He was a horse too small with a half-blind jockey too big, owned and trained by a team of misfits straight out of Central Casting, but Seabiscuit was no mere legend. The film adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand's best-selling chronicle has all the foundations of an American sports classic, and this marvelously nuanced score by veteran Randy Newman is one of its cornerstones. Ever personally leery of the public overenthusiasm for the "hero music" he composed for The Natural, Newman invests this Depression era sports drama with an altogether subtler range of musical emotions. To be sure, his mastery of melancholy Americana is never far from the forefront, from the gentle acoustic guitar flourishes of the "Main Title" to the fragile, self-performed solo piano of his "Seabiscuit" theme. But Newman manages to be at once more texturally adventuresome (via the Mariachi Reynas de Los Angeles' buoyant performance of "Le Tequilera" and the lugubrious bottleneck guitar folk-blues of "Call Me Red") and emotionally restrained, yielding one of the most wholly satisfying scores of his career.