.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Quintus 5,399]

I presume it's a pop songs soundtrack album and not the orchestral score?

[Dixon Hill 4,232]

Yeah. Doesn't count if it's not Beck getting all the love.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[scallenger 481]

As far as I know there are only 2 editions of the Frozen soundtrack: 1 CD and 2 CD. The 1 CD contains the film's 5 songs, a more pop-like version of "Let It Go", and most of the film's score by Beck. The 2 CD has this plus a second CD with early demos that include songs that didn't make it into the film, additional score tracks, and some instrumental-only tracks of most of the songs (which there were a few more of on the 2 CD digital version). So either edition of the soundtrack actually does contain mostly Beck's music, although I am sure most certainly do just buy it to hear the songs (which all play before the score, so it isn't in sequence). Still, one would like to think maybe at least some of the listeners play the entire CD and enjoy it. The score was pretty decent, though not nearly as memorable or as spirited as the songs, to be honest. It is one of the rare cases where I actually liked the songs for a change, especially the film's version of Let It Go and First Time In Forever (and lovely to have the instrumental versions of each song in the digital 2 CD edition).

[Marian Schedenig 8,173]

I presume it's a pop songs soundtrack album and not the orchestral score?

Most people probably bought Titanic for the song, so the category doesn't matter. What matters is that Frozen might be the better score (not that the actual score is particularly great, but it's certainly solid, and I can't say that for half of Titanic's score. And Frozen's songs are fantastic. So it wins in either case.

[Quintus 5,399]

I love the Titanic score and I'd be VERY surprised if Frozen had a better one. However, I can only listen to the parts which don't greatly feature the played-out love theme nowadays, which still leaves all that badass impending doom and action music, so still a lot of content.

[Matt C 452]

Frozen's songs definitely outstrip the overplayed Celine Dion song. Beck's score isn't as solid as Horner's, but in terms of content -- Frozen deserves the money being thrown its way.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

It's an awful soundtrack. Like Alan Menken if he'd had a lobotomy.

[Matt C 452]

^

Ouch.

[KK 3,307]

Frozen's songs are pretty overrated. It's a mishmash of various genres that just don't go together well, especially in film.

The score is largely insignifcant. Pleasant enough, functional in the picture but unremarkable. It lacks interesting thematic or textural features, relying on the song tunes but not integrating them as intelligently as Beck's predecessors in the Disney animation genre. Some of the Norweigan vocals are kind of cool, but are never consistently used to give the score a voice or flavour of its own. As it is, it's rather anonymous and will be forgotten by the next year.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Marian Schedenig 8,173]

I love the Titanic score and I'd be VERY surprised if Frozen had a better one. However, I can only listen to the parts which don't greatly feature the played-out love theme nowadays, which still leaves all that badass impending doom and action music, so still a lot of content.

I may have exaggerated a bit. Horner's score certainly has its merits, although there's nothing good in it that cannot be found, in some way or another, in other Horner scores, and there's quite a bit of bad stuff (embarrassingly bad, I might say) in it as well.

Let me rephrase: Frozen's score is solid and thus much better than Titanic's song. And Frozen's songs are better than Titanic's score.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

And Frozen's songs are better than Titanic's score.

That's a pretty damning dismissal of Horner's TITANIC!

[Dixon Hill 4,232]

"Take Her To Sea, Mr. Murdoch" rocks!

[publicist 4,643]

However, I can only listen to the parts which don't greatly feature the played-out love theme nowadays, which still leaves all that badass impending doom and action music, so still a lot of content.

Which musically still isn't much to talk about considering this composer's repertoire. This score began Horner's reliance on lazy (and eerily similar) block chord writing that the other seafaring score he wrote, THE PERFECT STORM, bettered in almost every conceivable way. While i still like AVATAR a good deal better, Horner's scores for Cameron sadly never live up to the hype surrounding them.

That's a pretty damning dismissal of Horner's TITANIC!

Oh no! So someone stepped out of the lemming horde and finally saw the emperor and his new clothes for what they were: a rather ordinary and clichéd collection of pretty themes without much substance that would suit a tv advert just as well.

[Dixon Hill 4,232]

I should give Avatar a spin. Never got around to it since the film was such shit, but I've heard a few minutes from "You Don't Dream In Cryo" that are bitchin'.

[Faleel 5,337]

Have you heard of the expanded?

[publicist 4,643]

There are some key pieces that betray Horner's keen dramatic sense, though i'd say JAKE ENTERS HIS AVATAR WORLD and the center piece BECOMING ONE OF THE PEOPLE still are lone highlights amidst a sea of irritating self-cribs and a very opportunistic catering to current blockbuster standards.

[KK 3,307]

Avatar is a very entertaining repackaging of the musical ideas of Horner's career. If you can get past the whole self-plagiarism issue, you won't have any problem enjoying it.

By the way, I thought you liked Aliens pub.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

That's a pretty damning dismissal of Horner's TITANIC!

Oh no! So someone stepped out of the lemming horde and finally saw the emperor and his new clothes for what they were: a rather ordinary and clichéd collection of pretty themes without much substance that would suit a tv advert just as well.

I don't disagree. It's just FROZEN's songs are so awful...

[publicist 4,643]

Avatar is a very entertaining repackaging of the musical ideas of Horner's career. If you can get past the whole self-plagiarism issue, you won't have any problem enjoying it.

By the way, I thought you liked Aliens pub.

Plagiarism isn't really the issue, the musical substance just isn't that high. The complete score betrays even more formless droning and when Horner gets operatic like with the tree destruction, it's not only the xth regurgitation of TROY and ENEMY AT THE GATES but also an inferior cue taken on its own. There are fleeting moments of brilliance, however, like the touching violin solo in the ultimate cue but what good does it do in a sea of thin ethno yodelling and lackluster action writing?

ALIENS is a good workmanlike sci-fi score that is hugely overrated by fans of the movie, an opinion i hold since i got the old Varése in the mid-90's, always wondering what attracted so many listeners to it (even disregarding cribs and all).

[Quintus 5,399]

However, I can only listen to the parts which don't greatly feature the played-out love theme nowadays, which still leaves all that badass impending doom and action music, so still a lot of content.

Which musically still isn't much to talk about considering this composer's repertoire. This score began Horner's reliance on lazy (and eerily similar) block chord writing

"Began" being the key word.

I lost all interest in Horner after Titanic for many years.

[Muad'Dib 1,801]

I don't disagree. It's just FROZEN's songs are so awful...

Completely agreed. Although I do like Frozen Heart, but the others are simply terrible... And they're so disconnected from Beck's score. What happened to the care it was taken with the transitions between score and songs like in The Lion King? Or with Jungle Book? Or heck, Snow White? That's the problem when the songs and the score are done by different people. It's pretty clear Beck had little to none input in the arrangement of the songs.