Rumble Fish (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture)

Apocalypse Now and One from the Heart may have derailed Francis Coppola’s ambitious plans for reinventing Hollywood, but nothing could quell his restless, creative spirit, as his stark, 1983 rendering of S.E. Hinton’s book/screenplay — and the highly unusual musical score it inspired — so ably attest. This rhythmic cocktail by Stewart Copeland allowed the Police drummer to vent a good deal of the creative sensibilities the band’s success had so often thwarted, yielding music that’s at once sparely oblique, quaintly charming and deftly jazzy. With a true percussionist’s sense of nervous invention, Copeland frequently stepped from behind his drum kit to forge the propulsive atmospherics of his score from piano, acoustic guitars, found objects, a typewriter and quite possibly even the kitchen sink. “Don’t Box Me In,” Copeland’s opening collaboration with former Wall of Voodoo singer Stan Ridgway, may have been a moderate new-wave chart success, yet sacrifices none of the stark, angular minimalism that the drummer brought to his score. “Unique” is an overused adjective in judging music; here it’s simply the one that fits best.