What Is The Last Score You Listened To? (older scores)

[Holko 9,525]

Dead Man's Chest OST

 

Yeah, I don't like this. The selection and sequencing is weird, the less said about the last track the better.

 

At World's End OST

 

Now this is better. An actual good presentation from actual score cues (even if alternates), only hampered by the lack of quite a few highlights again coming from the weird decision to represent this 150min mammoth (that's the length of my session edit, not including any of the slew of alternates) in a measly 55 minutes. Why didn't people want to utilise the runtime of a CD?

[Jurassic Shark 12,066]

Probably because they included just what they considered to be the best music.

[Kühni 485]

.

[Incanus 5,714]

2 minutes ago, Kühni said:

A History of Violence...or History of the Ring of Violence...other than track 6, "Run", this is a middling Shore effort. Yes, middling.

Not middle-earth-ish?

[Kühni 485]

.

[Incanus 5,714]

Quite.

 

The Mummy (Intrada release) by Jerry Goldsmith

[Brundlefly 2,385]

9 hours ago, Holko said:

Curse of the Black Pearl (OST)

 

A weird album, but once you get past the track titles (I know the reason), the criminal runtime, the choice to create one continuous musical suite by crossfading everything and designating separate tracks literally randomly, it does do quite an OK job at selecting and sequencing highlights from this great score.

Do you mean the fact that no track title fits the content of the scene it accompanies?

[Holko 9,525]

Yes. Though some of them coincidentaly do.

[publicist 4,643]

 

Some quite North-ian stuff here (in both senses, as it recalls parts of 'Dragonslayer' but also sounds rather scandinavian), full of bold non-linear brass and cimbalom and unruly, edgy percussion effects. The main theme, a four-note motif is flexible enough, and it sure is another most interesting, sometimes fascinating effort from Wintory, though it shares a growing problem with this composer, which is that he in contrast with most of his Hollywood colleagues, he almost seems too uncompromising in his musical language. Heretical as it may sound, a bit of Verdi or Puccini cannot hurt from time to time, and as it is, the ratio of traditional scores to experimental is just too much in favour of the latter. Another 'Rendezvous' would be most appreciated!

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

Donald Duck and the Temple of Doom by John Williams

J. Williams on absolute fire, no holds barred, at the peak of his powers. And Short Round's (er, I mean, Donald's nephews) theme is so catchy and plucky!

[crocodile 8,006]

 The Aviator by "Howard Hanson"

 

Karol

[Fabulin 3,511]

.

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

Jaws 2 by John Williams

Album was fine, except that it was missing The Shark Prowls.  

[Incanus 5,714]

The Mummy (Intrada release) by Jerry Goldsmith

 

The Mummy Returns (Intrada release) by Alan Silvestri

[publicist 4,643]

I'm anxiously awaiting my physical copies. If Mummy Returns still sounds as fucked-up i will have to restore some of those old Decca tracks.

[Incanus 5,714]

On 7/26/2018 at 7:38 AM, publicist said:

I'm anxiously awaiting my physical copies. If Mummy Returns still sounds as fucked-up i will have to restore some of those old Decca tracks.

Alas I didn't have time yesterday to give both sets my full attention and they were playing in the background so I can't say anything definitive about the overall sound of The Mummy Returns but while I listened to the end half of the score this morning on my way to work on my headphones, some of the unreleased music had somewhat muffled quality to it, indeed as if the orchestra recording was somehow distant or had too much boost in the bass department and less clarity. But I must investigate further.

 

Both sets are worth having for the fans of The Mummy scores. Goldsmith compiled the OST very well but I love even the quieter suspense stuff on this new set which just completes the whole musical architecture of this score. Whatever the composer's opinion on the project or the schedule, it doesn't really show in the music.  And his skill at crafting action set pieces is just tremendous and makes me miss him all the more.

 

Silvestri's score is equally fun but you can tell it was more of a rush to get this massive score finished from the often repurposed sections popping up in the action finale. And to my mind the composer isn't the master of motivic development like Goldsmith was as he often repeats his thematic material in almost similar form ad nauseam in his setpieces without much variation, which is a quality that pops up in many of his other scores, e.g. Judge Dredd.

 

 Sleepers by John Williams

[Obi 404]

John Powell - Reminiscence Therapy from Solo - A Star Wars Story

 

[crocodile 8,006]

 The Mummy by Jerry Goldsmith

 

The new set has a bit of a sentimental meaning to me because it was the first Goldsmith score that I heard and actually noticed his name. At the time, I didn't really like the film (which changes slightly later on) and thought the score sounded like poor man's John Williams (it was at the time when Williams couldn't do any wrong). But, despite all that, the score stayed with me and I started paying attention to this man's work. It took me another couple of years to buy the soundtrack album. And while the score is largely (highly) enjoyable, I get this impression that Goldsmith loathed writing some sections - the overtly cartoony and incoherent final confrontation (The Mummy Attack) being the main stinker. But the majority of this score is quite mint (Rebirth being one of the standouts). It's not a score I greatly love, nor is it Goldsmith finest hour, bit it's quite breezy and enjoyable for most part. And I'm glad it can be appreciated in its full glory.

 

Karol

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

So am I okay with just keeping the album?

 

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (16 tracks/60-minute playlist) by John Williams

Short Round's theme is my favorite part about this whole thing, which makes me sad that I won't hear it if I get any urge to check out the other Indy scores.

[Faleel 5,346]

Last Crusade (the film) mentions Mickey Mouse, so you have to listen to that score at least

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

Temple of Doom is the only Indy film I have vivid memories of and get any urge to revisit now and then.

The only thing I remember in Raiders is that the monkey dies (which was awesome). 

[crocodile 8,006]

13 minutes ago, kaseykockroach said:

So am I okay with just keeping the album?

There is some good stuff on the expanded album.

 

Karol

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

I like how the love theme sounds clumsy, as though even the music knows Willie's an idiot.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

What is that? Is that short for somethin'

[Bespin 8,480]

John Williams - The Ghostbreaker

 

Nice little score, catchy theme.

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

OPEN WIDE SAY AAHH

[Incanus 5,714]

9 hours ago, crocodile said:

 The Mummy by Jerry Goldsmith

 

The new set has a bit of a sentimental meaning to me because it was the first Goldsmith score that I heard and actually noticed his name. At the time, I didn't really like the film (which changes slightly later on) and thought the score sounded like poor man's John Williams (it was at the time when Williams couldn't do any wrong). But, despite all that, the score stayed with me and I started paying attention to this man's work. It took me another couple of years to buy the soundtrack album. And while the score is largely (highly) enjoyable, I get this impression that Goldsmith loathed writing some sections - the overtly cartoony and incoherent final confrontation (The Mummy Attack) being the main stinker. But the majority of this score is quite mint (Rebirth being one of the standouts). It's not a score I greatly love, nor is it Goldsmith finest hour, bit it's quite breezy and enjoyable for most part. And I'm glad it can be appreciated in its full glory.

 

Karol

Yeah this was the first Jerry Goldsmith album I ever bought so I have a sentimental attachment to it as well and initially I had similar sentiments of how it sounded like a poor man's John Williams as I had such different expectations back then. But over the years my appreciation for this music has grown and grown and I consider this score top tier late career Goldsmith with great breezy adventure feel where Jerrald had a big canvas which he really filled to the brim with sound.

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by John Williams

Felt like putting this one on for the sake of hearing a score I never heard before from J. Williams. Some good stuff in here. I was confused by the presence of a track called "Mischief Managed". Was it an end credits suite? Confused, I looked it up here to see what exactly this cue was supposed to be...

Ooooh dear. 

Yeeeeah, I can see why ya'll want a complete release of this one. 

[Incanus 5,714]

5 minutes ago, kaseykockroach said:

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by John Williams

Felt like putting this one on for the sake of hearing a score I never heard before from J. Williams. Some good stuff in here. I was confused by the presence of a track called "Mischief Managed". Was it an end credits suite? Confused, I looked it up here to see what exactly this cue was supposed to be...

Ooooh dear. 

Yeeeeah, I can see why ya'll want a complete release of this one. 

Yeah the complete score would be fantastic. Plus Williams revised and rewrote quite a bit of material for the score so if they recorded that earlier stuff there could also be a heap of interesting alternates for such a release as well.

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

I haven't seen the movie so I'm just purely judging the score/album as a self-contained thing, so I wouldn't know what the unreleased music is like. That said, I'm sure the actual end credits suite would be ideal. 

[Incanus 5,714]

3 minutes ago, kaseykockroach said:

I haven't seen the movie so I'm just purely judging the score/album as a self-contained thing, so I wouldn't know what the unreleased music is like. That said, I'm sure the actual end credits suite would be ideal. 

Yeah the Mischief Managed version on the album is basically taking half of the tracks already there on the disc and presenting them again note-for-note. The film version of the suite is alas an edit job as well.

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

Sounds a bit like what Silvestri did for the end of The Mummy Returns' OST. Is that accurate?

[publicist 4,643]

 

Sounds like another epic highlight hidden in an obscure italien tv movie.

 

New Mansell, rather clubby:

[crocodile 8,006]

 The Mummy Returns by Alan Silvestri. The original 2001 album was my very first Alan Silvestri score. I knew who he was before that but never had a chance to buy a single disc of his. I have to say nothing that came afterwards (or before) exceeded it in terms of fun.

 

I'm happy that the new edition came out but I'm also bit sad about the sound quality of the climactic cues. I trust the Intrada people tried their best to present it in the best possible form but some of the passages sound shockingly bad for a 21st century score. Something must have gone terribly wrong there. Or perhaps it was yet another homage to Goldsmith and recorded in a wine cellar Inchon-style.

 

The musical repetition in those final segments clearly comes from very short scoring schedule but at least the material reused makes sense in the context of the story and score's larger architecture. Plus Silvestri does so in most of his works anyway. I might swap some of those the the early versions as they fare better sonically. The score as a whole perhaps doesn't flow as well as Goldsmith's but it is also almost 30 minutes longer!

 

Karol

[publicist 4,643]

Silvestri used to be one of the best recorded composers long before TMR, so whatever happened to those files...

 

No film music, but another reminder that Christopher Gordon is the single biggest loss for 'big' film music in the last 10 - 15 years,

 

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

@publicist, what do you mean by "loss". Apparently, he's still alive, or do you mean another Christopher Gordon?

[Incanus 5,714]

Just now, Richard said:

@publicist, what do you mean by "loss". Apparently, he's still alive, or do you mean another Christopher Gordon?

A loss as in "a great composer not scoring big films" because he clearly has the chops for it but sadly isn't hired by studios or directors for bigger efforts.

[publicist 4,643]

And thus, draws zero interest in the film music community these days, compared to musical lamefests like 'Avengers part Infinite'

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

Oh! Yes, thanks for that, Inky, I agree totally.

[crocodile 8,006]

19 minutes ago, publicist said:

And thus, draws zero interest in the film music community these days, compared to musical lamefests like 'Avengers part Infinite'

Which, in all honesty, is still better than most.

 

Karol

[Disco Stu 15,495]

"Mischief Managed" is another one of those things I didn't know to resent until I started visiting film music communities.  When I was 16 in 2004 it was the main track I listened to over and over and over and over and over.  My gateway into the score.

 

I sympathize with the "haters" insofar as it takes time away from what could have been original music included, but I have too many great memories associated with that track from when I was young and didn't know better.  So I still love the suite.  A wrong opinion I just embrace having.

[Holko 9,525]

My problem with the album MM is the lack of the awesome Double trouble intro from the film version. The film version, however, truncates the Hedwig lead-in, which is really unsatisfying! No perfect version exists officially, I have to frankenstein the held fanfare and the insert intro together myself.

 

But yeah, it's also the track I listened to the most.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

We must pray to St. Mattessino that his expanded edition will satisfy everyone's hopes and dreams for Azkaban.

 

Say 3 Hail Michaels and confess your soundtrack sins.

[Incanus 5,714]

19 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

We must pray to St. Mattessino that his expanded edition will satisfy everyone's hopes and dreams for Azkaban.

 

Say 3 Hail Michaels and confess your soundtrack sins.

Salve sodalis, pax Michaelis Sanctus tecum.

 

Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis.

 

I in pacem!

[Marian Schedenig 8,192]

5 hours ago, crocodile said:

I'm happy that the new edition came out but I'm also bit sad about the sound quality of the climactic cues. I trust the Intrada people tried their best to present it in the best possible form but some of the passages sound shockingly bad for a 21st century score. Something must have gone terribly wrong there. Or perhaps it was yet another homage to Goldsmith and recorded in a wine cellar Inchon-style.

 

 

Since nobody seems to have commented on it yet: Where those late sessions also recorded by Dennis Sands?

[Incanus 5,714]

13 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Since nobody seems to have commented on it yet: Where those late sessions also recorded by Dennis Sands?

As it has been said before, it is curious that the Mummy Returns liner notes make no mention of late sessions in the US nor who recorded them.

[Brundlefly 2,385]

On 7/25/2018 at 7:24 PM, Holko said:

Yes. Though some of them coincidentaly do.

You said, you knew the reason therefore. So what is the reason?

[crocodile 8,006]

20 minutes ago, Incanus said:

As it has been said before, it is curious that the Mummy Returns liner notes make no mention of late sessions in the US nor who recorded them.

Having heard the album, perhaps it is for the best.

 

Karol

[Holko 9,525]

35 minutes ago, Brundlefly said:

You said, you knew the reason therefore. So what is the reason?

 

The score was recorded at the very last minute (some of it is only synths purely because of time constraints), the cover designs had to be sent to the manufacturing plant weeks, maybe months before the movie came out if they wanted them to be on shelf on the release date. I think the tracklist was decided before anything was written by Badelt/Zimmer, or at least incredibly early in the process. Then I guess they said "to hell with it" and made up a suite independent of what they made up earlier.

 

I wrote it in the original post to prevent anyone trying to explain this to me when I read it hell knows where years ago.

[Taikomochi 1,136]

That must be common practice then as there are a good number of Zimmer albums where the track titles don’t correlate to the scenes the music scores at all.