Lagging behind the release of the songtrack by several months, this is the orchestral soundtrack of the sleeper hit Christian film Left Behind. While many of the songs were entertaining, the score – performed by the London Symphony Orchestra – was exceptional. As pleased as I am to hear it released on CD, I’m also surprised. Left Behind wasn’t exactly a box office smash, and it was a movie aimed squarely at a specific niche audience which doesn’t normally demand the orchestral accompaniment to a movie. I was stunned to see this release at all.
Covell’s score is sensitively assembled and arranged, with some lovely choral work drifting in and out of the proceedings. It would’ve been easy to make the music overbearing, but instead Covell sticks to some time-honored film scoring traditions, doing some of the best work with a movie’s main theme motif this side of John Williams. For the movie’s more unnerving action segments, some very slick synth work comes to the fore, featuring a nifty bit of electronic percussion which is an excellent test of the bass speakers in your car (I discovered this by accident). The final of these unnerving sequences – the unveiling of the Antichrist – is some pretty effective and creepy stuff.
Three tracks – “Prologue”, “Rapture” and “Seven Years” – include some sound clips from the movie over the beginning of the music. Depending on my mood, I find this either annoying or terribly effective at setting the 
tone of the music which follows. (It’s at least better than the treatment given the Apollo 13 soundtrack, which overlays big portions of the music with movie dialogue.)
Overall, I found the Left Behind score most enjoyable, memorable, and worthy of repeat listening – just as the movie stands up to more than one viewing.
- Prologue (0:27)
- Left Behind – Main Title (3:22)
- Surprise Attack (5:17)
- Rayford’s Conversion (1:55)
- Dirk’s In Trouble (2:06)
- Rebuild The Temple (2:13)
- Rapture (2:50)
- Rayford Comes Home (4:02)
- Loss Of A Friend (3:18)
- Buck’s Mission (2:46)
- Chloe’s Choice (2:58)
- One Left, The Other Taken (4:14)
- Goodbyes (3:03)
- I Don’t Want To Lose You (1:48)
- Prayers For Buck (2:00)
- Seven Years (4:27)
- The Final Chapter (2:52)
Released by: Reunion
Release date: 2000
Total running time: 49:38
