, ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...

to compose music, but turned down the offer as his schedule conflicted with that of '' Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones'' (2002). Singer then set on his usual composer,

John Ottman John Ottman (born July 6, 1964) is an American film composer, director, and editor. He is best known for collaborating with director Bryan Singer, composing and/or editing many of his films, including '' Public Access'' (1993), ''The Usual Suspec ...

. However, once Fox pushed ''X-Men'' from December to July, Ottman's commitment to direct '' Urban Legends: Final Cut'' made him unable to work with Singer. Later,

was eventually hired for the film. As Kamen was not familiar with the comics, he only tried to "represent Bryan Singer's filmic tone that he's made, for a comic book, a quite serious movie, which is about the capacity of humanity to categorize people by race, religion or type, and prejudice people against them based on their innate characteristics". Character-specific themes were written to "identify these characters, as you go through the film, because they're not always clear". For instance, Mystique's motif, focused on the

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

as Kamen found it "a very erotic-sounding instrument", played in the soundtrack as she was disguised as Wolverine. He initially planned to record the score first in London, but due to time restrictions, the recording was held in Los Angeles instead. Kamen's first draft of the score had been described as having an abundance of themes and rich orchestrations. During early recording sessions, producer Lauren Shuler Donner expressed her dissatisfaction with Kamen's music and forced him to rewrite the entire score by using fewer themes and more electronic elements.

Track listing

Standard

Expanded edition

Reception

James Southall of ''Movie Wave'' commented "Exploring the score reveals it has surprising depth – including a surprising thematic depth, with Kamen taking an unheralded leitmotivic approach to the score – motifs, sometimes just tiny little fragments, are heard throughout the album in different guises." Steven McDonald of AllMusic wrote " the score would have benefited from the absence of most of the electronic elements, which serve only to jar the viewer/listener out of the moment". '' Filmtracks.com'' critiqued the score saying "the score requires patience and an acceptance of Kamen's extremely dark treatment of the concept" while the sequels ('' X2'' and '' The Last Stand'') scored by

and John Powell were "superior efforts that provide the concept with better themes and far more engaging action material".

References

{{authority control 2000 soundtrack albums Michael Kamen soundtracks Albums conducted by Michael Kamen Albums produced by Michael Kamen Decca Records soundtracks La-La Land Records soundtracks X-Men (film series) soundtracks