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


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16 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

 

Worked quite well when I played it strolling through Dublin.

 

 

Dublin is much nicer than Limerick but I imagine it would 

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1 hour ago, publicist said:

 

I would rate it as one top 2018 achievement - mainly due to a lack of competition. It may be attributable to Chapelle's filmmaking style but from what i've heard of Hurwitz he's one of the new kids who has catchy ideas but not really a musical vision. The (sometimes very beautiful) cues just hang there,  the rest is background mood. Which is OK, but an award for best music should merit more a bigger concept, or arc.

 

Actually, something about the main melody rubs me off in the wrong way. It's lovely of course, but it evolves into something that sounds like a leftover idea from La La Land (particularly, the second half, as linked below) that found its way onto a film about space flight. As you aptly put it, Hurwitz seems like a music student/songwriter with nice ideas, but ideas that are not really in service of a larger sound and direction. Take the theremin for instance, which has a lot of potential in application, is only really used as a serviceable melodic device. And this lack of imagination shows especially in "The Landing" cue, where he struggles at crafting larger set-pieces with the ideas he introduced throughout the album.

 

If I didn't know what the film was about, the album just sounds like some pretty music that doesn't really say all that much. 

 

 

 

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You guys do have very valid points about the First Man score.  Vision is lacking and craftsmanship is somewhat missing as well in places, but I guess my enjoyment of the mood helped to lessen the impact of these reservations.  The big takeaway I got from the score is that Hurwitz has potential to mature and grow into a very interesting composer if he is able to combine his sense of mood and melody with a better sense of the structural potentials of film scoring.

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Will probably have to happen in self-study, for the movie#s it's obviously enough as it is, going by the glowing reviews. In that light i find it breathtakingly amazing how brilliant Jonny Greenwood is.

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Greenwood clearly lives and breathes music on a higher plane than many of his peers and even seniors in the industry. Each of his scores seem to explore a new creative space for himself while creating a distinct personality for the film. Of course, the caliber of the filmmakers he works with and the fact that he's only attached to a film every two years helps.

 

15 minutes ago, publicist said:

 it's obviously enough as it is, going by the glowing reviews.

 

In film, it's pretty or "distinctive" enough to draw your attention, but not intrusive enough to distract you. Guess that's enough for the layman to give it "classic" status.

 

But yeah, the guy is young. He has a lot of time to hone his craft. 

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I'm listening to Episode III the Disney reissue. I'm a fan of these new mixes. The original releases sounded muddy and lacked the dynamic punch of these latest versions. The music has always been solid with Sith being a favorite, but now they really come alive.

 

Williams scores tend to have poor recording and/or mixing which is why I'd rather listen to superior Horners or Goldsmiths. At least Episodes II and III sound good now. Required listening!

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21 minutes ago, Horner's Dynamic Range said:

I'm listening to Episode III the Disney reissue. I'm a fan of these new mixes. The original releases sounded muddy and lacked the dynamic punch of these latest versions. The music has always been solid with Sith being a favorite, but now they really come alive.

 

Williams scores tend to have poor recording and/or mixing which is why I'd rather listen to superior Horners or Goldsmiths. At least Episodes II and III sound good now. Required listening!

I thought people liked Phantom Menace's recording? :S 

As for me, anyhow...

Lionheart by John Scott

Gritty funky goodness!

 

King Solomon's Mines by Jerry Goldsmith

Stopped to get a pizza, then drove home to this score last night...only to find they didn't put any toppings, just a plain cheese pizza. So I drove all the way back, but I was enjoying the score so much, I didn't mind too much, it meant I got to listen to more! Such serene, lush romantic music in this one. Williams' Indy music has got all the riveting set pieces (I wouldn't trade Mine Car Chase for anything), but Goldsmith's got better themes (both the main and the love theme). 

 

How to Train Your Dragon 2 by John Powell

Because "Dragon Racing" was stuck in my head this morning.

 

 

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It can be a tad 'bitty' (I'm used to The Shark Approaches and The Shark Hits the Cage being combined as one cue), but it's pretty perfect otherwise. Still curious to hear the OST someday though. I've never heard the original presentation, just the Decca album beforehand.

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3 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

Jaws (Intrada)

 

Such a dramatic improvement in sound quality compared to the Decca release. Finally this great score got its proper due.

 

Crap, now I need to buy it! I'm far from an audiophile, but the Decca album is piss poor re: sound. Sounds like an amateur orchestra did the playing.

1 minute ago, kaseykockroach said:

It can be a tad 'bitty' (I'm used to The Shark Approaches and The Shark Hits the Cage being combined as one cue), but it's pretty perfect otherwise. Still curious to hear the OST someday though. I've never heard the original presentation, just the Decca album beforehand.

 

While I love cues like "Father and Son", the OST is nigh unbeatable, with fans of the score as heard-in-film in for a surprise.

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I remember avoiding the OST back in my naive youth, whining "Waaaah, it sounds different from the film music! I don't want no re-recording!". Now I'm a mature sensible adult that appreciates these things. I'm quite happy I gave The Fury's OST a shot!

 

And yes, I couldn't type that last part with a straight face.

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The Jaws OST is fantastic as a Disc 2 extra, an extension of the score instead of a reduction like OST releases can be. It fleshes out ideas which had no ample time in the film, and just all-around great.

And yes, the Intrada sound quality, considering how the score was archived and what they tried in the past, is pretty damn good.

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The Spiderwick Chronicles

 

Another enjoyable dynamic JH score for a movie I'll never see. Many of these beloved fantasy Horners are for movies I either saw once as a child and/or never as an adult. Unlike some of the schmaltzy JW or JG scores for similar types of films, JH never really composed embarrassing childish sounding shlock. He didn't write down to the genre, typically.

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This obscurity emerges as one of this year's best film scores (what a weak year for scores it has been).

 

For fans of dark, unsettling soundscapes, this might be worth a listen. It expresses a dissatisfaction with the status quo.

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War Horse by John Williams

 

The Mummy (Intrada release) by Jerry Goldsmith

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Franz Waxman at his peak best (great theme, awful title song). The vigorous americana variations are remarkable not only in that they are written by a german but that they sound completely authentic, proving Waxman to be the same dedicated musicologist Rózsa was (though R. didn't like that idiom). 'The Land Race' - essentially the same scene Williams scored for Ron Howard's 'Far and Away' -, is a powerhouse drawing from Taras Bulba's Cossack Ride written around the same time, but the whole score is so painterly that you can imagine a young Spielberg being inspired by it, musically: it's one of those glossy but deadly boring pictures from the tail end of the studio era that is not entertaining but a great study of a bygone craft and the score is probably the highlight next to the cinematography.

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1 hour ago, publicist said:

 

Franz Waxman at his peak best (great theme, awful title song). The vigorous americana variations are remarkable not only in that they are written by a german but that they sound completely authentic, proving Waxman to be the same dedicated musicologist Rózsa was (though R. didn't like that idiom). 'The Land Race' - essentially the same scene Williams scored for Ron Howard's 'Far and Away' -, is a powerhouse drawing from Taras Bulba's Cossack Ride written around the same time, but the whole score is so painterly that you can imagine a young Spielberg being inspired by it, musically: it's one of those glossy but deadly boring pictures from the tail end of the studio era that is not entertaining but a great study of a bygone craft and the score is probably the highlight next to the cinematography.

I have to check that out. In general I should check out more of Waxman's music as everything I have heard from him has been terrific.

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Basic Instinct (Quartet Records release) by Jerry Goldsmith: Top notch Goldsmith. Atmospheric, melodic, alluring and sexy with a dose of underlying tension and danger.

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John Williams - Dracula (Bespin's Vinyl restoration)

 

My first listen outside of Lockhart's Night Journeys and the movie of course.

And it's very very good! Only the two Love Scenes back to back get repetitive, but techincally they're supposed to be on different sides of the LP.

I wasn't fully convinced yet in the first half until Night Journeys, but the weird textures and what I call the "demented piano" in the second half cemented that I really like this. Further sonic improvements from well-archived first-grade masters would be most welcome, but this is miles better than what's on Youtube (the CD, I assume). If a complete MM edition or a rerecording comes along, I will be happy to get it, but this is a good presentation to hold me over.

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Return of the King OST

 

Now, I know it's a thankless job to cut a 4-hour score down to 71 minutes, especially 4 hours stuffed with important beats and character moments scored fantastically, while a portion of it probably hasn't even been recorded yet and the cut you scored is completely different than the final one. But this is still kind of a bleedin' hacked up mess. See the track Minas Tirith. 3 completely different moods clumped together, heavily abridged, but that's how the original chronology went. I do not understand what purpose Hope Fails serves in this presentation or why it's what it is. Editing the Nazgúl entrance from Siege of Gondor into Fields of Pelennor and shortening the end by crossfading the fanfares is a stroke of genius, but leaving out Nature's Reclamaton and the cavalry charge led by the Hardanger fiddle, finally in its natural habitat, echoing Eorl's charge on the Field of Celebrant, should land one a few months in prison. As should leaving out For Frodo, the final culmination of the Ring themes inside Sammath Naur and the full Fate of the Ring, but having that early choral mess. Goddamn those screensavers! Some cool alternates, though, and it's a bit harder to be angry when I store this disc in the CR box I finally have.

I have a similar feeling as when I first heard the HP1 OST a few months ago: even if I wouldn't know the complete score as well as I do, these would feel incredibly rushed, jumping over very good and important material for no other apparent reason than to cram it on 1 disc.

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3 hours ago, Holko said:

John Williams - Dracula (Bespin's Vinyl restoration)

 

My first listen outside of Lockhart's Night Journeys and the movie of course.

And it's very very good! Only the two Love Scenes back to back get repetitive, but techincally they're supposed to be on different sides of the LP.

I wasn't fully convinced yet in the first half until Night Journeys, but the weird textures and what I call the "demented piano" in the second half cemented that I really like this. Further sonic improvements from well-archived first-grade masters would be most welcome, but this is miles better than what's on Youtube (the CD, I assume). If a complete MM edition or a rerecording comes along, I will be happy to get it, but this is a good presentation to hold me over.

 

Is this soundtrack available anywhere? In any form? 

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21 minutes ago, Jay said:

It's been Out Of Print for years.  You've have to pay premium dollar to buy a used copy from the secondary market to legally own it today.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0000014RC

 

Just PM @Bespin to get a sound quality that's superior to the CD release.

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11 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

 

Just PM @Bespin to get a sound quality that's in a different league miles above compared to the horrendous muddy CD release.

I agree!

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3 minutes ago, Richard said:

Speaking of which...Bes, where can I find this, and can I play it through my Blu Ray, via Bluetooth?

Huh?

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