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


Ollie

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Braveheart OST

 

The first 15 minutes or so of this album are a real slog. Attack on Murron is a huge highlight but the real turning point is when the clans gather. James Horner unleashes full testosterone-fueled manliness. Red-blooded tracks famously employ Hornerian bagpipes alongside the might of the London Symphony Orchestra with heartwrenching Glory-esque strings, badass booming percussion with signature machine gun snare drums and brass that makes you want to grab a sword and go to battle. Ascending two-note motif also present in Titanic predicts the Hans Zimmer Batman theme.

 

Truly, one of the best scores of all time.

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'Valhalla', now on Spotify: another robust 80's fantasy animation score, this time by Ron Goodwin, a rather unlikely but lucky choice. Goodwin's well-honed melodic instinct (in countless 60's war and adventure films, not too speak of his three Marple scores and Those Daring Men in Their Flying Machines) is still in evidence. A few too many short and inconsequential cues aside, it's a bright and cheerful work worth a listen.

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On 9/3/2019 at 3:39 AM, Gruesome Son of a Bitch said:

Braveheart OST

 

The first 15 minutes or so of this album are a real slog. Attack on Murron is a huge highlight but the real turning point is when the clans gather. James Horner unleashes full testosterone-fueled manliness. Red-blooded tracks famously employ Hornerian bagpipes alongside the might of the London Symphony Orchestra with heartwrenching Glory-esque strings, badass booming percussion with signature machine gun snare drums and brass that makes you want to grab a sword and go to battle. Ascending two-note motif also present in Titanic predicts the Hans Zimmer Batman theme.

 

Truly, one of the best scores of all time.

 

That shit is the MAD notes, handed down by god herself to the greatest composer in the world. James motherfucking Horner!

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Basic Instinct

 

Goldsmith's memorable score is overflowing with eerie sensuality, lots and lots of strings and pounding sex scene underscore. Bernard Hermann-esque qualities were well suited to the rather Hitchcockian iconic Verhoeven movie, one of several in the 90s where Michael Douglas played a seemingly straight realistic and relatable guy that gradually loses it. It still would have been a good movie without this particular music, but Jerry's perfect score elevates it to a whole other level and balances out the somewhat trashier aspects, occasionally weird performances and meandering second half that earned the damn thing a shocking negative review from the late Roger Ebert. He was wrong. Do the right thing and enjoy this one. It seems Jerry did.

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Surprising(ly cerebral) video game music by Austin Wintory - sounds like a surprising video game, too, a surreal, dream-like thriller game, by all accounts - and the score follows suit. It's an eclectic mix of rich, clear string textures (Tina Guo on cello), ironic juxtapositions of a romantic main motif, introduced as Connie Francis-like 60's song, and the requisite spookiness found in the often forlorn underscore. Early Chris Young horror scores come to mind, not a bad reference to be compared to, and again Wintory proves that he's one of the only (very only) new composers on the block not reducing himself to epigonism and bare, functional stuff (the sorry 'score's in the mail by Tuesday' stuff we hear on so many tv and blockbuster scores).

 

Play tips for the less abstract material are tracks 1, 2, 4, 7, 13, 14, 16, 19, 21.

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Busy morning...

 

Psycho (Elfman/Bartek)

The Sand Pebbles (RSNO)

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (LLL)

 

:music: Lord of the Rings and RoboCop 2 by Leonard Rosenman. It would have been his 95th birthday today.

 

Karol

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Having watched Star Trek's II and III lately (plus IV), I primarily revisited my Horner scores. They've held a fix on me since I was little when I was plumped in front of the TV watching anything whilst mum did housework (this believe, III is my most watched Trek movie to this day). But outside of hearing Dad play John Barry of a night, Horner (next to Barry Gray in Thunderbirds et al) was mine somehow. So often have I watched II and III that listening to certain tracks I can picture the scenes to a T.

 

Anyway, I put together for my phone a playlist for the train (the crème if not THE crème de la crème of his ST works)

 

Prologue and Main Title (III)

Enterprise Clears Moorings, Surprise Attack, Kirk's Explosive Reply, Battle of the Mutara Nebula, Enterprise Attacks Reliant, Genesis Countdown (II)

Stealing the Enterprise, Spock Endures Pon Farr, Bird of Prey Decloaks, A Fighting Chance to Live (I once edited it on my laptop as Sixty Seconds to Live, weirdly), Genesis Destroyed and End Titles (III)

 

It's taken until now to fully appreciate the separate themes. I read in the liner notes how there's Kirk's theme, Spock's and the Enterprise's. Now Spock's I know well enough but Kirk's always seemed interchangeable with Enterprise. I always claim to be tone deaf and on my time here, I'm none the wiser about specific terms. Anyway, this week I got a handle for Kirk's theme. 

 

I'd ramble on further about each track but needless to say, I always enjoy the sweeping of the theme (and how III's is just enough different to II, great shame Horner somehow couldn't do IV- I know there's reasons why but it round out the 'trilogy' perfectly), the near nautical sound of Enterprise Clears Moorings (how great music is that a scene taken from The Motion Picture seems vastly different with a different composer. Both great of course), how even to this day after several viewings/listens, both Surprise Attack and Stealing the Enterprise still ratchets up the tension. With the former you can picture the two ships closing in and that last dialogue: "Lock phasers on target"/"They're locking phasers" and with the latter, the closer Enterprise gets to the doors and the music going full tilt. The emotive nature of Fighting Chance to Live ("Zero...zero...zero, de-struct zero"). 

Anyway. 

 

The greatest gift of late was getting the expanded for II and III. Worth every penny. 

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Twelve Choruses (from Ben-Hur and King of Kings) by Miklós Rózsa

Cinema Serenade by John Williams, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Itzhak Perlman

Cinema Serenade 2: The Golden Age by John Williams, Boston Pops Orchestra and Itzhak Perlman

The Fury by John Williams

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Who Framed Roger Rabbit OST

 

One of Silvestri's best. Maybe his best. Right up there with The Mummy Returns and Back to the Future Part III. The contemplative and cool jazzy Eddie theme, wild Carl Stalling flavored cartoon music and his signature style of zany 80s action and suspense material, memorable and unintrusive toon songs all come together for a very entertaining listen.

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John Williams - The Towering Inferno (OST)

 

I like the main title, the Architect's Dream, and the long Planting The Charges & Finale track.  JW should put 10 minute long tracks on his OSTs more often!

 

 

Jerry Goldsmith - Planet of the Apes (LLL)

 

My box set arrived while we were away.  Great stuff!

 

 

David Arnold - The World is Not Enough (LLL)

LOVE IT!

 

 

Michael Giacchino - Advent

 

Woah!  I liked the first part of this a lot, the latter parts not quite as much, but still a nice piece overall.  I'll have to watch the video that goes along with it at some point.

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Danny Elfman - Mission: Impossible (Complete)

 

Waking up to the surprise announcement from LLL I was compelled to listen to the leak one last time.  Still love it, and now I can't wait to hear the new official presentation!

 

 

Daniel Pemberton - Ocean's 8

 

Been jonesing to listen to this after it was brought up in the Daniel Pemberton thread.  Still love it!

 

 

Ira Newborn - Ferris Bueller's Day Off

 

Classic!

 

 

Christopher Larkin - Hollow Knight (OST)

 

Good stuff top to bottom!

 

 

Lena Raine - Celeste: Farewell (OST)

 

Interesting, at first (distracted) listen felt more like a remix of the original score than any kind of new direction.  Highlight tracks were definitely Reconciliation and Farewell.  Will be giving this lots more (more focused) listens for sure

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The Dark Knight OST

 

This one is such a hard listen. It has its moments, but they're scattered among a bunch of monotonous rhythmic noise. I've been meaning to go through these scores (Including Batman v Superman) and snag all the best bits for a consistently enjoyable playlist, but boy is it a chore! Unlike everyone else on the internet, I actually like HZ's Braveheart/Titanic-esque Batman theme. The thing is, when he's good, he's really good, but when he's not good, he's just terrible. This score is a great example of that. It has some frankly astonishingly cool bits (And I Thought My Jokes Are Bad is a brief badass testosterone-fueled musical celebration of masculinity that makes me feel cooler doing anything while listening to it; Harvey Two-Face has a similar extremely badass but extremely brief short moment in the middle of a long track; All renditions of Batman theme are awesome) but they're connected by long stretches of pure shit.

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Alan Silvestri - Predator 2 (Varese DE)

 

YEA!!

 

 

Brian Tyler - Now You See Me

 

So much fun!

 

 

Koji Kondo - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

 

A classic!

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1 hour ago, Gruesome Son of a Bitch said:

The Dark Knight OST

 

This one is such a hard listen. It has its moments, but they're scattered among a bunch of monotonous rhythmic noise. I've been meaning to go through these scores (Including Batman v Superman) and snag all the best bits for a consistently enjoyable playlist, but boy is it a chore! Unlike everyone else on the internet, I actually like HZ's Braveheart/Titanic-esque Batman theme. The thing is, when he's good, he's really good, but when he's not good, he's just terrible. This score is a great example of that. It has some frankly astonishingly cool bits (And I Thought My Jokes Are Bad is a brief badass testosterone-fueled musical celebration of masculinity that makes me feel cooler doing anything while listening to it; Harvey Two-Face has a similar extremely badass but extremely brief short moment in the middle of a long track; All renditions of Batman theme are awesome) but they're connected by long stretches of pure shit.

 

That may be his most challenging soundtrack album release to date.  Well maybe there are others that are just less interesting, but as far as stuff that isn't uninteresting but unlikely to appeal to many listeners outside of the film, least of all at JWFan, it has to take the cake.  There is alot of that experimental, Francis Bacon-paintings-in-music type stuff.  

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I moved on to Batman Vs. Superman. Made it about halfway through on the way to work. This one is actually more consistently good, but still hindered by a lot of weird shit. I never listened to Man of Steel but I think the piano theme here is carried over. It's a nice emotive piece. I like the Batman themes as well. There's a more downbeat recurring three-note motiv played on piano and solo trumpet and a slightly more upbeat propulsive gothic one. They're not all that dissimilar from classic Batman scores from 1989, Goldenthal and the animated series. It certainly feels like Batman to me. Do You Bleed has those guilty pleasure moments of pure badassery, but it gets quite over the top and goofy. Perhaps all the ridiculous situations in the movie really lent themselves to that sort of thing. I also like the zany strings for Lex Luthor. I'll finish it up tonight.

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On 9/13/2019 at 9:22 AM, Gruesome Son of a Bitch said:

I moved on to Batman Vs. Superman. Made it about halfway through on the way to work. This one is actually more consistently good, but still hindered by a lot of weird shit. I never listened to Man of Steel but I think the piano theme here is carried over. It's a nice emotive piece. I like the Batman themes as well. There's a more downbeat recurring three-note motiv played on piano and solo trumpet and a slightly more upbeat propulsive gothic one. They're not all that dissimilar from classic Batman scores from 1989, Goldenthal and the animated series. It certainly feels like Batman to me. Do You Bleed has those guilty pleasure moments of pure badassery, but it gets quite over the top and goofy. Perhaps all the ridiculous situations in the movie really lent themselves to that sort of thing. I also like the zany strings for Lex Luthor. I'll finish it up tonight.

 

There are a few moments I was disappointed they left off the album.

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As there inexplicably are so many fans of James Horner's 'Living in the Age of Airplanes', this pleasant Brian Tyler pop/indie score (courtesy of Yavar's recent Goldsmith podcast) has a very similar vibe, if less grand. 

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On 9/3/2019 at 9:39 AM, Gruesome Son of a Bitch said:

Braveheart OST

 

The first 15 minutes or so of this album are a real slog. Attack on Murron is a huge highlight but the real turning point is when the clans gather. James Horner unleashes full testosterone-fueled manliness. 

 

On 9/3/2019 at 10:15 AM, publicist said:

If anything, 'The Secret Wedding' is a huge highlight.

 

My thought exactly!

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One of the greatest single tracks in Horner"s entire career. It's masterful both with and away from the picture. There was a time when I really hated this score... except for this one piece.

 

Karol

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16 minutes ago, crocodile said:

One of the greatest single tracks in Horner"s entire career. It's masterful both with and away from the picture. There was a time when I really hated this score... except for this one piece.

 

Karol

 

Why did you hate it?

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Thomas Newman - Phenomenon

 

I'm a big fan of Newman's 90s and early 2000s scores, and this one is pleasant enough, has a few echoes of Fried Green Tomatoes and How to Make an American Quilt. Not a masterpiece by any means, but considering the album is only 30 minutes long, I think I'll be returning to it oftently.

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23 hours ago, crocodile said:

One of the greatest single tracks in Horner"s entire career. It's masterful both with and away from the picture. There was a time when I really hated this score... except for this one piece.

 

Karol

I can't stand the fluttering flute effect Horner employs here and in other scores for such tender moments as it feels not fragile or lyrical but like the flautist was stuttering the phrases he is playing and thus ruins those passages for me. I don't know if this is just playing technique demanded from the player or just a quality of this particular type of flute but it is highly unattractive to my ears. Again just a personal preference.

 

But those moments of awkwardness aside Braveheart is among Horner's very finest works and among finest film scores period. Such a wonderful musical distillation of the story, time and place and the big emotional ideas running underneath (and the forefront of) the film.

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1 hour ago, Incanus said:

I can't stand the fluttering flute effect Horner employs here and in other scores for such tender moments as it feels not fragile or lyrical but like the flautist was stuttering the phrases he is playing and thus ruins those passages for me. I don't know if this is just playing technique demanded from the player or just a quality of this particular type of flute but it is highly unattractive to my ears. Again just a personal preference.

 

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But yes, you either love or hate this type of playing. I dig it because it works well with the period setting and general locale in which the story takes place. :)

 

Karol

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