Leonard Rosenman's score for The Car was one that I had ached to have a soundtrack recording of for almost four decades. It took thirty-eight or so years for it to happen, but Intrada managed to secure a commercial release of Rosenman's atmospheric and kinetic music for The Car in 2015. Better late than never.
The brevity of the score, which runs a few seconds shy of a mere 34 minutes, might be one reason an album version was not released in 1977. Another could be Rosenman's choosing to score, for the most part, only scenes where the Car is either present or its the aftermath of an attack.
The lone exception to that latter reason are a few moments involving the character Luke (Ronny Cox) and his relapse into alcoholism. The remainder of the human drama and character moments are not scored and play out in an almost noticeable silence.
Jeff Bond, in his liner notes for this release, notes how "Rosenman's dissonant, agitated and aggressive soundscapes [were] a natural fit for horror and science-fiction movies." I both agree and doubt that there was a composer better suited for this material than Leonard Rosenman.
Another interesting and appropriate choice on Rosenman's part, in addition to not giving his score any human coloring, is his use of Dies Irae as the score's primary theme. Dies Irae, perhaps best known for its use in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, becomes an auditory signature for the Car that is every bit as recognizable as its distinctive, and iconic, horn blasts.
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