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


Ollie

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The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies by Howard Shore

 

The Witches of Eastwick by John Williams

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3 hours ago, John said:

Paprika, by Susumu Hirasawa :music:

 

Great stuff. Lots of interesting and downright bizarre textures and orchestrations. 

 

Love it!

 

Helllll yeah, dude! Hirasawa's gold! If you like his sound from Paprika, he's got a _vast_ discography for you to check out.

 

 

 

 

 

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On 7/10/2019 at 11:17 AM, JoeinAR said:

Towering Inferno is looping in the car the last few days. I love his jazzy love themes. The main title is still jaw dropping nearly 45 years later.

 

I tried it, almost had an accident!

 

So, it's not a so great score for listening in a car I think.

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LISOLETTE AND HARLEE, SOMETHING FOR SUSAN, and SUSAN AND DOUG might work. Put those on a CD with LOVE SCENE, MILES ON WHEELS SOMETHING FOR ROSA and SOMETHING FOR REMY, and you've got yourself a nice "riding around LA" soundtrack.

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Of course, in Los Angeles, everything is based on driving, even the killings. In New York, most people don’t have cars, so if you want to kill a person, you have to take the subway to their house. And sometimes on the way, the train is delayed and you get impatient, so you have to kill someone on the subway. That’s why there are so many subway murders; no one has a car.

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Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Symphonic Suite by John Williams

 

Solo: A Star Wars Story by John Powell & awesome theme by John Williams

 

The Mummy Returns by Alan Silvestri

 

Ivanhoe by Miklós Rózsa

 

Cutthroat Island by John Debney

 

The Good German by Thomas Newman

 

The Wolfman by Danny Elfman

 

 

 

 

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Let's see, been a while since I posted updates here...

 

Listened to the complete versions of the Hisaishi Ghibli scores a couple times and decided to keep most of them around. Still listen to highlights like The Princess Who Love Insects, On the Tiger Moth, Carrying You, Town with an Ocean View, Cat Bus, The Stink Spirit, Procession of the Spirits or Legend of Ashitaka (credits version) daily.

 

Went through the backlog of favourites I haven't heard in a little while - Alien, Ben-Hur, Thief of Bagdad, CE3K, E.T., Dracula, EotS, Jaws, Lost World, Schindler, STTMP... Noticed many new subtleties and flourishes in most of them.

 

Superman LLL: I got it early and haven't heard it since late April. Loved it this time, I even looked forward to March of the Villains (concert) after the credits where I placed it. Still not toplist Williams material for me, but wow.

 

Jurassic Park: I think I finally crossed the line between "like" and "love" with this one! Again, a very close listen and the discovery of many subtleties helped.

 

Batman LLL: I only even heard the OST, and... well, I'll cull this down heavily to resemble that arrangement more. The big memorable action material are top notch classics, my favourite bits are Descent into Mystery and Charge of the Batmobile, a perfect duo with the "Ascension" motif as I named it, almost Intermission/Entracte if you will... but my interest waned seriously with most of the softer, slower material. I wanna jump into Shootout right after Roof Fight, dammit! What I also noticed this time is how in the Main Title, the instrument groups keep playing Hot Potato with the melodic line and it still comes across as a coherent whole!

 

A.I.: I want to kick myself in the balls repeatedly for intentionally missing out on this based on the stupid OST. It's such a great, understated, subtle journey, the standout on second listen was the "For Always" theme that comes in at the end, poignantly underscoring the last ever time a human is "alive"...

 

Bram Stoker's Dracula LLL: whoah, yesterday's listen was engaging and intense. Screw repetition worries, I gotta get this one. Interesting how the OST seems to be an exact replica of the film edit, showing in isolation how even the director treated it like a toolbox. I guess looking at it all as pieces, settings of themes for specific scenes explored as fully as possible to give a large amount of material to work with. What else is there to say but Sanguis Vita Est, Sanguis Vita Est, Sanguis Vita Est, Sanguis Vita Est, Sanguis Vita Est, Sanguis Vita Est, Sanguis Vita Est...

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Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice - Hans Zimmer & Junkie XL

 

There are some decent highlights in this score, but no sense of dramatic storytelling, just mainly sonic wallpaper. "Is She With You?" introduces Zimmer's delightful war-cry motif for Wonder Woman, as well as an obnoxious Sherlock Holmes-styled motif for Lex Luthor running throughout. They manage to capture the sadness and loss of innocence for Bruce Wayne a second time (albeit regurgitating the choir boy vocal), but the composers never really pit the new Batman motif against Superman's musically. And why wasn't Zimmer's more optimistic anthem from MOS not brought back either? I pine for the glory days of Batman Begins...

 

Justice League - Danny Elfman

 

Elfman's style has changed and evolved over the decades, but his writing is unmistakable. I really dug what he (and Pinar Toprak) did with Zimmer's Wonder Woman theme, in "Wonder Woman Rescue". His Batman theme is arranged in ways that hearken back to his late '80s/early '90s writing but also his more modern style. But the way he places and pits themes against each other is masterful, especially in "Friends and Foes" and "The Final Battle." But his quieter cues like "Home" would be right home in, say, a Spider-Man film.

 

I don't understand the hate for this score, I really don't.

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'The Golden Child' is a misbegotten mess of a movie but whatever the version John Barry got his hands on must have looked much different from what we ended up with. In any case, a mix of 'Last Valley', 'Out of Africa' and a handful of other more or less recent Barry scores (and a good dose of Stravinsky, uncharacteristic for the composer) make their bow and it's a really good 80's adventure score, very broad with robust orchestration, especially in the travelogue and fantasy scenes and at least two engaging tunes - there's a slight 'Persuaders' vibe coming off 'Wisdom of the Ages' but neither its rinky-tink style nor the sweeping panoramic strings ever saw a 80's Eddie Murphy movie. It's one of these scores where inventing your own dream movie is the only way to go.

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:music: The Mask of Zorro. This was my second Horner album in my collection after Titanic and the one that convinced me this guy has some talent. It's as enjoyable as his music gets.

 

Karol

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Dr. No by Monty Norman

Honestly, I can only really remember the swingy reggae songs. It's not to say that Norman's score is completely forgettable per se, but it's not the most memorable. 

 

Arrival by Jóhann Jóhannsson

After taking in the corresponding movie (full thoughts pending), I quite enjoyed listening to Jóhannsson's score. While I'd categorize it as a sound design/environment project (as opposed to orchestral), it's a lot different than any Zimmer score. For one, I immediately took to it.

 

A film edit of the complete score would open and close with Max Richter's heart-achingly beautiful On the Nature of Daylight, which I must say is perfect in the movie. It's a gorgeously deep piece, and it wasn't even written for this film, although it compliments it very well.

 

As for Jóhannsson, his music explores the human voice by employing a variety of techniques and synthetic additives. With the belief that "people are hungry for new sounds", he delves into the possibilities of the vocal textures. 

 

"I knew that I wanted to use voices as one of the primary instruments in the score of a film that is primarily about language no communication. But I wanted to use the voice in a different way, so I worked with an ensemble called Theatre of Voices. They're masters of both early music and contemporary music, so have a very good command of exotic vocal textures, " Jóhannsson said in an interview with The Guardian.

 

Humans respond to the human voice in a way that they cannot be replicated with instruments. Jóhannsson utilizes this, putting it at the forefront of the underscore on a number of occasions. 

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39 minutes ago, The Illustrious Jerry said:

Dr. No by Monty Norman

Honestly, I can only really remember the swingy reggae songs. It's not to say that Norman's score is completely forgettable per se, but it's not the most memorable. 

That's "Dr. No by Monty Norman, and John Barry", if you please, young sir.

 

Audiences laughed out loud at original screenings, at the music "stabs" that accompanied Bond killing the spider with his shoe.

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Yes, but only because he had sole composer credit, by virtue of his contract. Sure, he wrote the first part of the theme as an adaptation of a song called BAD SIGN GOOD SIGN, but Barry wrote the middle 8. At the very least, he should have had co-composer credit. In my mind, there's absolutely no doubt who "wrote" the theme.

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The Wind and the Lion by Jerry Goldsmith

 

Sleepy Hollow by Danny Elfman

 

Medal of Honor by Michael Giacchino

 

The Lion in Winter by Richard Hartley

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On 7/14/2019 at 10:57 AM, Holko said:

A.I.: I want to kick myself in the balls repeatedly for intentionally missing out on this based on the stupid OST. It's such a great, understated, subtle journey, the standout on second listen was the "For Always" theme that comes in at the end, poignantly underscoring the last ever time a human is "alive"...

 

Not even a trickle of enjoyment on using "Mecha World" as an album opener, followed by "Abandoned in the Woods"? Hella better than Cybertronics cold Williams 2000s strings.

On 7/17/2019 at 10:22 AM, Stefancos said:

Barry wrote the most of it, and the big band arrangement that made it famous was his.

 

Ohhhh, I see! Glad the mystery is solved, finally! Different composer, but would you say the same thing about Williams and Herbert Spencer or Conrad Pope? I just don't know if Williams writes a piano sketch and then orchestrators flesh it out, or what.  

 

3 hours ago, Richard said:

One of those is a "fuck off" masterpiece

(hint: it's not Medal Of Honor :)).

 

Do you enjoy Sleepy Hollow, Richard? I never saw you talking about it. 

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Cybertronics is a perfectly fine opener, it sets up the first phase of the brilliant gradual journey. Mecha World at the start sounds like you accidentally put on Disc 2 of 2, it just has that feel to me, it's not earned yet at all. Abandoned In the Woods is a grand transitional event cue, not a Track 2!

(Only heard the OST once and quickly started it now to make sure)

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24 minutes ago, Holko said:

Cybertronics is a perfectly fine opener, it sets up the first phase of the brilliant gradual journey. Mecha World at the start sounds like you accidentally put on Disc 2 of 2, it just has that feel to me, it's not earned yet at all. Abandoned In the Woods is a grand transitional event cue, not a Track 2!

(Only heard the OST once and quickly started it now to make sure)

 

I actually don't mind Cybetronics as an opener, if you're listening to the complete film score. But Mecha World is a _hell_ of an overture, with its somewhat quiet,  sombre fanfare beginning before it kicks off into one of Williams' best cues. "Abandoned in the Woods" is a nice continuation of that bombastic, melancholy mood, but, almost as if Williams programmed the album for a LP in mind, reprises Abandoned in the Woods halfway through as a transitional moment (like when you flip over to the B side). 

 

5 minutes ago, Richard said:

Ly@Nick Parker

Yes I do enjoy listening to SLEEPY HOLLOW. It's not my favourite Elfman score, (that's BATMAN RETURNS followed very closely by "MARS ATTACKS!"), but it's certainly a fine addition to his body of work.

 

I didn't know you held Batman Returns in such high regard. :) I just got the printed score and have been going through the music again after several years...I prefer the album presentation to the whole film score, but what an imaginative, cohesive accomplishment for anyone, let alone a dude who had been writing scores for 7 years. 

 

Anyone listen to Elfman's most recent stuff like Dumbo and all that? How is it compared to what he's been up to since 2010 or so?

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Concert work day!

 

Metropolis Symphony by Michael Daugherty

The New Moon in the Old Moon's Arms by Michael Kamen

Concerto for Cello and Orchestra by John Williams

 

:music: Memory & Ruin by Howard Shore

 

Karol

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Not a film score but by god this is awesome:

 

 

The composer that replaced that theme in 2006 was even better:

 

 

You may recognize him. ;)

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Spider-man: Far From Home by Michael Giacchino

As a big fan of Homecoming, I had high hopes for this score. Unfortunately I'm not digging it in the way I'd hoped, which is not to say it isn't good. I just haven't gotten into it yet. I haven't quite gotten a handle on the new themes either. I'll listen again in a month or so.

 

Ralph Breaks the Internet by Henry Jackman

Fairly uninteresting. Video game music essentially.

 

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes by Michael Giacchino

War for the Planet of the Apes by Michael Giacchino

I've heard it been said that these score are overrated. Frankly, I don't know what people think of these, but I enjoy listening to War quite a bit. It certainly has more memorable music, stuff I could hum for you up to a few weeks or so after listening. Dawn doesn't quite have material that's ever that distinctly developed. All in all not bad, but not knocking my socks off either.

 

E.T. the Extra Terrestrial by John Williams (La La Land Records - CD 1 - The Film Score Presentation)

What more could I possibly say?

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