The music for Mimic is an outstanding debut - composer Marco Beltrami's first commercial score album. Beltrami uses a rich orchsestral tapestry, to which he adds wordless voices and synthetic elements. The score as a whole is very dark, but Beltrami finds real beauty in the darkness, making the score more listenable than might be expected. Several things about the score really stand out - the tight orchestration, a strong emotional and lyrical core, and quite a unique sonic world, which, despite references to the likes of Jerry Goldsmith & Christopher Young, could not be mistaken for any other composer.

The "Main Title" starts off the score, with wordless boy soprano, before strings & percusive ripples entice you further in, building with hypnotic relish to a strong full orchestral rendition of the theme. "Race To The Subway", like the later "Chased By A Bug," is an extraordinarily intense piece of orchestral fury, rythmically propelled, with brass and xylophone rising up like ghostly apparitions. Tracks 3 & 5 are strongly lyrical and melancholic, with repeating figures underneath strong woodwind & string melodies, lending an emotional quality not often found in scores for films of this sort. The voices come to the fore in "Chuy Steps Out," with strong use of piano and strings building an impressive level of tension, the menacing brass towards the end of the track being particularly memorable. A strong repeating woodwind figure forms the basis of "Susan Meets Chuy," whilst "Faulty Scaffolding" gets an impressive use of trumpet and percussion. Like the earlier "Slow Tango," "Manny's Tango" is a piece of source music written by the composer, which helps to maintain musical coherence in the film; on disc it provides welcome relief from the ever-present darkness in the rest of the score. "Evil Among Us" presents more dark-hued romanticism, before the high-register strings cut in with the fierce aggression of "Confronting Terror," which builds expertly to a grandiose conclusion (later tracked in to The Faculty). False relief soon passes as it becomes clear "The Lucistic's Alive," which expertly concludes with fierce attacks from brass and percussion. "Re-United" is a very strong piece, building to a gorgeously lyrical finale, whilst the "End Credits" is a fine and deeply satisfying conclusion to the score. The final track, "La Cucaracha," is a song written by Beltrami and sung by Dillon Dixon, very much in the style of the song they did for the end credits of Scream (unavailable on commercial CD).

The fairly short cues were sequenced by the composer and have a strong, involving flow. Even the 30 minute running time (due to high re-use fees) doesn't detract from the appeal of the album - it may be short, but it's perfectly formed, and Beltrami makes every minute count. This score was one of the best of the year and is unreservedly recommended to all.