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


Ollie

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1 hour ago, The Illustrious Jerry said:

Nice. What'd you think about it?

 

I really like it!

 

 C’era una volta il west and Armonica having been giving me a lot of replay value. 

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Sleepers by John Williams

 

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith by John Williams

 

War of the Worlds by John Williams

 

 

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Prelude and Fugue from Stan Kenton Conducts the Los Angeles Neophonic Orchestra

Escapades from The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration Vol. 3

 

 

Two third stream classics as far as I'm concerned :rock2:

 

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On 5/17/2019 at 10:16 AM, Disco Stu said:

Prelude and Fugue from Stan Kenton Conducts the Los Angeles Neophonic Orchestra

Escapades from The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration Vol. 3

 

 

 

 

Hellllll yeah! Two of my favorite Williams pieces. The progression Escapades has taken from it initial form around the time of the OST to where it has gotten by the time of the Spielberg/Williams is almost tear-inducing in how inspiring and ecstatic it is. Particularly the last movement, he let his imagination really run with and twist like a vine to totally new heights. Absolutely incredible. 

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The Ghost Writer by Alexandre Desplat: Neat suspense writing in typical Desplat fashion.

 

Sommersby by Danny Elfman: Very different Elfman from early 90's which showcases his versatility rather than the wacky circus hijinks or gothically booming superheroics he was known for at the time.

 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi by John Williams: The Maestro still has it. While not as bright eyed with Rey's theme at its centre as the Force Awakens, the Last Jedi still features some mightily resounding tunes and individual action setpieces and juggles an impressive amount of thematic material throughout this entry of the SW saga. Rian Johnson's spotting technique of just giving Williams a fully previous SW music tracked film shows in some very close quotes of the earlier material (nothing new in Lucas' entries either) but for the most part Williams still manages to forge ahead with new material.

 

My only real gripe is that the Ahch-To Island theme wasn't used more extensively as it feels like it is missing half of its development and would have been so very apt to be Luke's final hurrah theme as he finally decides to go against the First Order and end his exile at the end of the film. But at least we can now enjoy it in the hybrid concert suite combining Rose's sweetly innocent tune and the majestic Sibelian Island theme.

 

Star Wars Galaxy's Edge Symphonic Suite by John Williams: Damn this is catchy. Hopefully Williams wrote more music for the theme park and we'll get to hear at some point. While not covering new ground by any means, for a JW fan this is akin to meeting an old acquaintance in a slightly different guise.

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8 hours ago, Incanus said:

My only real gripe is that the Ahch-To Island theme wasn't used more extensively

This.  It should have been the central melodic identity of the film, rather than the Force Theme.  Great potential for variations.

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Alita: Battle Angel - Tom Holkenborg

 

This... is pretty decent. I don't know if it's because he's utilized different orchestrators (like Conrad Pope) this time around, but there's subtlety and genuine emotion in cues like "With Me" and "What Did You Do?" He still brings out the trademark pounding percussion but he doesn't overdo it. There's genuine orchestral color and... God help me, actual thematic development in this score.

 

Not to say Holkenborg became an amazing composer, but he should keep Pope around. 

 

 

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Stanley & Iris by John Williams: Such a lovely little intimate score which had a nice short album but the Varese Deluxe Edition fleshes out the score a bit more and adds variety to it. Perfect for a sunny spring morning.

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:music: Medal of Honor: Airborne. It might be actually my favourite in the series. Yes, it is less of a jolly WWII swashbuckler but it also feels like the most Giacchino in the series. I like it more gritty like this. Also... I'm not a fan of his action music in general, especially in later years, but this score has some of the finer examples of it that I really appreciate. Here are a couple of examples:

 

 

Karol

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The Sword and the Sorcerer - David Whitaker

 

I had never heard of this film or composer until 20 minutes ago.

 

Seems like a pretty fun, if completely unoriginal, entry in the sword/sandals genre.  Typical imitation of romantic era classical music, but I kinda dig it!

 

 

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Hollywood faux-Arabicana always gets a free pass by me, though this doesn't offer nearly enough of it - as in developed enough. The broad theme introduced in 'Agrabah Marketplace' (repeated verbatim several times) gets the job done, but sadly is interspersed with the kind of banal, twee Disney scoring lifted straight from Menken's 90's scores (all Oscar winners, naturally). It's rather inconsequential and not even on the level of 'Prince of Persia', let alone the Mummies.

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20 hours ago, crocodile said:

:music: Medal of Honor: Airborne. It might be actually my favourite in the series. Yes, it is less of a jolly WWII swashbuckler but it also feels like the most Giacchino in the series. I like it more gritty like this. Also... I'm not a fan of his action music in general, especially in later years, but this score has some of the finer examples of it that I really appreciate. Here are a couple of examples:

 

 

Karol

I still prefer Frontline overall dramatic arc-wise but Airborne might be my second favourite and has some nifty aggressive action music with grittier approach than some of its more balletic predecessors.

 

Bless the Child by Christopher Young: I really dig this mix of quasi-religious and Young's brand of gothic horror scoring complete with eerie low male choruses and solo sopranos and vicious orchestral mayhem. While I usually appreciate Young's album assemblies here I find the five tracks imitating the movements of a requiem mass feel too disjointed to be entirely good listening experience and would have preferred a more traditional release with more individual tracks so I could navigate to my favourite action or dramatic choral moment.

 

Silence of the Lambs by Howard Shore: There is such grey brooding atmosphere in this score but amid all the churning dread and melancholy there is subtle sense of beauty to it. Certainly one of those scores I have to be in a very specific mood to listen to but always worth the time and effort. I feel also it is a sort of a purely orchestral companion piece to his stark choral score to Looking for Richard.

 

Sleeper by John Williams: Another dark brooding score but very unique in Williams' career. The dark subject matter of the film certainly inspired ol' Johnny to write melancholy, dark and even haunting music with wonderful unique textures. He also found the kernel of light at the end of the harrowing story and distilled the triumphant spirit into the phenomenal Hell's Kitchen concert suite which seems to tell the whole story in miniature form where the orchestra almost palpably seems to go through some inner struggle and ordeal before climbing into victorious heights in a very satisfying way. I remember being baffled by this music when I first bought the album in the late 1990's but over the years this one has become one of my JW scores from that period.

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36 minutes ago, Richard said:

Inky, I think that's SLEEPERS :lol:

You didn't know there was a prequel where there was just one? ;) 

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24 minutes ago, Incanus said:

You didn't know there was a prequel where there was just one? ;) 

Correct. And the tagline for Sleeper was "In Wilkinson, no one can hear you scream".

 

:music:Sommersby by Daniel Elfman

 

Karol

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Living In The Age Of Airplanes. James Horner.

 

Unless you're @publicist, this is a nice sampler of Horner's musical scope. Ranging from large orchestral, to jazzy, to synth, to eclectic.

 

Sure its sappy as fuck, with Horner leaning into his "world music" stylings a bit much as times. It sounds like it was funded by the UN.

 

But who cares?

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5 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

I miss Horner!

 

Me too.  After many years of his music not really interesting me much, he had had a huge resurgence in recent years, and was cranking out great music I loved as much as his old stuff.  Then bam.  It's over :(

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8 hours ago, publicist said:

Don't let the bloated running time deceive you: within those hefty 90 minutes buried is an exciting 40 minutes Varése style album. It's full-on pastiche, with Goldenthal featuring heavily, as are Horner's even-metered action attacks á la 'Aliens' but McCreary has a gifted hand for assured pastiching, so when he takes all those ingredients and mixes them with his shouting Sumo ringer choruses and Ikufube's original theme(s) the results are fun - in the right doses.

 

This ain't deep stuff or anything (there's a little horn flourish in 'Hollow Earth' where i perked up because the music suddenly seemed to go in a harmonically unexpected terrain, but alas...) but it's certainly more fun than Desplat's dry effort. With McCreary you feel he's in on the joke and once you're through weeding the album (most of the quieter material is just uninteresting and there's strictly too much of the loud stuff ) this probably is the best monster movie music in recent memory.

Do you have suggestion for a 40 minute mean-and-lean playlist of this one?

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